10 ms·

MIT 6.001 Structure and Interpretation (1986) [video]

256 points by rsapkf 6y ago

danielam 6y ago
N.b. should read "Structure and Interpretation".
- dang 6y ago
  Fixed now. Thanks!
losvedir 6y ago
RIP. I think I was one of the last years to take this wonderful class. I guess it would have been in 2004 or 2005, since I took it as an elective (being an Econ major) on the strength of its reputation. It was hard but so interesting! Since then MIT has switched its intro CS class to be python based. I suppose that makes a little more practical sense but there's something magical about Scheme that I fear they're missing out on.
- landa 6y ago
  I remember being a freshman and seeing the lecture hall 32-123 being temporarily hack-renamed to 6.001, and I didn't know what that was all about. I think it was the last lecture of 6.001, but I didn't know what it was back then.
pieterk 6y ago
Having had formal education at a Java college, where you had to have at least one Class definition to run your code, discovering this course was a revelation. To learn from the people that invented their own programming language AND chip to go with it. For free, as long as you had internet access, is something I'm eternally thankful for. This video series is a national treasure. It changed my life, and so many others, without a doubt, for the uncountable better. (THANK YOU)
- DonHopkins 6y ago
  Here's some info (and links to pictures) I posted earlier about Lynn Conway's groundbreaking 1978 MIT VLSI System Design Course, in which Guy Steele designed his Lisp Microprocessor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8860722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8860722 I believe this is about the Lisp Microprocessor that Guy Steele created in Lynn Conway's groundbreaking 1978 MIT VLSI System Design Course: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MIT78.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MIT78.html My friend David Levitt is crouching down in this class photo so his big 1978 hair doesn't block Guy Steele's face: The class photo is in two parts, left and right: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class2s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class2s.jp... http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class3s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class3s.jp... Here are hires images of the two halves of the chip the class made: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78chip%20photo-1%20L.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78c... http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78chip%20photo-2%20L.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78c... The Great Quux's Lisp Microprocessor is the big one on the left of the second image, and you can see his name "(C) 1978 GUY L STEELE JR" if you zoom in. David's project is in the lower right corner of the first image, and you can see his name "LEVITT" if you zoom way in. Here is a photo of a chalkboard with status of the various projects: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Status%20Em.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Status%20E... The final sanity check before maskmaking: A wall-sized overall check plot made at Xerox PARC from Arpanet-transmitted design files, showing the student design projects merged into multiproject chip set. http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Checkplot%20s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Checkplot%... One of the wafers just off the HP fab line containing the MIT'78 VLSI design projects: Wafers were then diced into chips, and the chips packaged and wire bonded to specific projects, which were then tested back at M.I.T. http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Wafer%20s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Wafer%20s.... Design of a LISP-based microprocessor http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=359031 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=359031 ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-514.pdf Page 22 has a map of the processor layout: http://i.imgur.com/zwaJMQC.jpg http://i.imgur.com/zwaJMQC.jpg We present a design for a class of computers whose “instruction sets” are based on LISP. LISP, like traditional stored-program machine languages and unlike most high-level languages, conceptually stores programs and data in the same way and explicitly allows programs to be manipulated as data, and so is a suitable basis for a stored-program computer architecture. LISP differs from traditional machine languages in that the program/data storage is conceptually an unordered set of linked record structures of various sizes, rather than an ordered, indexable vector of integers or bit fields of fixed size. An instruction set can be designed for programs expressed as trees of record structures. A processor can interpret these program trees in a recursive fashion and provide automatic storage management for the record structures. We discuss a small-scale prototype VLSI microprocessor which has been designed and fabricated, containing a sufficiently complete instruction interpreter to execute small programs and a rudimentary storage allocator. Here's a map of the projects on that chip, and a list of the people who made them and what they did: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MPC78map.gif http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MPC78map.g... 1. Sandra Azoury, N. Lynn Bowen Jorge Rubenstein: Charge flow transistors (moisture sensors) integrated into digital subsystem for testing. 2. Andy Boughton, J. Dean Brock, Randy Bryant, Clement Leung: Serial data manipulator subsystem for searching and sorting data base operations. 