Integrated Circuit Design Flow
The process of integrated circuit design can be divided into stages: system design, logic design, circuit design, layout design, fabrication and testing. More ...
Arduino Microcontroller Development Platform
The benefit of the open source Arduino Microcontroller Development Platform is that the software is free and the hardware is cheap. This makes it one of the cheapest platforms on which to develop prototypes. More ...
CPU Cache Basics
After the processor accesses a location in memory, there's a high probability that the next location in memory that it will access is in the same area of memory. So to make the computer run faster, a a smaller, faster memory called a cache is placed between main memory and the processor. 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 ...
Windows Operating System Services, Functions, Routines, Processes, Threads, and Jobs
The Windows operating system uses many confusing terms. This article explains the meaning of the terms: Services, Functions, Routines, Processes, Threads, and Jobs. More ...
Electronic Circuits Basics
This article's main target is to teach the electronics language to readers that are not familiar with electronics by using a group of rules and simple equations that describe the behavior of every electronic component and the relationship between the components in the circuit. More ...
AMD's Microarchitectures
A microarchitecture describes the physical features, functions, and the technology level of the processes used to manufacture the core of a microprocessor. This article describes the microarchitectures used by AMD. More ...
How Computer Chips are Made
The oxygen is removed from silica by heating it with carbon. A tiny seed of silicon is then dipped into molten silicon. As the tiny crystal is slowly lifted out of the crucible silicon crystallizes around it. More ...
Intel's Core i7 Processors
Core i7 is a family of Intel quad core processors, that is, they have four processors on a single silicon chip. All four processor cores and all memory caches, including a 64K L1 cache, a 256K L2 cache, and a shared L3 cache are located on one chip. The memory is also located on the same chip. More ...
Capacitors in DC Circuits
A capacitor is a component that can be used to store an electrical charge. A capacitor can be used to create a timer. This time delay can be used to smooth a changing current flow in a circuit, or it can be used to absorb spikes and prevent false triggering of other components. 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 ...
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 ...