If you want to work in a simulation, the Nand to Tetris course, in which you build a computer out of single NAND logic gates in a stack of layers is the way to

If you want to work in a simulation, the Nand to Tetris course, in which you build a computer out of single NAND logic gates in a stack of layers is the way to go, as others have said. [1] If you want to work with real things in your hands, the cheap and easy way these days is to get an Arduino[2] (5 Volt I/O, and a bit slower) or Raspberry Pi Pico (3.3 Volt I/O, and quicker) and build something. The Raspberry Pi Pico is a machine that has 2 cores, a lot of IO and a hugely powerful I/O engine called the PIO, which is fast enough to output video (VGA or DVI/HDMI) or almost anything else you need done. [1] - https://www.nand2tetris.org/ https://www.nand2tetris.org/ [2] - https://www.arduino.cc/ https://www.arduino.cc/ [3] - https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico/