Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

Question

Programming code tells the computer to do something, but what makes the code actually mean anything to the computer?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

So there are basically lot of layers

1. programming code is converted to binary code which is series of 1s and 0s. these represent instructions to processor. for simplicity every continuos 32 0s or 1s is an instruction in a series of binary code.

2. instructions are executed by an always running program called kernel/operating system. it will feed this to processor.

3. the processor is an electronic circuit that when given different 32 bits gives respective output. it is designed like that.

4. the electronic circuit is made up of gates which perform boolean logic like – inverting a bit(not gate), checking if two bits are both 1(and gate) and so on.

4.1 the gates are made up of transistors.

4.2 the transistors are made up of diodes and materials.

5. basically any algorithm can be reprrsented using these gates and the output is used accordingly by operating system/kernel.