How do computers work?

maltingsaudio · December 2017

Back in the day, ie beginning of the 80's, when computers started to edge their way into the work place, they were explained to me and everyone older than me as basically big calculators which worked on binary turning a switch either on or off .

Is this still the standard explanation or is there a more modern one, or as I expect no one bothers to explain how they work as they are such a part of our modern life?

joeyowen · December 2017

1s and 0s all the way

But all very very tiny in the processor.

fields5069 · December 2017

Don't they exist in several universes at once now? All that quantum computing and shit.

Bygone_Tones · December 2017

Exactly the same, just the processors got a lot faster and smaller over time.

https://www.computerhope.com/history/processor.htm

Phil_aka_Pip · December 2017

Yes, except that there are many millions of times more 1s and 0s and they switch a lot faster.

However, you don't actually get any more work done per unit time, because the "Operating Systems" are 90% bloatware, and the application programs have just as many bugs in, and have their user interfaces gratuitously changed from one release to the next so you can never find the function you need - and if you do find it you realise they've subtly changed it in a way to make it less usable.

57Deluxe · December 2017

in a program you set criteria with either YES or NO options - 1 or 0 - and then depending upon the levels of complexity, the request is channelled to other levels of outcome until you arrive at predetermined result.

What you have to ask then, which is the more important - the software or hardware machinations...

Kilgore · December 2017

Senior IT professionals will tell you that there are a lot more 0's than 1's. A bit like this: 100000 + car.

prowla · December 2017

All you need to know is that if if doesn't work, you have to just hit the keys on the keyboard harder.
You can also try shouting at them, but generally they aren't listening.

prowla · December 2017

57Deluxe said:

in a program you set criteria with either YES or NO options - 1 or 0 - and then depending upon the levels of complexity, the request is channelled to other levels of outcome until you arrive at predetermined result.

What you have to ask then, which is the more important - the software or hardware machinations...

You know you have a light switch at the top and the bottom of the stairs?
Well, that's how a computer works.

FX_Munkee · December 2017

It's a mystery to me.

Sassafras · December 2017

Such a simple system of 1s and 0s, and yet they still don't work without infuriating me.

axisus · December 2017

I suspect I may have been lied to. I opened my PC up expecting to see magic rainbow dust scattered over unicorn poop.

Zoolooter · December 2017

Sassafras said:

Such a simple system of 1s and 0s, and yet they still don't work without infuriating me.

Yep, and I earned nearly as much money in the early nineties in the print/graphics industry when computers were hardly involved.

scrumhalf · December 2017

Where does the killing aliens bit come into it?

snakemanStoo · December 2017

Witchcraft.

Magically making tiny psychic gnomes hide in computer boxes to make your work more difficult in surprising ways.

Sesh · December 2017

I wish I had the old "How it works.... The Computer" from when I was a kid. One statement I remember: "In the future it may be possible that computers may reduce in size enough to fit in a small room."

Maynehead · December 2017

In a nutshell...

Processors are made of multiple transistors, which are used to construct logic gates (AND, OR, NOT etc.), which are in turn used to perform binary operations such as addition or subtraction.

The input data arrives at the processor through the data bus as a set of bits (how many depends on the bus width). The CPU then runs these bits through the logic gates on the next clock tick, and produces a different set of bits representing the result of the operation. The output bits are then sent through the data bus and stored in memory.

So how does the CPU determine which operations to perform on the data? Well that’s where software comes in. The code that software developers write gets compiled into machine code, which ends up on the instruction register of the CPU.

Of course this is a very simplistic view, but at the core (no pun intended), it is how computers work.

maltingsaudio · December 2017

Maynehead said:

In a nutshell...

Processors are made of multiple transistors, which are used to construct logic gates (AND, OR, NOT etc.), which are in turn used to perform binary operations such as addition or subtraction.

The input data arrives at the processor through the data bus as a set of bits (how many depends on the bus width). The CPU then runs these bits through the logic gates on the next clock tick, and produces a different set of bits representing the result of the operation. The output bits are then sent through the data bus and stored in memory.

So how does the CPU determine which operations to perform on the data? Well that’s where software comes in. The code that software developers write gets compiled into machine code, which ends up on the instruction register of the CPU.

Of course this is a very simplistic view, but at the core (no pun intended), it is how computers work.

Brilliant but would your granny understand that lot?

Bridgehouse · December 2017

Phil_aka_Pip · December 2017

Maynehead said:

The code that software developers write gets compiled into machine code, which ends up on the instruction register of the CPU.

Of course this is a very simplistic view, but at the core (no pun intended), it is how computers work.

Software engineering is the noble art of arranging millions of 1s and 0s in the right order. Fortunately we don't have to think at that level: as @Maynehead says we have tools that translate our abstract concepts into 1s and 0s. Some of them are data, some are instructions.

goldtop · December 2017

Wrong question, dude!

With AI, computers are figuring out how we work. First it was LOLcats, then it was Facebook, then Cal of Duty, and why not Snapchat 'knockout games' and next it'll be real life Hunger Games. Wake up, sheeple! Skynet. Etc.

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How do computers work?

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