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How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory
 
 
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How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory [Paperback]

Roger Young (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 1, 2002
The book is as simple as possible and aimed at a non-technical audience with absolutely no knowledge of computers or electronics, but it is an electrical engineering text. A typical page consists of a circuit diagram (or program) and a paragraph or two of explanation. The book begins with a VERY simple circuit and continues to a very complex circuit (a computer) while explaining everything. Everything has been made as simple as possible while leaving nothing out. Eighty-four circuit diagrams and some timing diagrams and short programs make every point clear.

Computers are the most complex machines that have ever been created. This is the first book to make it possible for ordinary people to understand precisely how the processor, the main and most complex part of a computer, works. In fact, it completely explains the operation of a complete, though simple, computer.

Relays, which are explained, are used in the circuitry instead of transistors for simplicity, though transistors are mentioned.

Did you ever wonder what a bit, a latch, a word (of memory), a data bus, an address bus, a memory, a register, a processor, a timing diagram, a clock (of a processor), an instruction, or machine code is? Though most explanations of how computers work are a lot of analogies or require a background in electrical engineering, this book will tell you precisely what each of them is and how each of them works without requiring any previous knowledge of computers or electronics.


Editorial Reviews

From the Author

TARGET AUDIENCE: Anyone who has used a computer and is interested in how it works but who has no knowledge of electronics or programming.

WHAT MAKES THE BOOK DIFFERENT: The fact that it actually and completely explains how computers work while simultaneously requiring no knowledge of computers or electronics. There are books that require no electrical engineering background and purport to explain how computers work. Unfortunately, they don’t explain how computers work. Computers are quite complex. There are books that explain how computers work, but they require a background in electrical engineering.

About the Author

Roger Stephen Young lives in Pennsylvania and graduated from The Pennsylvania State University where he majored in physics and was interested in transistors. He went to the California State University at Fullerton and worked on a Master's degree in electrical engineering for two years, but got a job at Texas Instruments before finishing. He has extensive programming experience and is currently promoting his parallel processor design that can be programmed easily and has a novel inter-processor communication architecture.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 152 pages
  • Publisher: 1st Book Library (August 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1403325820
  • ISBN-13: 978-1403325822
  • Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,245,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Only book of its kind, January 30, 2006
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This review is from: How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory (Paperback)
I cannot understand why some reviewers gave this book a low rating unless they did not take time to really read it and think. The book requires you to think so make sure you are prepared to do that. I found that when I read it a second time it really clicked.

I always wondered how the core of a computer really works. I know how to program, but what actually happens in the circuitry? How does it work? If you want to know this, this is the only book I have ever found which actually explains it. "Pattern on the Stone" is good for concepts, but this book is far more explicit and puts it all together. I dare you to find a better explanation anywhere for how a processor actually works as comprehensive and simple as this.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Book, April 29, 2003
By 
Victor Hugo Castro (Irvine, California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory (Paperback)
This is a great book for anyone who has ever wanted to know how computers really work. The book starts from scratch and is suitable for the complete beginner and yet complex enough that even the best hardware guru would be intrigued. I'm a Computer Science Major and I wish that my upper division hardware class would use this book, its great! It's straight to the point and is very clear in its concepts. I would definitely recommend this book.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars It's THE BOOK to understand how computers work..., February 15, 2007
By 
Carlos J. A. Pereira (Ilheus, Bahia, Brasil) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Computers Work: Processor and Main Memory (Paperback)
... and maybe construct a simple one!
I simply just not understand the negative reviews this book has had. It is just WONDERFUL! It starts with a very simple circuit, and go on adding ideas, one step at time, building a computer from its inner parts! Of course, some parts are more difficult than others, but just give it a second and third read...
This is the book I have been searching, as a computer science teacher, to create more interesting material to my students.
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