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How do computers work?

How do computers and electronics actually work?

  • I know the mechanics of computers and the other parts to them and how they function but how did they get the function to function? No matter how hard I think, I can't think of how computers and other things got the function to function? Like, how did the people develop an artificial code and put it into the chips and things to allow them to function? It seems impossible but it is possible because we have it. Like, how can people put codes into metal and other non-living substances to allow them to support articifial intelligence and things? Like, people can type, use programs, access and do things on computers just because of chips and other components to computers. How and why is it possible?

  • Answer:

    Computers--difficult subject. It all comes down to on/off switches. On is a one (1) and off is a zero (0). Anything can be represented with enough 1s and 0s. That is called Binary code. The value of the digit multiplies by 2x for every digit to the left. 0 is zero 1 is one 10 is two 11 is three 100 is four, etc. On a keyboard, all letters and symbols and numbers have a special code of numbers, called ASCII. One can send a letter or series of letters (words) by ASCII numbers between programs, and between machines. The ASCII numbers are in binary form. If you have four binary numbers together, it is a bit. 1001 is nine If you have eight binary numbers together, it is a byte. 01100011 is ninety-nine You can save the bits and bytes on a magnetic media (floppy or hard disk or a data stick or flash drive) as magnetic zones of N and S directions (I forget if a 1 is N or S). They can be saved by the multi-billions in rings that magnetic heads can read later, and write also. There is another storage area, called volatile memory. It is very fast, but blanks out when power is off. And a third area, called permanent read-only memory or PROM and eraseable permanent read only memory (EPROM) saves the information needed to start up and get the computer ready to run programs. All programs are just shuffling bits and bytes of binary 1s and 0s inside a central processing unit. It determines what to do with the bits and bytes. Addition, subtraction, comparison (equal or larger or smaller), and get more bits and bytes, or send them on to storage or display or other output. This is determined by programs. The program that does the most is the operating system. It tells the processor what to do with other programs. It is written in several languages. The simplist is in binary code. This comes from machine code. That is very simple instructions of what to do with numbers and letters (add, subtract, store, get, delete). Machine code accepts instructions from a programming language. This language can be understood by humans easily. Some popular programming languages have been Basic, Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, Ada, LISP, C, C++, and many more modern ones. A programmer uses one or more to create an operating system and applications (tools of software) to handle data. Data is information that flows in and out of the computer. It can come from keyboard, mouse, USB, network, serial and parallel ports, and from radio and infrared links. The data is processed by the application, and either stored, sent to outputs (display, printer, ports, radio, etc) or on to other applications or deleted. Programs and applications are called from disk storage and PROM and EPROM as needed, and fed into (volatile) memory and processed. The picture you see on the screen is a series of bits. At each row across, there are hundreds of groups of three LCD patches that can be left black, or made clear with a voltage, depending upon what is sent to the patches. There are red, blue and green patches. All three patches on equally makes white. Various colors can be made by combining the three colors unequally. A voltage can be low, medium, or high, with up to 32 steps, depending upon what was sent. That gives quite a range of brightness, and many millions of colors. Each 3-patch is a pixel. Many pixels in rows and columns make a picture. Mouse clicks are just sending a high (1) or low (0) signal to the computer. Mouse movement used to be by a ball rolling a pair of wheels. The wheel had slots that interrupted a light shining on a sensor, making changes of light/dark/light and sending high and low signals. Now, laser mouse shines a light on a surface, and if there is a variation in the reflection (mouse moved), a signal is sent. That's about it. The rest is just cake icing.

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The circuits used in computers are really pretty simple combinations of transistors, diodes, resistors, and so forth that perform just a few basic functions like reading two voltages and producing another voltage that is a logical combination of those inputs. By combining these circuits, you can do things like adding two digital numbers together. Each number is represented by a number of voltage levels, with each voltage being either high or low. For instance, 10110010, where 1 represents a high voltage and 0 is a low one, can represent the number 178. You can represent numbers up to 255 with 8 bits, and up to 65535 with 16 bits, and so forth. The microprocessor has several hundred functions it can do with these simple circuits, like reading a number from memory, performing various operations on it, and storing it someplace else. Somebody has to write a program to tell the processor which instructions to perform, and in what order, to do things like writing to a disk drive, sending text to a monitor, and reading a keyboard. This is just the operating system. Then, somebody has to write a program to combine these functions to make the computer do things like word processing or browsing the web. It's not easy, but it's possible!

dmoney_sc

Basic as it seems it is the planing and research that give the function to making things work. With electronics and computers a language is developed for the perimeters and variances of a task needed to work. Then the switch is set for "on" or "off" represented by the number zero "0", for off and one "1", for on. Software development is done by teams responsible for the project. They set the direction that is needed to process the operations needed to perform a task. All of the parts of the computer or electronic device are simply parts put together that are known to work a task. Even the DVD player uses this type of software design to be able to read and display the storage media disk known as a "DVD" or "CD". Software programs tell the system what to do through commands in lines of code. One of the most used commands says do it, or Execute. When the development of the project is done right the task is done. To learn more about the inner workings of computers and electronics a source can be found on the web at the web page "How Things Work" listed in source for research.

Bob Hansen

One word: binary. It is possible to represent anything - text, images, sound, shapes - by a series of 0s and 1s. You can make a simple circuit using transistors that has two possible output states: low voltage (a 0) or high voltage (a 1). Put thousands of these circuits onto chips of silicon and interconnect them in the right way and you have a computer.

charcinders

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