how do computers work

[George Hallam]

i no this is after hours but its more of a light hearted discussion.

this has puzzled me for years, how the heck does silicon make a nice hi-res game play on your PC or make anything work?

yes i no its to do with 1's and 0's i understand thats (barley :D) its the physical property's like metal and circuits i dont get? and how did someone think one day "oooo ye lets put these pieces of silicon and wire and make a pc" :confused:

anyone to enlighten me :confused:

[pentachris]

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/diode.htm

[Ajmukon]

My favorite question:

How does a OS "talk" to a chip?

i always end up; after several rounds, back to this singular question
example (condensed version)
(How does an OS "talk" to a chip-[By ones and zeros]
How does a chip know what to do with the 1/0-[because the OS tells it what to do]
How does a chip "talk" to a OS[i stumped him])

i think this is what George was asking

[jlreich]

yes i no its to do with 1's and 0's i understand thats (barley :D)
Sounds like you haven't learned how binary math works. If you haven't, that's a very good place to start. Once you understand how binary works you will understand how they turn 1's and 0's into code.

(How does an OS "talk" to a chip-[By ones and zeros]
There are codes already built into the CPU. That's a starting point. Then there extension codes built into the CPU to extend it's capabilities, like MMX, SSE, SSE2 etc. And of course the built in codes become more and more as CPU technology advances.

There are of course many different types of CPU's. Some of them have almost no code and let/make the programmer do most of the work. Others have code that is not very programmable at all. Then there are the ones somewhere in between.

That's the basics. Saphalline may come along and give a much better explanation than I can. :)

If you really want to know more I would suggest starting at the beginning of the PC Guide (http://www.pcguide.com/intro/index.htm) itself.

If you really want to get into how silicon is used in computing, be prepared to fall into a black hole of many, many hours.

[Paleo Pete]

If you really want to get into how silicon is used in computing, be prepared to fall into a black hole of many, many hours.

You're not supposed to warn them...let 'em fall in by themselves...unaware... :eek:

[jlreich]

You're not supposed to warn them...let 'em fall in by themselves...unaware... :eek:
LOL. :p

It is a very consuming path to tread. Pentachris showed them the door.

Do you dare walk in???????????

:p :D

[saphalline]

how did someone think one day "oooo ye lets put these pieces of silicon and wire and make a pc"Hahahaa! :D That's not quite how it worked! :p

The history of the computer is actually the history of logical thinking, which eventually turned into better and better tools for automation. It's important to realize, as well, that the PC is not the end of this path. It's a very important step in the path so far, being the latest & greatest of what we have, but it is certainly not the end! (If it were, the rest of our lives would be relatively boring! :p)

The historical chunk related to the modern embedded circuitry designs of Silicon-Germanium dates back only 40-50 years or so. The invention of the transistor predates IC's by about 10 years and SiGe by almost 20 years! The greatest minds of the time cranked it out very fast but it wasn't a direct material-to-goal leap. ;) In fact, originally, circuitry was envisioned as being assembled through a series of components (each on their own substrate) that could be "stacked" like floors in a skyscraper are stacked. Once the designs became unwieldly, someone came up with the idea of putting all the components on a single substrate and connecting them through a layer of wires - thus "traces" were born!

So it was a process of a few people inventing something cool, and then a few years of using it, and then a few more people inventing something cool that used the previous cool thing, etc. It's how technology has been evolving since the beginning of human history. Building on the shoulders of giants, and all that.

[jlreich]

Lets not forget that at one time computers were made up of tons (literally) of vacuum tubes. That's one reason why a mainframe less powerful than a modern video card would take up a whole city block. :p