STUDY NOTES

A reference for the ideas behind computer science.

Written and illustrated by Amittai Siavava.

Most learning material optimizes for coverage or for speed. These notes optimize for understanding — the kind that survives after the exam, that lets you reason from first principles instead of pattern-matching half-remembered tricks.

FIG_002

Each subject is written as one continuous argument. Definitions are precise, derivations are shown in full, and every claim is something you can check. Nothing is waved away with “it can be shown that”.

The same care runs through every topic. A proof is written out, not gestured at; an algorithm arrives with the argument for why it is correct and how fast it runs — not just the code that happens to pass the tests.

FIG_003

From the formal limits of computation to the silicon underneath, each subject is treated rigorously — the same idea, chased from its definition all the way down to how a machine actually runs it.

Worked examples sit beside the theory, because intuition and rigor are not opposites. You watch an idea move in a concrete case before it is pinned down in symbols — and the symbols mean more once you have. You watch an idea move in a concrete case before it is pinned down in symbols — and the symbols mean more once you have.

FIG_001
PROGRAMSwhat you writeOPERATING SYSTEMprocesses, memory, filesINSTRUCTION SETthe ISA — a contractMICROARCHITECTUREdatapath & controlLOGIC GATESAND, OR, NOTTRANSISTORSswitches in silicon[ THE ABSTRACTION STACK ]
The abstraction stack — every layer rests on the one beneath it, from silicon up to the programs you write.
FIG_004

Knowledge is built in layers: each idea rests on the ones beneath it. The notes make that structure explicit, so when something doesn’t click you can walk back down to the floor it stands on. You watch an idea move in a concrete case before it is pinned down in symbols — and the symbols mean more once you have.

FIG_005

Nothing here is filler. Every page is trying to make one more thing genuinely clear — and to leave you able to rebuild it yourself, not merely recall that you once saw it explained.

It won’t make a hard subject easy. It will make it legible — and a legible hard thing is one you can actually learn.

Subjects.

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| STUDY · NOTES |

A reference for the ideas behind computer science.

Written and illustrated by Amittai Siavava.

| § 2026 |