Design of Digital Circuits and Computer Architecture

his class will be your first approach to Computer Architecture. You will study the design of digital circuits in order to:

• understand the basics,
  
• understand the principles (of design),
  
• understand the precedents.
  

Based on such understanding, you will:

• learn how a modern computer works underneath,
  
• evaluate tradeoffs of different designs and ideas,
  
• implement a principled design (a simple microprocessor),
  
• learn to systematically debug increasingly complex systems,
  
• hopefully develop novel, out-of-the-box designs.
  
  

  Lecture Details

  Design of Digital Circuits, ETH Zürich, Spring 2018 (https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/)
  
  Lecture 1: Introduction and Basics
  Lecturer: Professor Onur Mutlu (http://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu)
  Date: February 22, 2018
  
  Slides (ppt): https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2018/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=digitaldesign-s18-lecture1-intro.ppt
  Slides (pdf): https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2018/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=digitaldesign-s18-lecture1-intro.pdf

The focus is on basics, principles, precedents, and how to use them to create/implement good designs.