3. Jim Cherry: Graphics memory subsystem for mirroring/rotating image data. 4. Mike Coln: Switched capacitor, serial quantizing D/A converter. 5. Steve Frank: Writeable PLA project, based on the 3-transistor ram cell. 6. Jim Frankel: Data path portion of a bit-slice microprocessor. 7. Nelson Goldikener, Scott Westbrook: Electrical test patterns for chip set. 8. Tak Hiratsuka: Subsystem for data base operations. 9. Siu Ho Lam: Autocorrelator subsystem. 10. Dave Levitt: Synchronously timed FIFO. 11. Craig Olson: Bus interface for 7-segment display data. 12. Dave Otten: Bus interfaceable real time clock/calendar. 13. Ernesto Perea: 4-Bit slice microprogram sequencer. 14. Gerald Roylance: LRU virtual memory paging subsystem. 15. Dave Shaver Multi-function smart memory. 16. Alan Snyder Associative memory. 17. Guy Steele: LISP microprocessor (LISP expression evaluator and associated memory manager; operates directly on LISP expressions stored in memory). 18. Richard Stern: Finite impulse response digital filter. 19. Runchan Yang: Armstrong type bubble sorting memory. The following projects were completed but not quite in time for inclusion in the project set: 20. Sandra Azoury, N. Lynn Bowen, Jorge Rubenstein: In addition to project 1 above, this team completed a CRT controller project. 21. Martin Fraeman: Programmable interval clock. 22. Bob Baldwin: LCS net nametable project. 23. Moshe Bain: Programmable word generator. 24. Rae McLellan: Chaos net address matcher. 25. Robert Reynolds: Digital Subsystem to be used with project 4. Also, Jim Clark (SGI, Netscape) was one of Lynn Conway's students, and she taught him how to make his first prototype "Geometry Engine"! http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.ht... Just 29 days after the design deadline time at the end of the courses, packaged custom wire-bonded chips were shipped back to all the MPC79 designers. Many of these worked as planned, and the overall activity was a great success. I'll now project photos of several interesting MPC79 projects. First is one of the multiproject chips produced by students and faculty researchers at Stanford University (Fig. 5). Among these is the first prototype of the "Geometry Engine", a high performance computer graphics image-generation system, designed by Jim Clark. That project has since evolved into a very interesting architectural exploration and development project.[9] Figure 5. Photo of MPC79 Die-Type BK (containing projects from Stanford University): http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/SU-BK1.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/SU-BK1.jp... [...] The text itself passed through drafts, became a manuscript, went on to become a published text. Design environments evolved from primitive CIF editors and CIF plotting software on to include all sorts of advanced symbolic layout generators and analysis aids. Some new architectural paradigms have begun to similarly evolve. An example is the series of designs produced by the OM project here at Caltech. At MIT there has been the work on evolving the LISP microprocessors [3,10]. At Stanford, Jim Clark's prototype geometry engine, done as a project for MPC79, has gone on to become the basis of a very powerful graphics processing system architecture [9], involving a later iteration of his prototype plus new work by Marc Hannah on an image memory processor [20]. [...] For example, the early circuit extractor work done by Clark Baker [16] at MIT became very widely known because Clark made access to the program available to a number of people in the network community. From Clark's viewpoint, this further tested the program and validated the concepts involved. But Clark's use of the network made many, many people aware of what the concept was about. The extractor proved so useful that knowledge about it propagated very rapidly through the community. (Another factor may have been the clever and often bizarre error-messages that Clark's program generated when it found an error in a user's design!) 9. J. Clark, "A VLSI Geometry Processor for Graphics", Computer, Vol. 13, No. 7, July, 1980. [...] The above is all from Lynn Conway's fascinating web site, which includes her great book "VLSI Reminiscence" available for free: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ These photos look very beautiful to me, and it's interesting to scroll around the hires image of the Quux's Lisp Microprocessor while looking at the map from page 22 that I linked to above. There really isn't that much too it, so even though it's the biggest one, it really isn't all that complicated, so I'd say that "SIMPLE" graffiti is not totally inappropriate. (It's microcoded, and you can actually see the rough but semi-regular "texture" of the code!) This paper has lots more beautiful Vintage VLSI Porn, if you're into that kind of stuff like I am: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPC79/Photos/PDFs/MPC79ChipPhotos.pdf http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPC79/Photos/PDF... A full color hires image of the chip including James Clark's Geometry Engine is on page 23, model "MPC79BK", upside down in the upper right corner, "Geometry Engine (C) 1979 James Clark", with a close-up "centerfold spread" on page 27. Is the "document chip" on page 20, model "MPC79AH", a hardware implementation of Literate Programming? If somebody catches you looking at page 27, you can quickly flip to page 20, and tell them that you only look at Vintage VLSI Porn Magazines for the articles! There is quite literally a Playboy Bunny logo on page 21, model "MPC79B1", so who knows what else you might find in there by zooming in and scrolling around stuff like the "infamous buffalo chip"? http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSI.archive.spreadsheet.htm http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSI.archive.spr...
peter_l_downs 6y ago
