Understanding digital computers

What Hacker News says

1. femtoApr 2022
   Try this book:

   "Understanding Digital Computers : A Self-learning Programmed Text That Will Teach You the Basics for the Microcomputer Revolution" by Forrest M. Mims III.

   It's dated, but the core material is still relevant. Even the dated sections might suit you if you're interested in the history.

   In a similar same vein, a few years ago I wrote a course which starts with the idea of a bit and ends with the student programming a computer that they built themselves in a logic simulator.

   https://john.daltons.info/teaching/engineering/

   The first few lessons meander, as I was still figuring out a direction, so the meat starts at lesson 3. The last lessons are missing (roundtoit), but if there is interest I can put them on-line. From memory all the examples are on-line. Here is the final computer:

   https://john.daltons.info/teaching/engineering/simcirjs/comp...

   In this example a program is already in memory, so just push "run/stop" to make it run. The instruction set isn't on-line, as it's in the later lessons, which I haven't gotten around to uploading.

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2. femtoDec 2018
   Also his book "Understanding Digital Computers" (1978). The details (magnetic core and bubble memory) are dated, but the fundamentals (logic, gates, ALU, ...) are still relevant and clearly explained at a level that a school child should be able to understand.
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3. jloughryMar 2014
   Designing and building a CPU from scratch is still possible; in fact it's easier now (using an FPGA and a hardware design language) than it was a few years ago (using 7400-series TTL chips and wire wrap). It's old, but I highly recommend the book Understanding Digital Computers by Forrest M. Mims (1987). It teaches the architecture of a four-bit computer completely and is sufficient to gain a foothold from which to read Hennessey and Patterson. From there, read Gordon Bell's description of the VAX (and The Soul of a New Machine). For perspective, learn about the architecture of Burroughs and the IBM AS/400.

   I can think of no better way to grok the underlying hardware. Write a simple assembler. Next, begin writing an OS.

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4. femtoJun 2013
   Another book in the same space is "Understanding Digital Computers, by Forrest Mims, originally sold by Radio Shack. It's dated, written in 1978, but the basics are still relevant, taking the reader from the definition of a bit, though binary numbers, Boolean logic and eventually to a complete microcomputer and its programming.

   I read this book as a teenager and I remember it giving me my first "aha!" moment of understanding how computers really work. In my experience, the prerequisites for understanding the book are pretty low, but the knowledge within is sophisticated.

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5. xdDec 2010
   A couple of really good books I'd recommend (for the intel 8086) would be the "The 8086 Project book" and the radio shack "Understanding Digital Computers".

   Those books are a great start to this kind of hobby.

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6. e19293001Nov 2015
   This project was inspired by Magic-1[0]. The construction is entertaining to read[1]. And it is used currently as a web server[2]. What a very fantastic project!

   Quoting from the project history:

   In the beginning....

   Magic-1 really began during a lunchtime discussion with Ken Sumrall at Vito's Pizza in Sunnyvale, CA sometime in the Spring of 2001. I was complaining to Ken about how as a compiler writer I was woefully ignorant about how CPU hardware really worked. I hadn't taken any electronics classes in college, and was only vaguely aware of what transistors, resistors and capacitors were. Ken recalled an old series of magazine articles by Forrest Mims on building a very simple CPU from TTL parts, and suggested I read it. Over the next few weeks, I tracked down those articles, as well as Mims' "Understanding Digital Computers" and a textbook by Albert Paul Malvino, "Digital Computer Electronics."

   I read them all, and when I next had lunch with Ken at Vito's I reported back that it all seemed much clearer now - so much so that I thought I could even build a CPU myself. Then Ken said, "well, why don't you?".

   Why not, indeed?

   And so the Magic-1 project began.

   [0] - http://www.homebrewcpu.com/

   [1] - http://www.homebrewcpu.com/construction.htm

   [2] - http://www.magic-1.org/

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