Computation Structures OpenCourseWare: MIT's Free Bachelor Level Course Digital Systems Design

Published Feb 01, 2009

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The discipline of computation structures emphasizes a bottom-up approach to the study of computer systems. 'Computation Structures' is an OpenCourseWare offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that examines the process involved in the creation and study of digital systems. It is recommended that students possess a basic understanding of computers, programming languages and electrical concepts before attempting this course. Undergraduate students earning bachelor's degrees in Computer Science or Engineering may be interested in this course.

Computation Structures: Course Specifics

Degree Level Free Audio Video Downloads
Undergraduate Yes No No Yes

Lectures/Notes Study Materials Tests/Quizzes
Yes Yes Yes

Computation Structures: Course Description

'Computation Structures' is a free course that examines the study of digital systems. This field is the science of using numbers, letters or icons when inputting processing, transmitting and storing information. Professors Steve Ward and Chris Terman, from the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science are the instructors for this course. The course allows students to not only study computer architecture, but will also introduce the concepts that underlie the design of large, complex digital systems. There is also a review of performance analysis using latency and throughput, the creation of digital systems from available components and how systems are tested, refined and optimized. Course lecture topics include MOS transistors, digital abstraction, parallel processing shared memories and logic gates design. Students also study sequential and combinational circuits computers, complete systems and design examples of both hardware and software apparatus. Students who successfully complete this course will possess a bottom-up understanding of digital systems from the simple electronic components to complete systems.

Materials for this OpenCourseWare include lecture notes, lab, tools and study materials as downloadable PDFs. If you are interested in taking this course, visit the computation structures course page.

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