If you want the modern, grad-level version of an MIT scheme class, I highly recommend Sussman's 6.945. I don't know if there's an open courseware version but the entire class is centered around psets, each of which starts with a base environment provided by Sussman and the teaching staff, and which you are required to work in / extend. The class itself was extremely entertaining: you watch Sussman walk back and forth between two transparency projectors, switching the slide on each one as he arrives. Yes, you got very good at reading scheme code very quickly while listening to him talk at the same time. I understand why MIT decided to make the introductory CS classes more accessible -- they wanted to expand the CS department beyond just those who had already had programming experience by the time they got there, I think? It makes a lot of sense and frankly I found the "replacement" classes pretty great, even while I was taking this class at the same time. Instead of going on at length about how much of a shame it is that MIT "got rid of its scheme class", consider 6.945. This was one of the handful of classes that I felt were worth the price of admission; I've written code differently ever since. http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6.945/ http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6.945/
- kkylin 6y ago
  There's a book that GJS and Chris Hanson are writing, based on the course: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669475/software-design-for-flexibility-by-chris-hanson-and-gerald-jay-sussman/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669475/software-des... It should be coming out soon. I'd expect it to be available online as well.
  - peter_l_downs 6y ago
    Thank you for this link, I didn't know they were writing a book but I just pre-ordered it!
- zerr 6y ago
  Can't find the link, but as I recall in one of the interviews, Hal Abelson explained the reason behind switching to Python: SICP/Scheme was good when systems where small and a single person could understand/create whole systems. Nowadays, systems are huge, lots of parts/components, and programmers mostly write glue code.
shswindell42 6y ago
Had a professor show us the first few minutes of the first lecture here. Saying "Computer Science" wasn't a science and that it was really about computers was mind blowing for a freshman CS major.
- xdavidliu 6y ago
  > and that it was really about computers I think Abelson said in the first SICP lecture that "it was NOT really about computers"
yagodragon 6y ago
I'm studying CS but haven't heard any concrete examples of why I should learn a lisp (scheme, Clojure). Every time I ask i get pseudo-intellectual answers of how it will expand my mind, make it easier to express complex human problems/domains into code or even make me re-evaluate things in life on a philosophical level. What? On the one hand, i'm sooo curious to study all of this and see for myself, but on the other hand, life's too short and I'm already spending so much time in front of a PC to get my degree, learn a couple of more languages, make side projects on github, personal blogs etc to make myself more employable. Anyway, i know this is HN i'm asking, but can you give me at least one compelling reason why I should study lisp,scheme or clojure ?
- qntty 6y ago
  I didn't read through the entirety of SICP, but I read through the first ~3 chapters, and it helped me to understand the way that functions are associated with the environment that they are defined in and how this fact can be used to construct closures. I haven't seen as good of a description of this up until that point.
- nightski 6y ago
  If you need someone online to justify for you learning new things in your field you have probably already lost. This field is unrelenting, it requires constant learning. I'm nearing 40 and it hasn't stopped. The one advantage is the more you learn the more skills transfer from one thing to the next. So the most compelling reason I have is because learning new things should be something that you find exciting. What makes Lisp unique is that it is a lot different than other languages out there. If you know one imperative language, learning another may expand your horizons but not in the same way something from a different paradigm would. If you already know a functional language or two, then it might not be worthwhile. That is very much up to you. But even though I have never used Lisp I enjoyed learning it immensely. Although I'd say I enjoyed Haskell more. I will say back in the day I watched these lectures and found them incredibly satisfying and thought provoking.
  - seneca 6y ago
    > If you need someone online to justify for you learning new things in your field you have probably already lost. This is really unhelpful gate keeping. You're respond to someone who literally just said they spend excessive time studying the field already.
mrspeaker 6y ago
I re-watch this course every bunch of years, and every time I get something different from it. But mostly it just makes me happy - it's infectious and weird. Especially the "revelation" (spoiler!) https://youtu.be/aAlR3cezPJg?t=2088 https://youtu.be/aAlR3cezPJg?t=2088
markus_zhang 6y ago
As someone who actually ditched the Scheme version and went for and completed the Python one (and Python version is way easier), I'm actually disappointed to see that MIT dropped the Scheme version 15 years ago. I mean it's MIT, and MIT is supposed to have the sharpest minds and the most difficult courses. And the Scheme version, albeit that I dropped it due to difficulty, DOES have a certain "flavor" that I did enjoy. Can't say what it is though.
- tartoran 6y ago
  Perhaps simplicity? I find that Scheme makes it very easy to see the bare patterns
  - markus_zhang 6y ago
