HAPPY BOOKSGIVING
Use code BOOKSGIVING during checkout to save 40%-55% on books and eBooks. Shop now.
This eBook includes the following formats, accessible from your Account page after purchase:
EPUB The open industry format known for its reflowable content and usability on supported mobile devices.
PDF The popular standard, used most often with the free Acrobat® Reader® software.
This eBook requires no passwords or activation to read. We customize your eBook by discreetly watermarking it with your name, making it uniquely yours.
Also available in other formats.
Register your product to gain access to bonus material or receive a coupon.
The Evolution of Technology
Having sold more than 2 million copies over its lifetime, How Computers Work is the definitive illustrated guide to the world of PCs and technology. In this new edition, you’ll find detailed information not just about PCs, but about how changes in technology have evolved the giant, expensive computer dinosaurs of last century into the smaller but more powerful smartphones, tablets, and wearable computing of today. Whether your interest is in business, gaming, digital photography, entertainment, communications, or security, you’ll learn how computing is evolving the way you live.
A full-color, illustrated adventure into the wonders of TECHNOLOOGY
This full-color, fully illustrated guide to the world of technology assumes nothing and explains everything. Only the accomplished and award-winning team of writer Ron White and artist Tim Downs has the unique ability to meld descriptive text with one-of-a-kind visuals to fully explain how the electronic gear we depend on every day is made possible. In addition to all the content you’ve come to expect from prior editions, this newly revised edition includes all-new coverage of topics such as:
• How smartphones and tablet PCs put the power of a desktop computer in your hands–literally
• How computing technology is linking our homes, work place, entertainment, and daily communications
• How advances such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, eBay, and smartphones are expanding our universe of friends, knowledge, and opportunity
• How increased miniaturization leads to new products, such as smartphone, smartwatches, and Google Glass
• How computing technology takes advantages of quantum physics and innovations no one even imagined a few years ago
For two decades, How Computers Work has helped newbies understand new technology, while hackers and IT pros have treasured it for the depth of knowledge it contains. This is the perfect book about computing to capture your imagination, delight your eyes, and expand your mind, no matter what your technical level!
Beautifully detailed illustrations and jargon-free explanations walk you through the technology that is shaping our lives. See the hidden workings inside computers, smartphones, tablets, Google Glass, and the latest tech inventions.
Table of Contents
Introduction ...............................................................................................................xvii
Part 1: What Makes a Computer a Computer 2
Chapter 1: The Ghostly LEGOs of Computing .................................................................6
How Waves Take the Universe on a Joy Ride .........................................................8
How Information Rides the Waves ......................................................................10
How Electromagnetism Is the Ghost in the Machine .............................................12
How We Control Electricity ................................................................................14
How Computers Create Our World Using Numbers .............................................16
Chapter 2: How Computers Remember ........................................................................18
How a Little Transistor Does Big Jobs ..................................................................20
Writing Data to RAM ........................................................................................22
Reading Data from RAM ...................................................................................24
How Flash Memory Remembers When the Switch is Off ......................................26
Chapter 3: How a Little Microprocessor Does Big Things ...............................................28
How a Processor Tracks Numbers .......................................................................32
How a Processor Does Math ..............................................................................34
How a Processor Moves Data ............................................................................36
How Multi-Core Processors Work .......................................................................38
How Desktop CPUs Keep It Complex ..................................................................40
How Mobile CPUs Keep It Simple .......................................................................41
Chapter 4: How Motherboards Conduct a Symphony of Data .........................................42
How a Motherboard Brings It All Together ..........................................................46
How the Chipset Directs Traffic ...........................................................................48
How PCI-Express Breaks the Bus Barrier ..............................................................50
Part 2: Software—The Computer’s Own Poetry 52
Chapter 5: How Words Are Stitched into Programs .......................................................64
How a Program Is a Roadmap ...........................................................................68
How Software Interpreters Generate Action......................