Build a Computer From Scratch: Binary to CPU to Assembly

Build a Computer from Logic Gates — From Binary to a Working 8-Bit CPU

Learn how computers work from the ground up by building your own 8-bit CPU using digital logic gates. This hands-on computer architecture and digital electronics course takes you from binary numbers, logic gates, and Boolean logic to building an ALU, RAM, ROM, control unit, instruction set architecture (ISA), and a fully functional 8-bit CPU.

If you want to understand how a CPU actually works, how machine code becomes hardware operations, and how memory, registers, ALU, control logic, and buses work together, this course gives you a complete step-by-step journey from logic gates to a working computer.

You don't need advanced knowledge of computer architecture or digital electronics. Start with the fundamentals and progressively build every major component one logic gate at a time.

What You'll Learn

Binary Numbers & Computer Number Systems

• Understand how humans represent numbers using decimal and how computers use binary

• Convert between decimal and binary

• Perform binary addition and subtraction

• Understand negative numbers and two's complement

Digital Logic & Logic Gates

• Learn the fundamentals of digital logic

• Build circuits using basic logic gates

• Understand selectors and combinational logic

• Build half adders and full adders

• Combine adders to create an 8-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

• Perform both addition and subtraction using your ALU

Sequential Logic & Computer Memory

• Understand latches and flip-flops

• Build RAM from logic gates

• Build ROM from logic gates

• Understand how computer memory stores and retrieves information

• Create a bus architecture to connect different parts of the CPU

Build Your Own 8-Bit CPU

• Connect the ALU, memory, and bus together

• Add a 7-segment display

• Add state and sequential behavior

• Design your own Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

• Build an instruction register

• Build a program counter

• Understand the CPU clock

• Create a control unit using ROM

• Implement branching and CPU flags

Machine Code & CPU Programming

• Understand how instructions are represented as machine code

• Write programs for your custom CPU

• Execute real machine-code programs

• Generate sequences such as the Fibonacci sequence

• See exactly how software instructions are executed by hardware

From Your CPU to Real-World Computers

• Understand hexadecimal numbers

• Explore memory-mapped I/O

• Learn about the ARM architecture

• Explore the original iPhone's ARMv6 processor

• Program a real microcontroller

• Control physical hardware and turn on a light

By the End of This Course

You'll understand the complete journey from binary numbers and logic gates to a working CPU.

You'll see how digital logic becomes an ALU, how sequential logic creates memory, how instructions are decoded, how machine code controls hardware, and how all these components work together inside a computer.

This Course Is Perfect For

• Beginners who want to learn how computers work

• Students studying computer architecture

• Students learning digital electronics and digital logic

• Computer science students

• Electronics enthusiasts

• Embedded systems beginners

• Programmers who want to understand computer hardware

• Anyone interested in CPU design

• Anyone who wants to build a computer from the ground up

Start with binary. Build logic gates. Create memory. Design an ALU. Build an 8-bit CPU. Write machine code. Program real hardware.

Learn computer architecture by building a computer yourself — from logic gates to CPU.