I'd strongly suggest having a look at the Cardiac [0] and MIX [1] computers. Shift operations are pretty important and having a dedicated multiplication/divisio

I'd strongly suggest having a look at the Cardiac [0] and MIX [1] computers. Shift operations are pretty important and having a dedicated multiplication/division is also very useful. The fact that all of these are (or can be) decimal machines makes it much easier for people to understand what's going on. Jumping to binary before you understand how a computer works is like learning logic in Latin. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illustrative_Aid_to_Computation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CARDboard_Illustrative_Aid_to_... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIX_(abstract_machine) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIX_(abstract_machine) I've been playing around with a modern version of the cardiac, drop me an email if you'd like to collab on testing it on live students.