Computer
When I was quite young I learned exactly how a computer works. There is a little guy called Benny who runs around very quickly and makes sure everything gets done. He takes the commands and mouse clicks from the screen, and at blinding speed, comes up with the appropriate answer. And occasionally if the computer messes up or runs slowly, all I need to do is turn it off to give Benny a little rest. After all, he's been working hard all day.
Now, if you are satisfied with the above explanation, then perhaps this tutorial is not for you. On the other hand, if you'd like to dive in to get a sense of how a computer works, then my friend, please stay awhile. In these short pages I'll walk through the design of a very simple computer from the most basic parts.
Oh, but be sure to check out the cool logic editor at the bottom!
Sections:
- Wires - Or what are ones and zeros
- Logic Gates - The Digital Building Blocks
- Truth Tables - Keeping Things Straight
- More Gates - Taking It Up A Notch
- Binary Numbers - Back To 1's AND 0's
- Adder - XOR in Action
- Multiplexers - The Decision Makers
- Shifter - Playing with Powers of Two
The ALU - Making Some Smarts Flip-Flops - Clever Little Buggers Registers - Memory is the Key Computer 1 - Putting it Together Two's Complement - Big Is Small Subtraction - Addition in Reverse Multiplication? - If I get around to it Decoder - The Power of an Instruction - Computer 2 - Doing Benny's job for him!
- Logic Board Editor - Build your own!