    I think it's the way it teaches you to build things from ground-up and forces you to understand the principles. I'm reading CSAPP 3rd chapter and it gives me the same feeling.
    - bitwize 6y ago
      That's exactly why 6.001 was dropped. There is no building from the ground up anymore; virtually all software development is modifying or extending something that already exists to fit some application.
      - markus_zhang 6y ago
        I guess it's reasonable, but as a hobbyist I have the advantage to ignore such constraints (to seek a job), and such courses/books do seem to be attractive.
- akulkarni 6y ago
  I agree. I remember back then hating that 6.001 wasn't taught in a "practical" programming language, but now I completely see the value (and perhaps also magical aura!) of Scheme.
jll29 6y ago
A priceless masterpiece (we used the book in our algorithms and data structures 1 course in 1993).
akulkarni 6y ago
This was a great watch. I took this class as freshman, and watching this video now I realize how much of the material was wasted on 17-year old me. :-) It's a testament to the quality of the teaching that it was eye-opening and inspiring back then at 17, and even more so now when I am 40.
dayvid 6y ago
I tried to go through SICP and stopped short at Chapter 2. This time around, I used Brian Harvey's CS61A lectures and I'm almost done. He does a good job teaching you the book as well as the content in the book if that makes sense. It's worth a watch if you feel stuck in SICP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4leZ1Ca4f0g&list=PLhMnuBfGeCDNgVzLPxF9o5UNKG1b-LFY9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4leZ1Ca4f0g&list=PLhMnuBfGeC...
- GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
  Thank you. Having mentioned this, I wonder if there are similar-in-spirit lectures for Common Lisp? PG has written two books on CL, and I've heard of some Industrial Strength apps written in CL. So, if starting today, it seems like maybe CL is the Right Choice?
  - dayvid 6y ago
    I'm not sure about CL lectures in general. In regards to applying CL to SICP, I would argue that the course is more about the underlying concepts than the language itself. You could probably read a CL reference and write your exercise code in CL instead of Scheme, or just learn CL after the course and it wouldn't be a big leap.
- dnquark 6y ago
  SICP is my quarantine project, going through the whole thing taking my own notes in org-mode, doing the exercises, and checking with https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile as I go along. It's been fun! I'm on chapter 2 now; if you want to form a study group, HMU at <username> at gmail!
bigasscoffee 6y ago
I've watched this before. It would have been so great to be in some of these classes and a Course 6 student there!
gabssnake 6y ago
I've seen the videos and went through -most- of the book exercises. This is a beautiful way to teach and think about programming and it continues to fascinate me.
nanomonkey 6y ago
Anyone know of similar lectures for the SICM (Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics) book that Sussman also wrote? I'm also interested in creating a study group to go through the book in Clojure, if possible.
blackrock 6y ago
I was looking for some complete open source Lisp programs to review. I wanted to experience the “magic” of Lisp, and bathe in its suffusion of blue [1], while becoming enlightened in the language of the gods. I found the Hemlock [2] source code, which is an Emacs like clone. I don’t know how good it is, maybe someone else can comment on it. But the source code appeared to be rather clean and well organized. This guy’s comment [3] on Lisp got me interested in it again: “Lisp is executable XML with a friendlier syntax.“. And it appears to be like a key-value pair, where the data and code can interplay, and rewrite itself, and execute itself. Sorta, but if this can be done, then this would make for an interesting self-generating AI system. Of course, there are still other ways to skin this cat, like using a database. I still need to do some more work to reach that enlightened state of Lisp Zen. Perhaps someone else can share their enlightened states that they’ve reached with Lisp? [1] https://xkcd.com/224/ https://xkcd.com/224/ [2] https://github.com/bluelisp/hemlock https://github.com/bluelisp/hemlock [3] http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html
- blackrock 6y ago
  Then, I reached a moment of Lisp epiphany. Where my VR coding system, Would build computational blocks of pure logic. A graphical metaphor, for the engineer to define, Functions, variables, and conditional branching to the nines. Their results are returned, and fed into something new, Each rigorous, discrete, and unit tested too. Like a jigsaw linked together by logical flows and light, Further enclosed, they add to its computational might. And Lisp would be the ideal, To achieve such a metaphorical fusion of thought. From conception to code, Between the virtual and the real. The key-value pairings, Between the operator and its operands, All enclosed by parentheses, Bringing closure, and harmony to its lands. Less is required, the tedious keyboards of our day, Instead, on the VR you would tinker and play, Like a meticulous craftsman of another age, Building until perfect, each module of the sage. The world’s combined intellectual prowess, Would be available at your needs, Collected in a public digital library, The modules and code, for you to integrate into your feed. And then it would run, the great engine of light, Bringing forth its magic, and manifesting in twilight. Running on pure thought, and reliable to the nines, The Engineer would sit back, and marvel at his find. And then I awoke from my dream, Suffusion complete.
nikofeyn 6y ago
this course is so fun to watch and listen to.

