It will not be a Core i7, but you will learn a lot in the process. Building a computer is all too easy once you have the basic knowledge, and there are even simulators like the PC Building Simulator that can help you practice (to some extent). A completely different challenge, however, is the design of the components and in particular of a processor. It requires a deep understanding of its logic, something that is not always within our reach, but thanks to the Nand Game game we can record all the essentials about building processors in minutes.
Processors. More cores, more processing threads, more cache, more frequency, less latency and less power consumption….. I think we have a pretty good idea of what we want from our chips. I admit that the latest AMD and Intel models are really impressive, although we cannot deny that there are still some areas to improve. These processors give us all their power, but knowing how they work requires technical information that the public normally does not require. In fact, most people don’t know exactly how a processor works. A few years ago we saw some very interesting projects that explain this, starting with a paper processor that anyone can print at home, but today we have something better: a game.
Nand Game
The site is in English, but it is easy to understand.
All you have to do to participate and learn how to build a processor is to visit the Nand Game Portal. The first element at your disposal is a NAND door with two entrances and one exit. This output is always ‘high’ (1), unless its two inputs are ‘high’ (a=1 b=1), which makes the output’low’ (0). The next level supplements the so-called NOT inverter or gate, which implements the logical negation (very relaxed, reverses its input). The main part is continued with the OR port (logical disjunction) and ends with the XOR port (exclusive disjunction).
Nand Game
A possible solution……..
As you go through each phase, your virtual processor becomes more complex as you learn about its internal mechanism. If you’re not sure how to build one of these doors, don’t worry. The Wikipedia articles dedicated to each of them have small connection diagrams. Some may think it’s a scam, but we don’t do the test here. Now, if you think Nand Game isn’t enough for you, you can still explore more options, including the LogicEmu logic simulator.
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