Projects

The projects below walk you through a step-by-step construction of a typical computer.  The first five projects focus on the construction of the computer's hardware and assembler.  The remaining projects deal with the construction of the computer's software hierarchy, and with the implementation of a simple Java-like language.

Chapter	Project Name	Due Date	Weight
Chapter 1	Boolean Logic	24/10
Chapter 2	Boolean Arithmetic	31/10
Chapter 3	Sequential Logic	07/11
Chapter 5	The Assembler	16/11
Chapter 4	Computer Architecture	21/11
Chapter 6	The Virtual Machine (a)	02/12
Chapter 7	The Virtual Machine (b)	12/12
Chapter 8	The High Level Language	19/12
Chapter 9	Compilation (a)	02/01
Chapter 10	Compilation (b)	14/01
Chapter 11	The Operating System	30/01

Each project is essentially a series of implementation exercises.  Alltogether there are some 300 such exercises, each being a stand-alone hardware element (e.g. a gate or a chip) or an independent software module (e.g. a class or a method).  Each exercise has an executable solution that can be plugged into the project without gaining access to the underlying source code.