256 points by rsapkf 6y ago

danielam 6y ago

N.b. should read "Structure and Interpretation".

dang 6y ago
Fixed now. Thanks!

losvedir 6y ago

RIP. I think I was one of the last years to take this wonderful class. I guess it would have been in 2004 or 2005, since I took it as an elective (being an Econ major) on the strength of its reputation. It was hard but so interesting! Since then MIT has switched its intro CS class to be python based. I suppose that makes a little more practical sense but there's something magical about Scheme that I fear they're missing out on.

landa 6y ago
I remember being a freshman and seeing the lecture hall 32-123 being temporarily hack-renamed to 6.001, and I didn't know what that was all about. I think it was the last lecture of 6.001, but I didn't know what it was back then.

pieterk 6y ago

Having had formal education at a Java college, where you had to have at least one Class definition to run your code, discovering this course was a revelation. To learn from the people that invented their own programming language AND chip to go with it. For free, as long as you had internet access, is something I'm eternally thankful for. This video series is a national treasure. It changed my life, and so many others, without a doubt, for the uncountable better. (THANK YOU)

DonHopkins 6y ago
Here's some info (and links to pictures) I posted earlier about Lynn Conway's groundbreaking 1978 MIT VLSI System Design Course, in which Guy Steele designed his Lisp Microprocessor: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8860722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8860722 I believe this is about the Lisp Microprocessor that Guy Steele created in Lynn Conway's groundbreaking 1978 MIT VLSI System Design Course: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MIT78.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MIT78.html My friend David Levitt is crouching down in this class photo so his big 1978 hair doesn't block Guy Steele's face: The class photo is in two parts, left and right: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class2s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class2s.jp... http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class3s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Class3s.jp... Here are hires images of the two halves of the chip the class made: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78chip%20photo-1%20L.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78c... http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78chip%20photo-2%20L.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/InstGuide/MIT78c... The Great Quux's Lisp Microprocessor is the big one on the left of the second image, and you can see his name "(C) 1978 GUY L STEELE JR" if you zoom in. David's project is in the lower right corner of the first image, and you can see his name "LEVITT" if you zoom way in. Here is a photo of a chalkboard with status of the various projects: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Status%20Em.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Status%20E... The final sanity check before maskmaking: A wall-sized overall check plot made at Xerox PARC from Arpanet-transmitted design files, showing the student design projects merged into multiproject chip set. http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Checkplot%20s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Checkplot%... One of the wafers just off the HP fab line containing the MIT'78 VLSI design projects: Wafers were then diced into chips, and the chips packaged and wire bonded to specific projects, which were then tested back at M.I.T. http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Wafer%20s.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/Wafer%20s.... Design of a LISP-based microprocessor http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=359031 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=359031 ftp://publications.ai.mit.edu/ai-publications/pdf/AIM-514.pdf Page 22 has a map of the processor layout: http://i.imgur.com/zwaJMQC.jpg http://i.imgur.com/zwaJMQC.jpg We present a design for a class of computers whose “instruction sets” are based on LISP. LISP, like traditional stored-program machine languages and unlike most high-level languages, conceptually stores programs and data in the same way and explicitly allows programs to be manipulated as data, and so is a suitable basis for a stored-program computer architecture. LISP differs from traditional machine languages in that the program/data storage is conceptually an unordered set of linked record structures of various sizes, rather than an ordered, indexable vector of integers or bit fields of fixed size. An instruction set can be designed for programs expressed as trees of record structures. A processor can interpret these program trees in a recursive fashion and provide automatic storage management for the record structures. We discuss a small-scale prototype VLSI microprocessor which has been designed and fabricated, containing a sufficiently complete instruction interpreter to execute small programs and a rudimentary storage allocator. Here's a map of the projects on that chip, and a list of the people who made them and what they did: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MPC78map.gif http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MIT78/MPC78map.g... 1. Sandra Azoury, N. Lynn Bowen Jorge Rubenstein: Charge flow transistors (moisture sensors) integrated into digital subsystem for testing. 2. Andy Boughton, J. Dean Brock, Randy Bryant, Clement Leung: Serial data manipulator subsystem for searching and sorting data base operations. 3. Jim Cherry: Graphics memory subsystem for mirroring/rotating image data. 4. Mike Coln: Switched capacitor, serial quantizing D/A converter. 