The interplay of hardware, software, compilers, and operating systems in the early days of computer science was straightforward enough to provide students with a general understanding of how computers functioned. Such clarity is frequently lost as computer technology becomes more complicated and knowledge becomes more specialized as a result.
The Elements of Computing Systems provides students with an integrated and rigorous view of applied computer science as it is used in the creation of a straightforward yet effective computer system, in contrast to other texts that only address one part of the discipline. In fact, building a computer from the ground up is the greatest way to understand how it operates. This textbook guides students through twelve chapters and tasks that gradually construct a fundamental hardware platform and a contemporary software hierarchy.
Students learn about hardware architecture, operating systems, programming languages, compilers, data structures, algorithms, and software engineering through practical experience. The book presents a substantial body of computer science knowledge using this constructive approach and shows how theoretical and applied approaches covered in prior courses fit into the bigger picture.
The book is built on an abstraction-implementation paradigm and was created to support one or two-semester courses. Each chapter includes a significant hardware or software abstraction, a suggested implementation that makes it concrete, and a real project. Although this is simply one possibility given that the projects are self-contained and can be completed or skipped in any sequence, it is possible to build the emerging computer system by following the chapters.
The book contains all the computer science information required to complete the tasks; programming experience is the sole prerequisite. The whole construction kit for the hardware and software systems described in the book is available on the book's website, together with 200 test programs for the twelve projects. All of the provided software is open-source, and the projects and systems can be altered to suit different instructional needs.
