MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 6.004 · Spring 2009

Computation Structures

Subject: Engineering

Art: not stated, Fletcher's Combined Block Telegraph Apparatus and Bell, 1889 · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. Steve Ward
Term: Spring 2009
Level: Undergraduate
What's inside: 4 exams · 31 solutions · 1 lecture note · 105 other files · 7 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

Other versions of this course

6.004 · Spring 2017 · Study here
6.004 · Spring 2009 · Study here (this version)

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 6.004 Computation Structures, Spring 2009, Prof. Steve Ward — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Has MIT solutions 31 files in this course are named by MIT as solutions.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

How this course was organized

What's here, and what isn't

MIT's own materials here did not support a verified, course-wide order, so they are grouped by section instead.

Not included here

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MIT's page format for this item wasn't recognized clearly enough to place it safely. (2 items)
Referenced in a table, but without MIT's own verified order, so it isn't used to claim a sequence. (2 items)

Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Syllabus

Learning Objectives and Measurable OutcomesPDF Download

Lecture Notes

25 files

Tutorial Problems

42 files

Labs

16 files

Exams

9 files

Study Materials

Tools

35 files

Other materials from this course

10 files

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Steve Ward, 6.004 Computation Structures, Spring 2009.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2009 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Computation Structures

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Syllabus

Lecture Notes

Tutorial Problems

Labs

Exams

Study Materials

Tools

Other materials from this course

Lecture 1: Course overview and mechanics, basics of information

Lecture 2: Digital abstraction, combinational logic, voltage-based encoding

Lecture 3: CMOS technology, gate design, timing

Lecture 4: Canonical forms; synthesis, simplification

Lecture 5: Sequential logic

Lecture 6: Storage elements, finite state machines

Lecture 7: Synchronization, metastability

Lecture 8: Pipelining; throughput and latency

Lecture 9: Case study: multipliers

Lecture 10: Beta instruction set architecture, compilation

Lecture 11: Machine language programming issues

Lecture 12: Models of computation, programmable architectures

Lecture 13: Stacks and procedures

Lecture 14: Non-pipelined Beta implementation

Lecture 15: Multilevel memories; locality, performance, caches

Lecture 16: Cache design issues

Lecture 17: Virtual memory: mapping, protection, contexts

Lecture 18: Virtual machines: timesharing, OS kernels, supervisor calls

Lecture 19: Devices and interrupt handlers, preemptive interrupts, real-time issues

Lecture 20: Communication issues: busses, networks, protocols

Lecture 21: Communicating processes: semaphores, synchronization, atomicity, deadlock

Lecture 22: Pipelined Beta implementation, bypassing

Lecture 23: Pipeline issues: delay slots, annulment, exceptions

Lecture 24: Parallel processing, shared memory, cache coherence, consistency criteria

Lecture 25: Wrapup lecture