5. Steve Frank: Writeable PLA project, based on the 3-transistor ram cell. 6. Jim Frankel: Data path portion of a bit-slice microprocessor. 7. Nelson Goldikener, Scott Westbrook: Electrical test patterns for chip set. 8. Tak Hiratsuka: Subsystem for data base operations. 9. Siu Ho Lam: Autocorrelator subsystem. 10. Dave Levitt: Synchronously timed FIFO. 11. Craig Olson: Bus interface for 7-segment display data. 12. Dave Otten: Bus interfaceable real time clock/calendar. 13. Ernesto Perea: 4-Bit slice microprogram sequencer. 14. Gerald Roylance: LRU virtual memory paging subsystem. 15. Dave Shaver Multi-function smart memory. 16. Alan Snyder Associative memory. 17. Guy Steele: LISP microprocessor (LISP expression evaluator and associated memory manager; operates directly on LISP expressions stored in memory). 18. Richard Stern: Finite impulse response digital filter. 19. Runchan Yang: Armstrong type bubble sorting memory. The following projects were completed but not quite in time for inclusion in the project set: 20. Sandra Azoury, N. Lynn Bowen, Jorge Rubenstein: In addition to project 1 above, this team completed a CRT controller project. 21. Martin Fraeman: Programmable interval clock. 22. Bob Baldwin: LCS net nametable project. 23. Moshe Bain: Programmable word generator. 24. Rae McLellan: Chaos net address matcher. 25. Robert Reynolds: Digital Subsystem to be used with project 4. Also, Jim Clark (SGI, Netscape) was one of Lynn Conway's students, and she taught him how to make his first prototype "Geometry Engine"! http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/MPCAdv.ht... Just 29 days after the design deadline time at the end of the courses, packaged custom wire-bonded chips were shipped back to all the MPC79 designers. Many of these worked as planned, and the overall activity was a great success. I'll now project photos of several interesting MPC79 projects. First is one of the multiproject chips produced by students and faculty researchers at Stanford University (Fig. 5). Among these is the first prototype of the "Geometry Engine", a high performance computer graphics image-generation system, designed by Jim Clark. That project has since evolved into a very interesting architectural exploration and development project.[9] Figure 5. Photo of MPC79 Die-Type BK (containing projects from Stanford University): http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/SU-BK1.jpg http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPCAdv/SU-BK1.jp... [...] The text itself passed through drafts, became a manuscript, went on to become a published text. Design environments evolved from primitive CIF editors and CIF plotting software on to include all sorts of advanced symbolic layout generators and analysis aids. Some new architectural paradigms have begun to similarly evolve. An example is the series of designs produced by the OM project here at Caltech. At MIT there has been the work on evolving the LISP microprocessors [3,10]. At Stanford, Jim Clark's prototype geometry engine, done as a project for MPC79, has gone on to become the basis of a very powerful graphics processing system architecture [9], involving a later iteration of his prototype plus new work by Marc Hannah on an image memory processor [20]. [...] For example, the early circuit extractor work done by Clark Baker [16] at MIT became very widely known because Clark made access to the program available to a number of people in the network community. From Clark's viewpoint, this further tested the program and validated the concepts involved. But Clark's use of the network made many, many people aware of what the concept was about. The extractor proved so useful that knowledge about it propagated very rapidly through the community. (Another factor may have been the clever and often bizarre error-messages that Clark's program generated when it found an error in a user's design!) 9. J. Clark, "A VLSI Geometry Processor for Graphics", Computer, Vol. 13, No. 7, July, 1980. [...] The above is all from Lynn Conway's fascinating web site, which includes her great book "VLSI Reminiscence" available for free: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/ These photos look very beautiful to me, and it's interesting to scroll around the hires image of the Quux's Lisp Microprocessor while looking at the map from page 22 that I linked to above. There really isn't that much too it, so even though it's the biggest one, it really isn't all that complicated, so I'd say that "SIMPLE" graffiti is not totally inappropriate. (It's microcoded, and you can actually see the rough but semi-regular "texture" of the code!) This paper has lots more beautiful Vintage VLSI Porn, if you're into that kind of stuff like I am: http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPC79/Photos/PDFs/MPC79ChipPhotos.pdf http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/MPC79/Photos/PDF... A full color hires image of the chip including James Clark's Geometry Engine is on page 23, model "MPC79BK", upside down in the upper right corner, "Geometry Engine (C) 1979 James Clark", with a close-up "centerfold spread" on page 27. Is the "document chip" on page 20, model "MPC79AH", a hardware implementation of Literate Programming? If somebody catches you looking at page 27, you can quickly flip to page 20, and tell them that you only look at Vintage VLSI Porn Magazines for the articles! There is quite literally a Playboy Bunny logo on page 21, model "MPC79B1", so who knows what else you might find in there by zooming in and scrolling around stuff like the "infamous buffalo chip"? http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSIarchive.html http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSI.archive.spreadsheet.htm http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/VLSI/VLSI.archive.spr...

