I'm looking for textbook or online course recommendations covering three stages: first, how basic logic gates and digital circuits are combined into a complete computer; second, how to progress from assembly language toward writing a small operating system; and third, what topics or projects would make sense after that. I already have experience with higher-level programming languages, so I'm mainly looking for a sensible low-level learning path.
3 Answers
Since you already know higher-level languages, start by spending time with assembly through small, focused programs rather than jumping immediately into an operating system. Write things like simple command-line utilities, routines that manipulate memory, or programs that interact directly with hardware. That will make it clearer which services an operating system needs to provide. After that, study bootloaders, CPU modes, interrupts, memory management, device drivers, filesystems, and basic process scheduling while building a small kernel step by step.
For the architecture side, look for a course or book that builds a computer from logic gates upward. A hands-on project that progresses from boolean gates to an ALU, registers, memory, a CPU, and finally a simple assembler is especially useful. It connects digital logic, instruction sets, and assembly instead of treating them as unrelated subjects.
For operating systems, Andrew Tanenbaum and Albert Woodhull’s *Operating Systems: Design and Implementation* is a solid educational option. It uses MINIX as a practical example, so you can study a working Unix-like system and experiment with its design. You don’t have to follow a rigid sequence after that—projects involving compilers, linkers, filesystems, networking, or embedded systems are all natural next steps.
That makes sense. I’ll work through smaller assembly projects first. Once I’m comfortable, I’ll move on to bootloaders and the core pieces of a small operating system.