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This module is a beginner-friendly introduction to digital electronics. Together, we'll learn how the most important building blocks of digital systems work, and incrementally put together a simple computer with registers, bus, ALU, memory, and instruction set.
You can think of it as a "first course" on electronics & digital architecture with beginners in mind. Our journey covers the basics of electronics down to the molecular level, touching popular analog components, relays, vacuum tubes, transistors, logic gates, memory devices, math circuits, control logic, and much (much!) more. All these topics are filled with hands-on exercises and circuits that we build together as we go.
At the end of this module you'll have a clear understanding of how a very simple computer works; from the exchanges that happen at the atomic level inside the hardware, to a machine design that is able to store, load, and perform math with data.
All software we'll use are free & cross-platform. Examples of simulators we use during our lectures are EveryCircuit, Falstad Circuit Simulator, Autodesk TinkerCad, and Logisim Evolution.
We also use breadboards to experiment and test small circuits and ideas, but you can definitely follow along even if you don't own one.
This is a self-contained course with no prerequisites. If you always wanted to know how a simple computer ticks at its lowest/hardware level, then this course is definitely for you!
I specifically tailored this course for beginners, and a lot of the content was designed with programmers in mind. Many professional programmers I encountered in my years in the industry have no idea what really goes on under the hood of the machines they depend on. If this sounds familiar, this is your chance to break the pattern and finally own this knowledge.
Gustavo Pezzi is a university lecturer in London, UK. He has won multiple education awards as a teacher and is also the founder of pikuma.com.
Gustavo teaches fundamentals of computer science and mathematics; his academic path includes institutions such as Pittsburg State University, City University of London, and University of Oxford.
The main difference between this module from other ones out there is its emphasis on simplicity & history. We start by assuming zero knowledge about electricity, and we evolve through the years "discovering" each new topic as we progress with the lectures.
We will always try to put things into historical context so we understand how things evolved the way they did. It's important to look back and understand the limitations and the requirments faced by those that invented the technologies that we use today.
If you want a pedagogical deep dive into how the lowest possible layer of abstraction of a computer works, then buckle up! This will be a super cool journey of pure nerd fun.
73% of our students come back for another course
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