Customer Reviews

How Computers Work (8th Edition)

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Ron White has written an expanded of edition How Computers Work. The Millennium Edition offers readers a totally updated and refreshing view of computer technology that will take them into the next century. Readers are treated to new graphics, new insight into computer operations, new developments in the computer industry, and new technology to incorporate into their personal and business computing!

This new edition of How Computers Work is a beautifully illustrated and designed book that clearly and concisely explains the overall operation of computers. Readers will learn how individual computer components work, how the Windows operating system and a number of software applications work, how various audio, graphics, and video technologies work, and how a number of essential peripheral accessories work. Readers will also pick up on some helpful information about the Y2K phenomenon.

Readers are taken on a breath-taking journey through the operation of the bios, cache, chips, memory, ports, hard drives, CD's, diskettes, zip drives, graphics boards, sound boards, modems, monitors, mouses, joysticks, printers, surge protectors, back-up power supplies, digital cameras, scanners, and much more. White includes discussion of cutting-edge Pentium technologies and how Web browsers, e-mail, networks, virtual reality, multimedia, and data compression work.

This book is perfect for company employees, for students who may be using computers for the first time, and beginners starting out with just an interest in computers. This book is great for classroom use and will also make a fine gift for the first-time computer buyer! It is must reading for anyone wanting to learn more about the computing scene. The CD included with the book offers a cool multimedia interactive tour no one should miss out on!

I work in the IT / Computer Repair industry, and I personally feel that this book is very helpful to most individuals, especially those who have little familiarity with computer systems, internal structures, gadgets and whatnots.
I found the detailed and heavily-illustrated sections regarding chipsets, processors, memory buffers, etc. to be very helpful. Most computer manuals are very technical and assume you know a computer inside and out, already (despite constant development in the industry and the fact that by the time a computer hits the shelves it is out-dated).
These "How Computers / Internet," etc. books are wonderful manuals for those who just want to know "how the heck does this crazy thing work, anyway ?!?!"
You won't be able to pass your A+ Certifications with this series of books, but you will understand much of the jargon people throw-around in the office, and you will see flow charts of "How Computers Work."
I sincerely appreciated the diagrams of a Techtronix Printer!
Suffice to Say, if "a picture is worth a thousand words," this book is pricesless for the novice and very helpful for the beginning (uncertified) Techs in the computer repair field. The usual Black & White Illustrations in computer manuals aren't exactly condusive to really getting a feel for the stuff you might be yanking out and replacing. However, this book is full of numerous full-color, full-page illustrations.

Some people are content to spend their lives not knowing or caring what is under the hood of their car, inside their watch, or in their TV sets. To them, the end product is all that matters. Other people are not content with that - they want to know how things work. What magic is taking place that allows them to watch events thousands of miles away or toast their bagel.

There are few inventions as imposing as the personal computer to understand. Integrated Circuits, ISA connections, Hexadecimal code, and many other seemingly complex words float around in descriptions of hardware and software. This book demystifies the PC - with flare.

Each component of the PC - CPU, drives, printers, mouse - is described with a down to earth, step by step description and exceptional illustrations. It is just technical enough to allow the power user to be satisfied, but easy enough to understand so us non-Computer Science majors can gain some knowledge.

My only criticism involves the CD - the layout was good, but it only included some of the information in the book. Had it been more comprehensive, I would have enjoyed it more.

This is similar in quality to "The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay. "How Computers Work" will answer the questions you've had about computers, and many that you haven't thought of. It is the perfect mix of information and illustration. Highly recommended.

