<story><title>From Nand to Tetris (2017)</title><url>https://www.nand2tetris.org</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MichaelZuo</author><text>How did you learn the prerequisite solid state physics knowledge in order to fully understand the background behind the first two chapters?&lt;p&gt;e.g. The actual mechanism by which an integrated circuit transforms input into useful output. I&amp;#x27;ve never been able to find a solid explanation on how even the simplest real world integrated circuit, such as a TI SN7400, actually does that.</text></item><item><author>meter</author><text>I first attempted this 7 years ago, after I graduated college. I got through the first 2 chapters. It was extremely rewarding. But regrettably, I abandoned it for other side projects.&lt;p&gt;I picked it up again 3 months ago, and it’s been a blast. I’m on chapter 8, having completed the logic gates, ALU, CPU, assembler, and half of the virtual machine.&lt;p&gt;Every chapter is overwhelming — in a good way. I keep thinking to myself, “how the hell is this going to work?” And when it does, it’s so satisfying.&lt;p&gt;As a side project, purely for educational purposes, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done. I’ve learned so much. It’s a damn good project. And I’m damn proud of myself for sticking with it.&lt;p&gt;Highly recommended.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jholman</author><text>You&amp;#x27;re making a category error, I think.  This books&amp;#x2F;course doesn&amp;#x27;t cover physics.  It doesn&amp;#x27;t even cover signal stuff, like stuff about how fast the voltage levels stabilize, or even voltages at all.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;silicon wafer to Tetris&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;pile of protons and neutrons to Tetris&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;transistors to Tetris&amp;quot;.  You start with nand gates (and later also you get flipflops for free).&lt;p&gt;This course would work equally well on nand gates made of carved wooden gears, or nand gates made with fluidic logic, or nand gates made by encoding the whole thing into O-gauge hobby railroads.&lt;p&gt;If that&amp;#x27;s the level of explanation you seek, this book is incredible.</text></comment>
<story><title>From Nand to Tetris (2017)</title><url>https://www.nand2tetris.org</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>MichaelZuo</author><text>How did you learn the prerequisite solid state physics knowledge in order to fully understand the background behind the first two chapters?&lt;p&gt;e.g. The actual mechanism by which an integrated circuit transforms input into useful output. I&amp;#x27;ve never been able to find a solid explanation on how even the simplest real world integrated circuit, such as a TI SN7400, actually does that.</text></item><item><author>meter</author><text>I first attempted this 7 years ago, after I graduated college. I got through the first 2 chapters. It was extremely rewarding. But regrettably, I abandoned it for other side projects.&lt;p&gt;I picked it up again 3 months ago, and it’s been a blast. I’m on chapter 8, having completed the logic gates, ALU, CPU, assembler, and half of the virtual machine.&lt;p&gt;Every chapter is overwhelming — in a good way. I keep thinking to myself, “how the hell is this going to work?” And when it does, it’s so satisfying.&lt;p&gt;As a side project, purely for educational purposes, it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done. I’ve learned so much. It’s a damn good project. And I’m damn proud of myself for sticking with it.&lt;p&gt;Highly recommended.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>moritzwarhier</author><text>I have only faint memories of my beginner&amp;#x27;s course on this topic at university, and absolutely no knowledge.&lt;p&gt;Somehow I remember the word MOSFET.&lt;p&gt;I think the wikipedia articles about logic gates should provide all necessary cross references.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Fully understand&amp;quot; is an elusive term though. How do you fully understand the solid-state physics of logic gates if you don&amp;#x27;t fully understand all of physics, chemistry, maybe even quantum mechanics...&lt;p&gt;Not meaning to be dismissive though! I love to try to fully understand things and hate having to accept black box logic. But I also have to admit that I&amp;#x27;ve given up on this approach for many things a long time ago.&lt;p&gt;Skimming the course summary, it sounds as if this &amp;quot;Hardware Description Language&amp;quot; might mark the boundary of what this course is about.&lt;p&gt;Makes sense, it&amp;#x27;s not &amp;quot;from physics to NAND&amp;quot;, it&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;from NAND to Tetris&amp;quot; :)</text></comment>