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Course Name: CSU0049 Analog and Digital Computing Elements 類比數位運算元件 (Fall 2025)
Instructor: Chao Wang 王超
Teaching Assistant: Xin Shao Hon 韓欣劭
Course Meetings: Tuesdays 9:10–10:00 and Fridays 15:30–17:20, in classroom E301, Gongguan Campus
Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2–4pm @ room 511, Applied Science Building, Gongguan Campus; or by appointment
Midterm Exam: Week 8, Friday, in class
Final Exam: Week 16, Friday, in class

配合教育部雙語政策，此課程為 EMI 英文授課。

Contents

Course Syllabus

This course is designed for first-year undergraduate students. The goal is to unveil connections between physics and computing hardware, and to paint a holistic, hardware overview of computing systems. Consider this as the first course in the hardware realm of the computer science and engineering. It is our hope that through both theory studies and hands-on experiments, students will acquire fundamental skills to study how hardware computes.

We have integrated this course and CSU0050, so every student who takes this course will also have opportunities to do hands-on electronics experiments.

Everyone who wants to take this course must have their own electronics gadgets for individual experiments as well as for group projects: Arduino Uno, analog multimeter, breadboard, resistors, capacitors, etc. In total, it should not cost more than NT$ 900. A complete list of the self-purchase gadgets will be posted on Moodle.

Grading:

  • Homework Assignments 45%
  • Midterm Exam 20%
  • Final Exam 20%
  • Active Participation 5%
  • Attendance 10%

Course Schedule

  1. Circuit abstraction: resistor, capacitor, inductor
  2. Node analysis; Thevenin’s theorem
  3. Dynamical system modeling and differential equations
  4. Diodes and function generation
  5. Operational amplifier
  6. Oscillators
  7. MOSFET switches
  8. Digital abstraction; logic gates
  9. Computing model and hardware architecture
  10. ALU and control circuitry
  11. Digital memory
  12. ISA and machine language
  13. Assembly and assembler
  14. Energy and timing behaviors

Textbook, Online Resources, Lecture Notes, etc.

The required text:

  1. Agarwal, Anant and Lang, Jeffrey H. Foundations of Analog and Digital Electronic Circuits. Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (July 18, 2005). ISBN 978-1558607354. Purchase a copy of the book from Elsevier, books.google.com, etc. You may also read it at the NTNU library.
  2. Nisan, Noam, and Shimon Schocken. The elements of computing systems: building a modern computer from first principles. The MIT press; 2nd edition (June 15, 2021). ISBN 978-0262539807. Where to purchase. The online materials can be found here: https://www.nand2tetris.org/

Lecture notes will be available on Moodle.

Optional References:

  1. Brookshear, J. Glenn, and Dennis Brylow. Computer science: an overview. 13th edition. Pearson, 2020. (I found the 8th edition a good one, and I think the latest edition could be even better.)

  2. Sedra, Adel S. and Smith, Kenneth C. Microelectronic Circuits. Oxford University Press, Inc.; 5th edition. ISBN 978-0195142525. (A solid reference text for advanced study in microelectronics.)

  3. Neamen, Donald A. Semiconductor physics and devices: basic principles. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. 2012. (A great reference for related topics in physics.)

Accessibility

Students in need are encouraged to bring their considerations to the instructor.

Academic Integrity

All homework assignments and exams must be completed individually and independently, except as specifically allowed by the instructor.

Academic integrity is a key component of your education, which is for your benefit. Anyone found to be cheating or helping someone else cheat will receive zero score for that homework/exam. Please reflect on the university’s motto: Sincerity 誠, Integrity 正, Diligence 勤, Simplicity 樸.

Homework Assignment

All homework assignments will be announced on Moodle.