Computers

This page refers to Personal Computers (PCs) and not microcomputers or mainframe computers.

Main components of a computer:

Motherboard
Central Processing Unit (CPU)
Graphical Processing Unit (GPU)
Random Access Memory (RAM)
Storage device

Binary System

To process information computers use a binary system, in which all values are represented by only two states (0 for "off" and 1 for "on"). This smallest information unit of a computer is 1 Bit. To represent the characters used by the computer within the binary system, they use 8-digit dual numbers (= 1 Byte). This results in 256 characters that can be encoded, e.g., using ASCII.

1 Bit = 2¹ = 2 states (0 or 1)
1 Byte = 8 Bit = 2⁸ = 256 states

Note

8-Bit, 16-Bit, 32-Bit and 64-Bit computers refer to the number of Bits a processor can process at once.

ascii

Digital Logic

When processing information, the memory content is linked and stored in a new memory cell. This logical linking interprets a Bit as either "Yes" (1) or "No" (0) and uses semiconductor components to realize logical decisions:

logic

Hard- and Software

Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer, including keyboards, displays, external storage devices, graphics cards, etc.

Software programs allow users to communicate with the computer. Compilers and linkers translate the programs into machine code that can be processed by the processor and its units. One special program is the operating system.