Computer Buses
A 16-bit bus can transfer 16 binary bits simultainiously. This requires 16 separate metal traces on a PC board. We also need traces for control signals. The whole group of traces is referred to as a bus. More ...
Factors in Choosing an Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is an instrument used to display the waveform of electronic signals. It draws a graph of the voltage as a function of time. A digital oscilloscope can also store waveforms and perform mathematical analysis of the waveform. More ...
Stored Program Architecture
Almost every computer system ever made is based on the stored program architecture designed in 1945 design by the mathematician John Von Neumann. He described a system where data and instructions would be stored in memory. More ...
Basic Electronics for Computer Architecture
To understand computer architecture, it is necessary for you to have a basic understanding of electronics. This article explains how all the amazing things that can be done with electronics are the result of one simple thing - electric charge. More ...
Digital Logic Levels and Transfer Characteristics
A digital system uses discrete logic levels, 0 and 1, while the real world is a continuous range such as a voltage from 0 to 5. To make design easier, engineers view the system in the abstract. More ...
Computer Video Display
If you view a computer as an input-processing-output machine, you can use a keyboard or removable storage device as the input, a program as the processing, but what can you use to retrieve the output? One way to acquire the output, be it text or graphics, is with a video display. More ...
Shortest-Job-First CPU Scheduling Algorithm
CPU Scheduling deals with the problem of deciding which of the processes in the ready queue is to be alocated the CPU. There are many different CPU scheduling algorithms. In this article we describe shortest-job-first scheduling. More ...
Microprocessor Counter, Clock, Timer Circuits
All the circuitry in the microprocessor, in fact all the circuitry on the motherboard require a clock signal for operation. The clock signal is the heartbeat of the system. Without a clock signal, the microprocessor and the computer are dead. More ...
Introduction to the Raspberry Pi
The Raspberry Pi is a tiny bare-bones computer motherboard. You can easily make it into a Linux PC by connecting your own keyboard, mouse, and display. More ...
Inductors in DC Circuits
An inductor is constructed with a coil of wire. When connected to a voltage source, an inductor resists a change in current flow as it stores energy in its magnetic field, and it can return that energy to the circuit if desired. More ...
AMD Sempron Processor
The Sempron replaced the Duron as AMD's budget processor. The socket A Sempron is basically an Athlon XP with half the cache. The socket 754 Sempron is a cut down version of the Athlon 64 processor with half the cache. More ...
The Fetch, Decode, Execute Cycle
The Fetch, Decode, Execute cycle is paramount to the functioning of a microprocessor. In this article I'll describe the Fetch, Decode, Execute cycle simplified to its bare-bones in a highly simplified fictitious microprocessor. More ...
