This course has moved to LEARN. These pages are out of date and refer to academic year 2017-18. Please use the LEARN website instead.

The course aims to provide an understanding of the different ways computers can be analysed and designed, starting with the basic logic elements you are familiar with (NAND, NOR etc.). The course does not (mostly) look at the differences between machines with different types of instruction set, nor does it cover design techniques for extracting maximum performance from computers - these aspects of computer hardware are often referred to as computer architecture, and are introduced in an INF3 module next semester. The issues and techniques covered in this course are relevant to the design of all computers, regardless of their particular architecture.