peter_l_downs 6y ago

If you want the modern, grad-level version of an MIT scheme class, I highly recommend Sussman's 6.945. I don't know if there's an open courseware version but the entire class is centered around psets, each of which starts with a base environment provided by Sussman and the teaching staff, and which you are required to work in / extend. The class itself was extremely entertaining: you watch Sussman walk back and forth between two transparency projectors, switching the slide on each one as he arrives. Yes, you got very good at reading scheme code very quickly while listening to him talk at the same time. I understand why MIT decided to make the introductory CS classes more accessible -- they wanted to expand the CS department beyond just those who had already had programming experience by the time they got there, I think? It makes a lot of sense and frankly I found the "replacement" classes pretty great, even while I was taking this class at the same time. Instead of going on at length about how much of a shame it is that MIT "got rid of its scheme class", consider 6.945. This was one of the handful of classes that I felt were worth the price of admission; I've written code differently ever since. http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6.945/ http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs/6.945/

kkylin 6y ago
There's a book that GJS and Chris Hanson are writing, based on the course: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669475/software-design-for-flexibility-by-chris-hanson-and-gerald-jay-sussman/ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/669475/software-des... It should be coming out soon. I'd expect it to be available online as well.
- peter_l_downs 6y ago
  Thank you for this link, I didn't know they were writing a book but I just pre-ordered it!
zerr 6y ago
Can't find the link, but as I recall in one of the interviews, Hal Abelson explained the reason behind switching to Python: SICP/Scheme was good when systems where small and a single person could understand/create whole systems. Nowadays, systems are huge, lots of parts/components, and programmers mostly write glue code.

shswindell42 6y ago

Had a professor show us the first few minutes of the first lecture here. Saying "Computer Science" wasn't a science and that it was really about computers was mind blowing for a freshman CS major.

xdavidliu 6y ago
> and that it was really about computers I think Abelson said in the first SICP lecture that "it was NOT really about computers"

yagodragon 6y ago

I'm studying CS but haven't heard any concrete examples of why I should learn a lisp (scheme, Clojure). Every time I ask i get pseudo-intellectual answers of how it will expand my mind, make it easier to express complex human problems/domains into code or even make me re-evaluate things in life on a philosophical level. What? On the one hand, i'm sooo curious to study all of this and see for myself, but on the other hand, life's too short and I'm already spending so much time in front of a PC to get my degree, learn a couple of more languages, make side projects on github, personal blogs etc to make myself more employable. Anyway, i know this is HN i'm asking, but can you give me at least one compelling reason why I should study lisp,scheme or clojure ?

qntty 6y ago
I didn't read through the entirety of SICP, but I read through the first ~3 chapters, and it helped me to understand the way that functions are associated with the environment that they are defined in and how this fact can be used to construct closures. I haven't seen as good of a description of this up until that point.
nightski 6y ago
If you need someone online to justify for you learning new things in your field you have probably already lost. This field is unrelenting, it requires constant learning. I'm nearing 40 and it hasn't stopped. The one advantage is the more you learn the more skills transfer from one thing to the next. So the most compelling reason I have is because learning new things should be something that you find exciting. What makes Lisp unique is that it is a lot different than other languages out there. If you know one imperative language, learning another may expand your horizons but not in the same way something from a different paradigm would. If you already know a functional language or two, then it might not be worthwhile. That is very much up to you. But even though I have never used Lisp I enjoyed learning it immensely. Although I'd say I enjoyed Haskell more. I will say back in the day I watched these lectures and found them incredibly satisfying and thought provoking.
- seneca 6y ago
  > If you need someone online to justify for you learning new things in your field you have probably already lost. This is really unhelpful gate keeping. You're respond to someone who literally just said they spend excessive time studying the field already.

mrspeaker 6y ago

I re-watch this course every bunch of years, and every time I get something different from it. But mostly it just makes me happy - it's infectious and weird. Especially the "revelation" (spoiler!) https://youtu.be/aAlR3cezPJg?t=2088 https://youtu.be/aAlR3cezPJg?t=2088

markus_zhang 6y ago

As someone who actually ditched the Scheme version and went for and completed the Python one (and Python version is way easier), I'm actually disappointed to see that MIT dropped the Scheme version 15 years ago. I mean it's MIT, and MIT is supposed to have the sharpest minds and the most difficult courses. And the Scheme version, albeit that I dropped it due to difficulty, DOES have a certain "flavor" that I did enjoy. Can't say what it is though.

tartoran 6y ago
Perhaps simplicity? I find that Scheme makes it very easy to see the bare patterns
- markus_zhang 6y ago
  I think it's the way it teaches you to build things from ground-up and forces you to understand the principles. I'm reading CSAPP 3rd chapter and it gives me the same feeling.
  - bitwize 6y ago
    That's exactly why 6.001 was dropped. There is no building from the ground up anymore; virtually all software development is modifying or extending something that already exists to fit some application.
    - markus_zhang 6y ago
      I guess it's reasonable, but as a hobbyist I have the advantage to ignore such constraints (to seek a job), and such courses/books do seem to be attractive.
akulkarni 6y ago
I agree. I remember back then hating that 6.001 wasn't taught in a "practical" programming language, but now I completely see the value (and perhaps also magical aura!) of Scheme.

