The Evolution of Hard Disk Bit Recording
Hard drive technology has continuously improved over the decades, that includes higher storage capacity performance. Part of this improvement has been higher access speeds, but most of the higher storage capacity has been the result of changes in the bit recording methods. 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 ...
Change Raspberry Pi Default Configuration
If you are a US user of the Raspberry Pi, you will discover that when you type, the characters displayed do not match our keyboard. When you type [shift][#] instead you get the British pound symbol. This is because Raspbian (and NOOBS) defaults to UK keyboard settings. More ...
Operating System Memory Protection in a Paged Environment
Memory protection in a paged environment is accomplished by protection bits associated with each frame. For example read-write, read-only or execute-only bit, and valid-invalid bit. Normally, these bits are kept in the page table. More ...
Dynamic Loading of Program Routines and Dynamically linked libraries (DLLs)
In order to execute, it is not necessary for an entire program to be in physical memory. With dynamic loading, a routine is not loaded until it is called. More ...
Capacitors in AC Circuits
In an AC circuit capacitors exhibit a property similar to resistance called reactance and cause a phase shift between votage and current. The vector sum of resistance and reactance in an AC circuit is called impedance. More ...
Binary Number Representation and Binary Math
Computers perform all of their amazing work with only two voltage levels, one representing binary 0, the other representing binary 1. This article describes how to perform binary addition and subtraction. More ...
Multilevel Queue CPU Scheduling Algorithm
With many CPU scheduling algorithms, all processes are placed in a single queue, and the scheduler selects the process to run. In practice, it is often easier to have separate queues for each priority, and the scheduler simply selects the process in the highest-priority queue. 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 ...
Virtual Memory and Memory Paging
In the early days of computers, memory chips were small capacity, scarce, and expensive. Because of this a memory management scheme called paging was invented. More ...
Intel's Dual-Core Core i3 Processor
Core i3 is an entry-level 2-core processor using the 32nm Westmere micro-architecture. With a Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 73 watts, the i3-530 is a cool-running chip that doesn't gobble loads of electricity, so those looking for a power-efficient, quiet machine will be happy with it. More ...
CPU Chip Packaging
Over the development time of the computer, several different designs of packaging for the CPU chip die have been used. Each type of packaging has its advantages and disadvantages. This article reviews some common packages that might still be in use. More ...
