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From: peter@athena.mit.edu (Peter J Desnoyers)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.edu,comp.lsi
Subject: Re: Comp. Architecture & Organization (the class)
Summary: wires, not gates
Keywords: course texts, fundamental topics/issues
Message-ID: <4947@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 28 Apr 88 17:55:13 GMT
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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!husc6!bloom-beacon!athena.mit.edu!peter
From: peter@athena.mit.edu (Peter J Desnoyers)
Newsgroups: comp.arch,comp.edu,comp.lsi
Subject: Re: Comp. Architecture & Organization (the class)
Summary: wires, not gates
Keywords: course texts, fundamental topics/issues
Message-ID: <4947@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU>
Date: 28 Apr 88 17:55:13 GMT
References: <3952@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <1523@hubcap.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Reply-To: peter@athena.mit.edu (Peter J Desnoyers)
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Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The original question asked, among other things, whether gate-level
logic is an appropiate topic. My feelings are (based on a course 
taught by Tom Knight at MIT):

If you are going to cover logic gates, you should cover wiring, 
connectors, and cooling, which are just as important in advanced
computer architectures and far less familiar to the students. I
don't think you need to cover much of these topics - just enough
to give the students a healthy respect for the problems.

				Peter Desnoyers
				peter@athena.mit.edu