[madengr]

Is it built with discrete logic or an FPGA?

[khedoros1]

I think you start by building the hardware inside a simulator. From the description in the first part of the course, you build things from the gate level using an HDL, working up to designing and building a CPU+RAM, programmable using "Hack" machine language, and an assembler so that you aren't stuck writing opcodes directly.

Part 2 starts from that assembly and goes into developing a higher-level object-oriented language called "Jack", then a compiler and operating system.

[Graziano_M]

Part 2 is all software. Part 1 is built in a simulator, starting rom nand gates, writing their own simple HDL.

[droithomme]

The class focuses on CPU design using NAND gates. These are simulated in software logic simulators. However, there are people who have built working architectures from the class using FPGAs. No word on whether anyone has rebuilt everything using discrete 7400 gates.