How do you go from some silicon wafer with some metallic lines printed on it to having a GUI desktop. I don’t understand the intersection between hardware and software at the fundamental level.
In: Technology
Others have explained the bits and bobs of how the little parts use electricity and logic to make a decision machine. But what about the bigger parts — the ones you touch and look at?
A computer has only 5 parts: A Clock, Processor, Memory, Output, and Input.
A Clock keeps everything working together, where information moves from place to place in time with the ticks. There are exceptions, but mostly is a huge bucket brigade as the 1’s and 0’s move around the computer system.
A Processor (the CPU), sometimes one of many, takes it’s piece of information (10110011 etc), follows the instructions for that piece, and makes it move somewhere else. And the next, and the next, all in time with the Clock.
Memory is the space where the CPU reads things from, and puts things when done. There are several types of memory, particularly Storage and Workspace. Think of a kitchen table. A recipe card (a program) is on the table (workspace – usually Random Access Memory – RAM). The CPU reads the recipe, goes to Storage (usually the Hard Drive), gets the stuff it needs and puts it on the table (RAM). Then the CPU follows the program to do stuff. And, some of that stuff goes to:
Output is where you get to see what’s happening. The output can be a video screen, printer, manufacturing device, blinky light thing, or whatever the computer can control in some way. And all of that happens because somewhere there was an:
Input is where you (or a sensor) tell the computer to do something. A mouse, keyboard, thermostat, position sensor, etc, makes a signal for the computer to detect. And what does it do then? It follows the program to print the letter “E” on the screen (output), shift the hydraulic cylinder a little bit, raise/lower the oven temperature, change the radio station, well … anything!
So you can have infinite variations of all these parts working together, sometimes nested inside each other, or working side by side. Often, both!
But, no matter how much you click your mouse, you still won’t get redstone ore until you have an iron pick. That’s just part of the game.
Latest Answers