Digital Design & Comp. Arch: L1: Introduction: Fundamentals, Transistors, Gates (Spr 2026)

Why It Matters

Mastering hardware fundamentals is critical because today’s AI and software advances depend on processor and chip design; understanding transistors-to-systems enables better optimization, innovation, and informed participation in industry and research.

Summary

The lecture is an introductory session to digital design and computer architecture, framing the course as a ground-up exploration of how computers are built—starting from CMOS transistors as the fundamental switching element and progressing to logic, arithmetic, memory, and whole CPUs/GPUs. The instructor outlines course structure, hands-on hardware programming components, and plans to demystify how modern processors and GPUs that power AI are constructed. He also introduces the teaching team and links course topics to industry practice and research areas like prefetching, hardware security, and performance optimization. The tone emphasizes the course’s practical relevance and its ambition to cover all abstraction layers so students understand both fundamentals and advanced topics.

Original Description

Digital Design and Computer Architecture, ETH Zürich, Spring 2026 (https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/)

Lecture 1: Introduction: Fundamentals, Transistors, Gates

Lecturer: Prof. Onur Mutlu

Date: 19 February 2026

Slides (pptx): https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-ddca-2026-lecture1-intro-beforelecture.pptx

Slides (pdf): https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-ddca-2026-lecture1-intro-beforelecture.pdf

Recommended Reading:

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A Modern Primer on Processing in Memory

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2012.03112.pdf

Memory-Centric Computing: Solving Computing's Memory Problem

https://www.arxiv.org/pdf/2505.00458

Memory-Centric Computing: Recent Advances in Processing-in-DRAM

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2412.19275

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Computing Systems

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/intelligent-architectures-for-intelligent-computingsystems-invited_paper_DATE21.pdf

RowHammer: A Retrospective

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/RowHammer-Retrospective_ieee_tcad19.pdf

Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2211.07613.pdf

Accelerating Genome Analysis via Algorithm-Architecture Co-Design

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/AcceleratingGenomeAnalysis_dac23.pdf

From Molecules to Genomic Variations: Accelerating Genome Analysis via Intelligent Algorithms and Architectures

https://people.inf.ethz.ch/omutlu/pub/IntelligentGenomeAnalysis_csbj22.pdf

RECOMMENDED LECTURE VIDEOS & PLAYLISTS:

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Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubhxKNlOlRg&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi9Eo29LMgKVcaydS7V1zZW3&index=3

Fundamentals of Computer Architecture Fall 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKgMFj1eQQc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi_ZMtqz1r-GHm-zzuE1QfIg&index=2

Seminar in Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqeKNZrLzng&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-oIW66TLOjtiqQxlDwNHng&index=2

Computer Architecture Fall 2024 Lectures Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziMRjDlLEwo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi-LfDdGgWyLcTSqzm6a26wD&index=2

Interview with Professor Onur Mutlu:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ffSEKZhmvo&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=9

TCuARCH meets Prof. Onur Mutlu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hpn4SAX0dI

Arch. Mentoring Workshop @ISCA'21 - Doing Impactful Research

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tlorht7Mc

The Story of RowHammer Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgd7PHQQ1AI&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=39

Accelerating Genome Analysis Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sn41lH-4A&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=41

Memory-Centric Computing Systems Tutorial at IEDM 2021:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3sEaINPBOE&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=35

Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Machines Lecture:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTieZPY4Wmc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8D_5MGV6EnXEJHnV2YFBJl&index=38

Featured Lectures:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVYCchBGNVc&list=PL5Q2soXY2Zi8VrmOTz44l2WupethSdh-M&index=1