Question:
Where can I learn computer internals?
LazSQL
2012-08-27 08:36:30 UTC
I've "built" (put together) my own computer, made some programs in C# and C++, know binary, hex, etc. However, one thing I don't know, is exactly HOW a computer works. I want to learn about the BUSes, how they work, how each component communicates. I don't care to know "well the CPU is the main part". That's no information at all. Anyone know where, what book, etc. (outside of going to school for years) I can self-educate on this matter?

Thanks.
Four answers:
?
2012-08-27 11:53:24 UTC
The very BEST book on this topic is Clive Maxfield's "Bebop BYTES Back: An Unconventional Guide to Computers." There is NOTHING better for someone who wants to self-educate on the details.



Once you get through that book, the next step would be for you to start learning VHDL or Verilog (or both, my recommendation) using Douglas J Smith's "HDL Chip Design, A Practical Guide for Designing, Synthesizing and Simulating ASICs and FPGAs using VHDL or Verilog." I spoke with him almost the month he arrived in the US from Great Britain (living first in the south eastern US) because the book was such a help in understanding and contrasting VHDL and Verilog, while also illustrating many of the building blocks used in CPU design.



With Smith's book in hand, I also then recommend you buy a demo board with an FPGA on it. Consider reading the link provided below as a segue into such a purchase. Look for good value and just buy something and then play with it, testing out bits and pieces of what you learn from Smith's book. Combined with Clive Maxfield's book, to let you "see" how everything is tied together, plus the building blocks provided in Smith's book, and a little imagination on your part... you can actually make something and in the process you will more fully apprehend how a computer works in very close detail, like few others around you do.



Nice thing is... it is NOT HARD anymore. I've designed CPUs and have built them from scratch. But that was a long time ago and I didn't have an FPGA then or much of anything at all, in fact. Very little money, besides. So it was soldering iron, wire wrap, individual resistors and capacitors, and in the end only 256 bytes of RAM (1974.) I've done a lot more, since. Including designing CPUs. And I have also built a small FAB (for testing optical lightpipe methods of wafer temperature measurement) on my own. And PPro Family (P II, P III, P IV) chipset testing for Intel.



Best wishes. You have all the luck, though. Access to VHDL and Verilog compilers, automated floorplanners, simplified vector testing harnesses, cheap FPGA boards with HUGE resources for almost no money at all, fantastic PCs to use in compiling, downloading, and testing what you do, etc. It's like heaven, except that you don't even know it because it surrounds you everywhere!!!



...Back in the day... Oh, well. I digress. But if you want to see how it "was done" more around my time, take a look at the 2nd link below. Now THAT is a computer!! Nice thing is, he provides nice tutorials and schematics, too.
Jake
2012-08-27 08:53:10 UTC
U wanna know about eletrical engeneering or computer sience .. I can now tell u the cpu is not exactly the most important part think of it this way.

The cpu is our heart, ram is our short term memory, motherboard is our body, harddrive is our long term memory. Fact is without all that were dead! Soo in term there all equaly as important. A computer works using magnets and a 2 posible states .. Aka binary, when its magnitised its a 1 when its not its a 0 (not sure which way round tht is tho) now wat ever rletric impoles tht is put out depends on the binary. Soo for example u could have a blue light tht flashes dependant on it join heaps together bam! U have a monitor. Somethin long linrs of tht hope i helped!
James Bond
2012-08-27 09:40:19 UTC
Read books such as Morris Mano Digital Computer Archiecture

Digital Computer System Archiecture, Carpinelli
Andrew
2012-08-27 08:38:58 UTC
Get an A+ certification.


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