[JonathonW]

This book follows more along the lines of the coursework for a computer engineering degree than a computer science degree-- especially at institutions where CS lives under the math or IT department as opposed to the engineering department.

There can be a lot of overlap between the two, particularly on the software side of things, but CS curricula generally completely omit the electrical engineering portions of a CE curriculum, and that's where ECS puts its focus.

[ROARosen]

Their video course [1] is supposedly based off the book. In the course they state that they are not focused on (nor do they have expertise) in the "electrical engineering" aspect of computer systems.

In the first part of the course they focus on computer "hardware" but only on the logical aspects of it (i.e. logic gates etc.). So it probably is considered part computer engineering (though the second part does focus on software) but I wouldn't say it really overlaps with electrical engineering.

[1] https://www.nand2tetris.org/

[de_nied]

>This book follows more along the lines of the coursework for a computer engineering degree than a computer science degree

> but CS curricula generally completely omit the electrical engineering portions

Where in this book does it talk about electrical engineering?

[wrycoder]

The first half of the book is about digital design, which is part of electrical engineering. They call it "Hardware Land" in the book.

From page 6 (1st ed.): Of course the layers of abstraction don't stop here. Elementary logic gates are built from transistors, using technologies based on solid-state physics and ultimately quantum mechanics. Indeed, this is where the abstractions of the natural world,as studied and formulated by physicists, become the building blocks of the abstractions of the synthetic worlds built and studied by computer scientists.

8

[de_nied]

They actually call it "Hardware." If you look on the left of the thread linked website, you'll see a very nice "Table of contents." In this table of contents, it lists all the topics that the books covers.

HARDWARE

1 Boolean Logic 9

2 Boolean Arithmetic 31

3 Memory 45

4 Machine Language 61

5 Computer Architecture 83

6 Assembler 103

These topics are fundamental to computer science. Boolean algebra is fundamental to computer science. Just because E.E. or C.E. degree courses mention a topic, doesn't mean that topic all of a sudden becomes exclusive to them.

Also, I notice you're using the first edition. May I suggest you look at the second edition, as stated in the title?

[metaphor]

> Just because E.E. or C.E. degree courses mention a topic, doesn't mean that topic all of a sudden becomes exclusive to them.

What country did/do you study in?

In the US, a research university intro course offering that's asymptotic to this book will almost certainly be promulgated by the EE side of the house for reasons like satisfying ABET accreditation requirements or EE programs generally being better postured to support lecture/recitation supplemented by a significant hardware lab component. At Stanford, see EE 108; CMU, 18-240; UF, EEL 3701; and so on.

At my undergrad alma mater, it was the only upper division EE course that didn't have a prerequisite. The senior lecturers who alternately steered the course were notorious for baiting would-be freshmen into taking it early as an effective means to cull the herd. What's funny is CS undergrad advisors publish a suggested sequence with a footnote calling this major course out by name with an explicit recommendation that it "be taken either by itself during the summer or with no more than 13 hours/credits during a Fall/Spring semester."