How Computer Memory Works
Every program being executed and every piece of data being manipulated must be copied from a storage device, such as a magnetic disk, into main memory. It's important to understand the basic types of memory. More ...
Pentium P5 Processor
The Pentium P5 processor was introduced in 1993 was the first superscalar processor. It featured two integer pipelines and a pipelined floating-point unit. This article describes other innovations introduced in the P5. 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 ...
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 ...
Operating System Memory Paging Hardware Support
Paging is a memory management scheme that involves breaking physical memory into fixed-sized blocks and breaking logical memory into blocks of the same size called pages. When a process is to be executed, its pages are loaded into any available memory blocks. More ...
Interrupt Request Lines (IRQs)
What happens when the CPU (Central Processor Unit) is busy doing something, like defragmenting the hard disk, and you press a key on the keyboard? An interrupt (IRQ) is a connection between a hardware device and the CPU. A hardware device uses it's assigned IRQ line to signal or interrupt the CPU when it needs attention. 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 ...
AMD's Phenom Processor
AMD released the first Phenom processor in 2007. Unlike Intel's Core 2 Quad processors, which are a multi-chip module (MCM) design, AMD's Phenom processors had all cores on the same silicon die. 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 ...
Microcontrollers
A microcontroller is an IC that contains a microprocessor as well as RAM, ROM and general I/O ports. Engineers design microcontrollers into specific-purpose devices such as microwave ovens, cars, washing machines, refridgerators, and even space probes. More ...
Learn Assembly Language Programming on Raspberry Pi 400
One of the easiest ways to learn assembly language programming is on the Raspberry Pi 400. The Raspberry Pi 400 is a complete personal computer built into a compact keyboard. 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 ...