Now in its eight edition, this is a standard textbook for the IT101 class most colleges and universities now have as a graduation requirement for computer literacy. I know for a fact George Mason University uses this textbook, and the students all have good things to say about it. However, these students are mainly 18 and 19 year old freshmen, with only their personal usage of a computer to draw upon for context. Thus, as a previous reviewer put it, it will make you aware of the computer buzzwords flying around the office, and it is a good first exposure to the inner workings of a computer, but don't buy it expecting detailed information on personal and office computer repair and assembly. That is not this book's purpose, for its contents are very basic. Also note that what little the book has to say on operating systems is limited to Windows. If what you want are start-to-finish instructions for repairing a PC that are accessible for beginners, try "Repairing and Upgrading Your Computer" by Thompson, which was just published this month, March 2006, so it is up-to-date. That book shows how to troubleshoot a PC, how to identify which components need upgrading, and how to tear a PC down and then put it all back together. You could also stick with an old reliable title "Upgrading and Repairing PC's" by Mueller, to be released in its 17th edition at the end of March 2006.
I notice that Amazon shows the table of contents for the 6th edition, but not the current 8th edition. I do that here for the purpose of completeness:
Part 1: Boot-Up Process
Getting to Know the Hardware
How a Disk Boot Wakes Up Your PC
How an Operating System Controls Hardware
Part 2: Microchips
How Transistors Manipulate Data
How a Microprocessor Works
Part 3: How Software Works
How Programming Languages Work
How Windows Works
How Software Applications Do Your Work
Part 4: Data Storage
How a Computer's Long-Term Memory Works
How Disk Drives Save Information
How the Little Things Make Disk Drives Faster and Store More
How PCs Use Light to Remember Data
How Removable Storage Works
Part 5: Input/Output Devices
How Energy Turns into Data
How Computer Ports Work
How a Computer Display Works
How Data Gets into Your PC
How Scanners Capture Images and Words
How Portable Computers Work
How Digital Cameras Work
Part 6: Games and Multimedia
How Multimedia Sound Works
How Multimedia Video Works
How Games Put You in the Action
Part 7: How the Internet Works
How Local Area Networks Work
How PCs Connect to the Internet
How Wireless Sets PCs Free
How the Internet Moves Data
How We Reach Each Other Through the Net
How Internet Video and Audio Work
How the World Wide Web Is A-Changing
How Internet Security Fights Off PC Invaders
Part 8: How Printers Work
How Black-and-White Printing Works
How Color Printing Works

Around the year 300 BCE a significant book appeared. It was titled Elements, and it contained everything the Greeks believed about geometry and mathematics. Euclid, the far-seeing author, could hardly have imagined that it would become the standard text in the field for the next two thousand years. In our time, information and technological advances move a little faster. Regretfully we acknowledge that the blazing fast desktop computer we buy at Christmas will be a tortoise by summertime, and ready for the scrapheap in two short years. To paraphrase Sam Goldwyn: Today's state-of-the-art knowledge is tomorrow's yesterday's news. That's why, every year, I treat myself to a new edition of How Computers Work. This beautiful-looking guide is one of the most compelling and information-packed computer books in print. The large and colorful illustrations (by Timothy Edward Downs and Stephen Adams) make the book a pure delight to study. Ron White's explanations, simple and direct, rise to the challenge of matching pithy words with the best in illustrative art. In 45 chapters, each one taking on a specific system of the computer, we learn the inner workings of CPUs, storage, multimedia, modems, printers, and all the other important gizmos inside and connected to, what my mother calls, "that little box that hums." Sorry, Mac users: this book is about what's known as "Wintel" computers: PCs that run Microsoft Windows and use Intel-compatible processors. Written for beginners and intermediate level users, this Millennium edition is almost one hundred pages larger than its predecessor. And it's been updated to include new technologies such as fingerprint and voice recognition, Pentium III and MMX processors, MP3 music and digital audio. Looking ahead, the book ventures to predict how the main computer components -- software, multimedia, storage, microchips, printers -- will work in the future near. If your PC has the minimum required 24 Mb RAM to run the accompanying CD-ROM, then you'll be treated to a voice-and-picture interactive tour of the PC. Watching the CD and reading the paperback, it's difficult to imagine anyone who wouldn't be wooed, wowed, educated, amazed and entertained by this exciting book.

Michael Pastore, Reviewer

On occasion, I teach a course with a title having the form, "Introduction to Microcomputers", where the goal is to introduce students to some of the fundamentals of how computers work and what they are used for. Generally, the material that they find easiest to understand is that which can be illustrated by examples demonstrated on a computer. In second place are the concepts that are explained using high quality illustrations. That is where this book is extraordinary.
The author and illustrator clearly put a great deal of thought and effort into the structure and appearance of the illustrations, they are the best demonstrations of computer fundamentals that I have ever seen. The publishers are also to be commended for using high quality coloring and paper, which makes the pictures very easy on the eyes, although there are a few times when the contrast between the text and figure colors is not enough to make it easy to read the text. They quite correctly let the illustrations do as much of the explaining as possible, resorting to text only when necessary.
It is split into eight parts:

* Boot-up process.
* Microchips.
* How software works.
* Data storage.
* Input/output devices.
* Multimedia.
* How the Internet works.
* How printers work.

covering all of the material that is the normal coverage in an introduction to microcomputers course. There are also occasional segments of glossary, where the key terms in the section are defined.
This is a high quality book, the best introductory material on how computers work designed for the novice that I have ever seen. If study questions were included, I would start using it as a textbook.

