hack
A complete Hack computer built from first principles in TypeScript
The nand2tetris course (The Elements of Computing Systems) challenges you to build a modern computer from scratch. Starting with a single NAND gate and ending with a working, programmable machine. This is my TypeScript implementation of the hardware side.
Every chip is defined as a logical unit, composed only of chips below it in the hierarchy.
// highlights
- Gate library — Implemented all 15 elementary chips from the course: NAND, NOT, AND, OR, XOR, MUX, DMUX and their multi-bit variants. Each chip is tested independently before being used to compose higher-level ones.
- Arithmetic Logic Unit — Built the ALU that powers the Hack CPU. It supports 18 distinct operations controlled by 6 control bits — zero input, negate input, compute, negate output — all derived from combinations of the gate library.
- CPU & Memory — Composed the full CPU from the ALU, two registers (A and D), a program counter, and the instruction decoder. Wired it to RAM and ROM to form a complete von Neumann machine.
- Assembler — Wrote an assembler that translates Hack assembly (
.asm) into 16-bit binary instructions (.hack). Handles A-instructions, C-instructions, labels, and a symbol table for variable resolution.
// stack
- TypeScript
- Deno