How Computers Work??

Have you ever thought about the way your computer works when you are using it?
Well, for those who have and are unfamiliar with the processes;
we have this page just for you.

Computers work digitally All digital means is that a system stores and operates on information in a very specific way.In a digital system, every type of information is stored in a bit, or multiple collections of bits. A bit is a variable that can have only one of two values: it can either be a 1, or be a 0. The easiest way to think of a bit is 1 being on and 0 being off. Think of a light switch being turned on and off. The fact that a computer is digital allows the computer or anything that is digital for that matter, to only perform 3 things: set at 1, set at 0 or assign 1 or 0 to something.

  1. A Byte is a group of 8 bits
  2. A Kilobyte is a group of 1 thousand bytes
  3. A Megabyte is a group of 1 million bytes
  4. A Gigabyte is a group of 1 billion bytes

Three Subsystems of a computer
Now that we understand what a digital system and bits are, we can split a computer up in to three main subsystems:

  1. The Central Processing Unit, otherwise known as the CPU, looks at certain bits to determine what its being told to do, and once it figure out what that is it processes your request.
  2. Memorydoes exactly what its name implies; it remembers the values of bits. It can either store bits sent to it by the CPU or return the values of those bits back to the CPU. Hard disks and RAM are just two different kinds of memories, there are more; they both perform the same function, they just use different physical mediums to do so.
  3. The Input/Output (I/O for short) subsystem also does exactly what its name implies - it takes from the outside world and sends them to either the memory or the CPU, and it also takes bits and sends them back out. The keyboard, printer, speakers and the screen to name just a few are part of the I/O subsystem.

Operating System (OS)
The OS consists of background programs that enable applications software to run on a computer system's hardware devices. One of the most important pieces of systems software is the operating system. An operating system (OS) is a collection of programs that manage the computer's activities, i.e., assignment of system resources, scheduling of resources and jobs, and monitoring activities. Examples are Windows, Unix, OS/2, NetWare, etc.