The workbench

The kind of answer

Read. The course is entered as a book is, whole and from the start, before any part of it is taken apart. You will not understand every step yet, and you are not meant to.

On paper first

Ask everyone at the table what is inside a computer, and write down every answer without correcting any. Keep the page. You will read it again in June.

Week by week

About an afternoon a week. If a week runs long, let it: the strand keeps its own order, not the calendar’s.

Week	Watch	Do
Week 1	0.0; 0.1	Watch the first two lectures together. Then draw, from memory, the ladder of the course: what is built on what.
Week 2	0.2; 0.3	Watch the next two. Mark on your ladder where this year stops (the computer and its assembler) and where a second year would go on (the software, up to Tetris).
Week 3	0.4	Set up the bench with the setup guide, open the Hardware Simulator, and look around without building anything yet.

The lectures

5 lectures, about 27 minutes in all, by Nisan and Schocken. Watch with your parent, one or two at a sitting.

• 0.0 Introduction 1:43
• 0.1 The Road Ahead 10:39
• 0.2 From Nand to Hack 8:00
• 0.3 From Hack to Tetris 3:04
• 0.4 Project 0 Overview 3:18

For the parent

Project 0 in the course is about how to hand work in on the university’s site. There is nothing to hand in here, so the last lecture is only a look at the tools. The setup guide is written to the child; read it with them the first time.