This review refers to the seventh edition.

We used this as one of our textbooks for a computer repair class I took and I must say, it is VERY comprehensive about various computer technologies. It explains in great detail, with great illustrations, on how various technologies work and were developed.

Among what it talks about include: - internal hardware like the motherboard, RAM chips, hard drives, floppy drives, CD-ROM/DVD drives, - software, - networking, e-mail, the Internet, - printers, - peripherals like printers, scanners, OCR, digital cameras, etc. You will learn EXACTLY how each of these devices and technologies work. It explains very clearly and you will understand how all this works. It makes this most technical of contents understandable in plain English.

If you're into computers or want to learn more about computers, this is great place to start reading about them. If you are slightly, or even advanced, in knowledge of computers, this book is a great supplement to your knowledge base.

This book lives up to its name. It definitely tells you how computers work, and then some.

Recommended reading.

(My copy did not come with a CD, so I can only comment on the book itself.)

My edition (Ninth Edition) was clearly assembled and edited in a hurry. A couple of quick examples: the diagram on p. 12 shows a computer with numbered parts, and the accompanying text refers to the numbers and describes the respective parts. The diagram in my book has no #6 -- the text is there, but unless you already know where the part is, it's not helpful. Other little typos include the following text from p. 26: "See how a transistor works, p. XXX" (They forgot to replace the XXX with the actual page number).

Neither of these errors is a deal-breaker, of course, but it makes me wonder if I am unwittingly being misinformed by other typos. Much of the book, though -- because of the illustrations and simply worded text -- is quite helpful to a beginner.

Having said that, I would not pay full price for this. As I write this review, there is a used edition for $6.99, and that sounds about right.

If you want to learn to use a computer, this is not the book for you. But, if you have that burning curiosity about what make a PC tick, you could not have chosen a better book. The pictures help to visualize what is going on inside the components. I am an instructor of computers in San Diego, and I have used this book and its previous releases to help me structure my courses. They have been a magnificent supplement.

You probably won't get A+ certified with just this book, but as a general handbook on the operation of all the parts that make a comuter tick, this is the ideal book to have.

Ron White's best-selling and award-winning book How Computers Work Millennium Edition is nothing short of brilliant. He explains how all of this "pokerfaced" hardware works clearly and often even humorously. The book falls into the category of when something is great, or when someone is really talented, they make it look easy. It conveys how computers work in an extremely effective way with both its illustrations and text. The illustrations make one feel that they can practically understand how the component in question works at a glance, and the text seamlessly and lucidly ensures that the reader knows what's going on in the illustration. One of the best parts of the book, however, are the sections at the beginning of each chapter where Ron White introduces the next part of the computer he is going to cover. In these pages White's writings are not the sidebar explanations that accompany the illustrations -- although, as mentioned, those explanations are very good, too, and left me feeling I really did know what was going on in the illustration -- rather, at the beginning of each chapter, Ron White shows his immense talent as a writer/essayist/humorist. Not only are these sections very enjoyable to read, they also reveal how the illustrations and explanations to follow fit into the big picture of how it all works. The Millennium Edition also has a really interesting part following each section of the book where he predicts how a particular type of computer component might work in the future -- i.e., how printers, multimedia, the Internet, software, storage, microchips, input/output devices, and computers in general will work. Don't know if the predictions will be right, but they're still interesting to think about. There are also timelines in the Millennium Edition which show the evolution of the computer and many of its essential parts, such as the transistor, and there is also a good amount devoted to how software, networks, the Internet, and MP3 works in this 400+ page book, which also comes with an equally absorbing, interactive CD-ROM. After reading the book, I found that knowing how computers work has helped me in my everyday use of computers, too. Somehow, knowing how they work seems to help when dealing with them in general -- there's more of an insidious power in knowing how something works than I thought... How Computers Work has also come in handy -- too many times to recount -- as a good reference book for randomly looking up computer related items and topics in the index, so not only can I find it and know how it works, but I can find out what it is in the first place, and get a sense of how it all fits together. With all of this useful and educational information presented so well and effectively, I would even say that this book is an important contribution to society!