Students will identify the basic foundations of today's computing systems from the perspective of their internal architecture. They interprete a computer as an execution platform for software and how it is perceived from the architect's perspective. I.e., they learn about the internal structure and the physical construction of computer systems. Students will be enabled to analyze, how highly specific and individual computers can be constructed from a collection of basic, simple components. They are able to differentiate between and to explain the different abstraction levels of computer systems - from gates and logic circuits up to complete processors.

After successful completion of the course, students will be able to evaluate the inter-dependencies between a physical computer system and the software executed thereon. In particular, they will recognize the consequences that the execution of software has for the layers from assembly language down to the gate level. This way, students will be enabled to estimate the effects of hardware-related layers on the performance of the entire computer system.

• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Combinational Logic
• Chapter 3: Sequential Logic
• Chapter 4: Technological Foundations
• Chapter 5: Representations of Numbers and Computer Arithmetics
• Chapter 6: Foundations of Computer Architecture
• Chapter 7: Memory Hardware
• Chapter 8: Input/Output

• Alan Clements. The Principles of Computer Hardware. 4^th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Andrew S. Tanenbaum, James R. Goodman. Computerarchitektur - Strukturen, Konzepte, Grundlagen. 4^th Edition, Pearson Studium, 2004.
• John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson. Computer Architecture - A Quantitative Approach. 5^th Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012.

• Basic knowledge in electrical engineering (optional)