Computers

[scameter]

I have been pondering the workings of a computer and how it performs those workings, but i just can't get it. i can understand lasers, plasma, space ships, robots; but not computers. can someone explain them, or at least the PC, to me?

[sonrisa]

ya got me. I can point & click, copy, paste, & most certainly delete! Any geeks out there?

[a random hack]

am not a geek, am a nerd, will that do?
:think:

[sonrisa]

Random-u b 2 cool 2 b a nerd! B)
but if u can tell us bout puters....

find sum new digs yet?

[Thomas Knierim]

scameter: can someone explain them, or at least the PC, to me?

17 years ago I studied informatics in Kaiserslautern, a beautiful small town located in the middle of the expansive forests of the Pfalz. It took me two years to understand how computers work, starting from digital logic to CPU architecture, internal/peripheral components, operating system, programming languages, and software design.

Today, a home typical home PC is more complex than back then. The principles are still the same, but the complexity of components and software has increased dramatically. What I am saying is: I doubt it is possible to explain how a computer works in just a few sentences. It would take one or two good books.

Cheers, Thomas

[scameter]

really? i knew they were complicated, but i didn't know they were that complicated. could you just explain the monitor to me?

[abba]

scameter

Let's start very simply. If you are a man, you can pee & write your name in the snow by aiming with your fingers as the stream comes out. The snow that shows the result isn't smart, it just receives the pee. The pee isn't smart, neither is the penis, or the fingers. It's the brain that sends the signals that "creates" the picture.

In the case of the monitor, it's entirely dumb - it's the signals that are received from the PC that determine the pattern that shows on the <s>snow</s>, oops, screen.

A stream of electrons is what is impacting on the back of the monitor's screen. Where each electron hits, it leaves a mark (that stays for an instant). And the "fingers" aiming the electrons are sets of electromagnetic plates. The direction of the electrons in the stream are bent by being attracted and repulsed by the magnetic fields setup by the plates. And what controls the plates being on/off, and attractive/repulsive, and the strength of field.... are the signals from the PC.

The signal patterns are setup, and the electron stream scans the whole monitor screen very fast - and again - and again. The same principle applies to a TV, except a PC monitor has much finer detail because the electron stream is being controlled in much more detail than a TV.

Each time you hit a key to type a letter, the scanning pattern for that letter (at the desired location!) is sent by the PC as a signal to the monitor.

Flat-screen monitors can operate on 2 different display principles.
(1) The screen is like a field of holes with lids over them. The back of the screen is "illuminated" continuously by electrical stimulation. The signals from the PC open/close the "lids" to allow illumination to pass from the back to the front of the screen.
(2) The screen is a field of tiny elements that are individually "wired" to directly stimulate each individual element to give light - like a field of light-bulbs. Flat-screens have no stream of electrons, so they don't need the deep vacuum tube to handle the stream.

Don't ask about color. :huh: Ain't technology neat?

[mctonale]

Found this when considernig studying java

http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/language...notes/c1/s1.htm (http://burks.brighton.ac.uk/burks/language/java/jnotes/c1/s1.htm)

May not be exactly what your looking for but informative.