The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles [Paperback]

Noam Nisan (Author), Shimon Schocken (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2005 | ISBN-10: 0262640686 | ISBN-13: 978-0262640688

In the early days of computer science, the interactions of hardware, software, compilers, and operating system were simple enough to allow students to see an overall picture of how computers worked. With the increasing complexity of computer technology and the resulting specialization of knowledge, such clarity is often lost. Unlike other texts that cover only one aspect of the field, The Elements of Computing Systems gives students an integrated and rigorous picture of applied computer science, as its comes to play in the construction of a simple yet powerful computer system.Indeed, the best way to understand how computers work is to build one from scratch, and this textbook leads students through twelve chapters and projects that gradually build a basic hardware platform and a modern software hierarchy from the ground up. In the process, the students gain hands-on knowledge of hardware architecture, operating systems, programming languages, compilers, data structures, algorithms, and software engineering. Using this constructive approach, the book exposes a significant body of computer science knowledge and demonstrates how theoretical and applied techniques taught in other courses fit into the overall picture.Designed to support one- or two-semester courses, the book is based on an abstraction-implementation paradigm; each chapter presents a key hardware or software abstraction, a proposed implementation that makes it concrete, and an actual project. The emerging computer system can be built by following the chapters, although this is only one option, since the projects are self-contained and can be done or skipped in any order. All the computer science knowledge necessary for completing the projects is embedded in the book, the only pre-requisite being a programming experience.The book's web site provides all tools and materials necessary to build all the hardware and software systems described in the text, including two hundred test programs for the twelve projects. The projects and systems can be modified to meet various teaching needs, and all the supplied software is open-source.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A refreshingly new way of looking at computer systems as a whole by considering all aspects of a complete system in an integrated manner." Jonathan Bowen Times Higher Education Supplement

About the Author

Noam Nisan is Professor at the Institute of Computer Science and Engineering, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Shimon Schocken is the IDB Professor of Information Technologies and Dean of the Efi Arazi School of Computer Science, Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 341 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262640686
• ISBN-13: 978-0262640688
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #10 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > Design & Architecture
  • #21 in Books > Computers & Technology > Hardware > PCs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic book--Ideal for self-study, November 15, 2005

By 

Jonathan Yedidia - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles (Hardcover)

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning about computer science. The book is organized around the idea of building a computer from the fundamental logic gates up--starting with the hardware (combinational logic gates, arithmetic logic units, sequential logic gates, the CPU and memory) and then through the software hierarchy (starting with the machine language, and working up through the assembler, a virtual machine, a compiler for a high-level language, and an operating system). As a "by-product," one learns, by very relevant examples, many fundamental concepts of computer science.

You can just read the book, but the best idea is to follow the authors' advice and do the projects where you implement every necessary piece of the computer system yourself. The projects are all very well organized. All the software necessary to emulate any part of the computer is available for free download from the authors' web-site. It all works beautifully. If you want to skip any of the projects, you can, because the software is organized in such a way that it will use built-in modules instead of the ones you built if necessary.

The authors seem to have extensively tested the whole approach through the courses they have taught using this material. I also noticed that Harvard's Computer Science 101 course is being taught based on this book. I have been using the book for self-study with absolutely no problems--in fact I have never had such a great experience with a self-study course. All you need is a Windows or Linux (edit: Mac OS X works fine too) computer and access to the internet, and you can give yourself a wonderful education in computer science.

In terms of prerequisites, you only really need to have some experience with programming (e.g. with C, or ideally with Java or Python). I think that the book should work well for students or hobbyists who don't have any more experience than that, but it is also great for much more experienced students, as a kind of integrative summary of the field. I also think the book is perfect for graduate students or researchers from other fields who want to learn how digital hardware and software systems are actually engineered.

Finally, I just want to compliment the authors on the extraordinary care that they have taken with the whole project. The computer design that you build up is wonderfully elegant--at every stage the design is just as simple as it can be while being sufficient. Every piece of emulation software works as advertised. Even the extra powerpoint or .pdf tutorials are nicely done. This is really quality work, and using it is just a real pleasure. Finally, the source code for all the software provided by the authors is available, so if you wanted to extend the provided emulators, you could do that.

In summary, I give this book my unqualified highest recommendation.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Without any alternative, May 27, 2009

By 

Emre Sevinc "Software Developer, Cognitive Sc... (Antwerp, Belgium) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles (Paperback)

I have used this book in my computer organization class (Istanbul Bilgi University, Computer Science dept.) and I must admit that it brought a very fresh perspective to second year computer science students. For the first time they were able to see the process of designing a computer from the ground up.

The book is very suitable for self-study or classroom use: it has an excellent website, all the required HDL simulator, assembler, CPU and VM emulator and compiler are freely available and easy to run on any platform (they are all coded in Java).

Of course there are simplifications such as the lack of interrupts and multhithreading but this book prepares the students very well for 3rd and 4th year courses. Every chapter has very well and clearly defined goals and projects that are %100 self-contained. That means even if you skip a chapter you can work out the next project without any loss in implementation.

If you or your students want to have a grasp what it means to build a computer starting from logic gates, hardware definition languages, up to the ALU, RAM, CPU, assembler, virtual machine and compilation of an object oriented high level language, then this book is the best choice. It is one of the most hands-on book I've ever seen in this subject matter and at that intermediate level.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars High-quality accessible projects, ideal for self-study, May 19, 2008

By 

Nada Amin (Cambridge, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles (Paperback)

I highly recommend this project-based book to anyone with a passion for programming and the curiosity to dig below its high-level incarnations. This book will show you how to build a computing system from the ground up. In the process, you'll learn about combinatorial & sequential logic, ALU & memory chips, CPU & von Neumann architecture, machine & assembly language, assemblers, virtual machines, parsing and code generation. The hardware part is built using a freely provided Hardware Simulator and the software part can be tackled in any programming language(s) you choose. You can get started right now by going to the book's website, [...], which has some sample chapters and all the tools (like the Hardware Simulator) you'll need to complete these wonderful projects. Each project comes with extensive test cases, giving you immediate feedback on your progress.