Digital Design & Comp. Arch: L2: Transistors, Gates, Combinational Logic (Spring 2026)
•February 18, 2026
0
Why It Matters
Grasping transistor and CMOS fundamentals equips engineers to innovate hardware efficiently and critically evaluate AI‑generated designs, ensuring robust, future‑proof computing architectures.
Key Takeaways
- •Transistor count grew from 2,300 to 67 billion in decades.
- •NMOS and PMOS together form CMOS, enabling reliable logic gates.
- •N‑type turns on with high voltage; P‑type with low voltage.
- •Logic gates built from transistors implement Boolean functions for computation.
- •Understanding transistor basics is essential before using AI‑generated designs.
Summary
The lecture introduced the fundamentals of digital design by tracing the evolution from individual MOS transistors to combinational logic circuits. It emphasized that modern computers are built from billions of transistors, citing the Intel 4004’s 2,300 transistors, the Pentium 4’s 42 million, and Apple’s M2 Max with 67 billion, while flash memory now houses 5 trillion on a single chip. The instructor explained the operation of n‑type and p‑type MOSFETs—high voltage turns on n‑type, low voltage turns on p‑type—and why both are required in complementary CMOS technology to achieve reliable switching. Using a simple wall‑switch analogy, the class built a NOT gate from a pair of complementary transistors, demonstrating how Boolean algebra underpins all higher‑level logic functions. The session concluded with a reminder that mastering these low‑level building blocks is crucial before relying on AI tools, as the abstraction layers of modern software ultimately rest on transistor‑level design.
Original Description
Digital Design and Computer Architecture, ETH Zürich, Spring 2026 (https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/)
Lecture 2: Combinational Logic
Lecturer: Prof. Onur Mutlu
Date: 20 February 2026
Lecture 2 Slides (pptx): https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-ddca-2026-lecture2-combinational-logic-afterlecture.pptx
Lecture 2 Slides (pdf): https://safari.ethz.ch/ddca/spring2026/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=onur-ddca-2026-lecture2-combinational-logic-afterlecture.pdf
Recommended Reading:
====================
A Modern Primer on Processing in Memory
Memory-Centric Computing: Solving Computing's Memory Problem
Memory-Centric Computing: Recent Advances in Processing-in-DRAM
Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Computing Systems
RowHammer: A Retrospective
Fundamentally Understanding and Solving RowHammer
Accelerating Genome Analysis via Algorithm-Architecture Co-Design
From Molecules to Genomic Variations: Accelerating Genome Analysis via Intelligent Algorithms and Architectures
RECOMMENDED LECTURE VIDEOS & PLAYLISTS:
========================================
Digital Design and Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Fundamentals of Computer Architecture Fall 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Seminar in Computer Architecture Spring 2025 Livestream Lectures Playlist:
Computer Architecture Fall 2024 Lectures Playlist:
Interview with Professor Onur Mutlu:
TCuARCH meets Prof. Onur Mutlu
Arch. Mentoring Workshop @ISCA'21 - Doing Impactful Research
The Story of RowHammer Lecture:
Accelerating Genome Analysis Lecture:
Memory-Centric Computing Systems Tutorial at IEDM 2021:
Intelligent Architectures for Intelligent Machines Lecture:
Featured Lectures:
0
Comments
Want to join the conversation?
Loading comments...