jll29 6y ago

A priceless masterpiece (we used the book in our algorithms and data structures 1 course in 1993).

akulkarni 6y ago

This was a great watch. I took this class as freshman, and watching this video now I realize how much of the material was wasted on 17-year old me. :-) It's a testament to the quality of the teaching that it was eye-opening and inspiring back then at 17, and even more so now when I am 40.

dayvid 6y ago

I tried to go through SICP and stopped short at Chapter 2. This time around, I used Brian Harvey's CS61A lectures and I'm almost done. He does a good job teaching you the book as well as the content in the book if that makes sense. It's worth a watch if you feel stuck in SICP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4leZ1Ca4f0g&list=PLhMnuBfGeCDNgVzLPxF9o5UNKG1b-LFY9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4leZ1Ca4f0g&list=PLhMnuBfGeC...

GeorgeTirebiter 6y ago
Thank you. Having mentioned this, I wonder if there are similar-in-spirit lectures for Common Lisp? PG has written two books on CL, and I've heard of some Industrial Strength apps written in CL. So, if starting today, it seems like maybe CL is the Right Choice?
- dayvid 6y ago
  I'm not sure about CL lectures in general. In regards to applying CL to SICP, I would argue that the course is more about the underlying concepts than the language itself. You could probably read a CL reference and write your exercise code in CL instead of Scheme, or just learn CL after the course and it wouldn't be a big leap.
dnquark 6y ago
SICP is my quarantine project, going through the whole thing taking my own notes in org-mode, doing the exercises, and checking with https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile https://github.com/zv/SICP-guile as I go along. It's been fun! I'm on chapter 2 now; if you want to form a study group, HMU at <username> at gmail!

bigasscoffee 6y ago

I've watched this before. It would have been so great to be in some of these classes and a Course 6 student there!

gabssnake 6y ago

I've seen the videos and went through -most- of the book exercises. This is a beautiful way to teach and think about programming and it continues to fascinate me.

nanomonkey 6y ago

Anyone know of similar lectures for the SICM (Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics) book that Sussman also wrote? I'm also interested in creating a study group to go through the book in Clojure, if possible.

blackrock 6y ago

I was looking for some complete open source Lisp programs to review. I wanted to experience the “magic” of Lisp, and bathe in its suffusion of blue [1], while becoming enlightened in the language of the gods. I found the Hemlock [2] source code, which is an Emacs like clone. I don’t know how good it is, maybe someone else can comment on it. But the source code appeared to be rather clean and well organized. This guy’s comment [3] on Lisp got me interested in it again: “Lisp is executable XML with a friendlier syntax.“. And it appears to be like a key-value pair, where the data and code can interplay, and rewrite itself, and execute itself. Sorta, but if this can be done, then this would make for an interesting self-generating AI system. Of course, there are still other ways to skin this cat, like using a database. I still need to do some more work to reach that enlightened state of Lisp Zen. Perhaps someone else can share their enlightened states that they’ve reached with Lisp? [1] https://xkcd.com/224/ https://xkcd.com/224/ [2] https://github.com/bluelisp/hemlock https://github.com/bluelisp/hemlock [3] http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/lisp.html

blackrock 6y ago
Then, I reached a moment of Lisp epiphany. Where my VR coding system, Would build computational blocks of pure logic. A graphical metaphor, for the engineer to define, Functions, variables, and conditional branching to the nines. Their results are returned, and fed into something new, Each rigorous, discrete, and unit tested too. Like a jigsaw linked together by logical flows and light, Further enclosed, they add to its computational might. And Lisp would be the ideal, To achieve such a metaphorical fusion of thought. From conception to code, Between the virtual and the real. The key-value pairings, Between the operator and its operands, All enclosed by parentheses, Bringing closure, and harmony to its lands. Less is required, the tedious keyboards of our day, Instead, on the VR you would tinker and play, Like a meticulous craftsman of another age, Building until perfect, each module of the sage. The world’s combined intellectual prowess, Would be available at your needs, Collected in a public digital library, The modules and code, for you to integrate into your feed. And then it would run, the great engine of light, Bringing forth its magic, and manifesting in twilight. Running on pure thought, and reliable to the nines, The Engineer would sit back, and marvel at his find. And then I awoke from my dream, Suffusion complete.

nikofeyn 6y ago

this course is so fun to watch and listen to.