Are there people out there who 100% understand how a computer works?

[Maximilian]

I dont mean a general abstract "yeah X happens because of Y" I mean 100% understand and be able to explain in detail every single layer from the ones and zeros the transistors represent on the CPU up through every layer of software to the stuff we're looking at on the screen.

Or is it more like nobody does because its gotten so complex but several people together as a group would understand it?

Just thinking about how comps actually work and even a small thing like how the cursor is able to move around the screen leads to more questions which again lead to more questions, the complexity behind the thing as a whole seems pretty staggering.

 

[2timer]

Lol. I'm sorry but the way you phrased your question plus looking at your avatar made me laugh lol

Answer your question yes, there are some people who understand everything about a computer from hardware to software. But there are also many types of computers and programming languages, so while a person may be familiar with the implemented principles of computer science in general, they may not be familiar with every single design of hardware and software that exists.

 

[DominionSeraph]

No. If someone understood it all, we'd have a Grand Unified Theory. They'd also have to break Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

 

[sm625]

It took a while to fully grasp how interrupts and DMA transfers are handled. Now the most confusing thing is windows services, but that's not really computers. That is Windows. Windows is the fud they put on a computer to keep you from understanding it.

There is no way anyone knows everything about windows. Not when you can have a process running on your machine and that process can be made invisible even to task manager. I know enough about windows to know that every single connected machine could be capturing screen shots at regular intervals and sending them to microsoft (or someplace worse) in a way that would be undetectable to us. Many a nerd would say "no no no that's not possible, we would see the traffic, bla bla bla". Not necessarily. There is so much traffic that any part of it could be the conduit for encrypted traffic, including low res encrypted screen shots.

 

[BrightCandle]

I could in theory go from first principles to building a computer, I have done a lot of the hardware and software elements. I understand how to make CPUs, fabricate them, design and build the PCB they go onto and have written the low level software to boot an OS and do basic operations. So in theory I can explain to the nth degree how any thing works. But I can't see inside of proprietry software, so how specifically Windows does something is much harder than how Linux would handle something, and that understanding through the OS would take quite a bit of time.

One book many people who ask about this find very beneficial is simple called CODE ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Langua...1319/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363360821&sr=8-2). It goes over the general encoding used within processors and builds up transistors from the raw physical element and explanation right the way up to putting them together to form adders and buses and such. It is a good book on getting the theory moved into the basic practical without too much starting knowledge.

But to build a machine of todays complexity and all its software takes many millions of human hours to achieve, it is far more complex than of us realise.

 

[Maximilian]

Hmm so there are people who understand the hardware fully, christ that must take some brainpower, i cant even begin to fathom how on/off switches can form the stuff im looking at on screen. I had a look at some assembly code once and it was gibberish to me

I don't know if ill ever need to as a wannabe java developer but ive always liked to at least have a vague idea of how things work.

 

[Hitman928]

I could in theory go from first principles to building a computer, I have done a lot of the hardware and software elements. I understand how to make CPUs, fabricate them, design and build the PCB they go onto and have written the low level software to boot an OS and do basic operations. So in theory I can explain to the nth degree how any thing works. But I can't see inside of proprietry software, so how specifically Windows does something is much harder than how Linux would handle something, and that understanding through the OS would take quite a bit of time.

One book many people who ask about this find very beneficial is simple called CODE ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/Code-Langua...1319/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363360821&sr=8-2). It goes over the general encoding used within processors and builds up transistors from the raw physical element and explanation right the way up to putting them together to form adders and buses and such. It is a good book on getting the theory moved into the basic practical without too much starting knowledge.

But to build a machine of todays complexity and all its software takes many millions of human hours to achieve, it is far more complex and than of us realise.

+1

If you want to know, could 1 person take you step by step through a technical explanation of how a computer is built, sure. Could 1 person build an extremely basic "computer" with limitted functionality, yes. Could 1 person design, fab, build, and program a modern computer that would be in any way acceptable to modern consumers? No. That's why you have teams of engineers/programmers at each step with decades of experience all contributing to make what we have today.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I know a fellow like that. His father worked for IBM in like ... the 50s through the 80s. He himself worked at Bell Labs/ATT for like 20 years, and currently works with me (albeit on another team, and at a higher paygrade). The guy is almost old enough to be my father, but, he pretty much knows everything I know, and then everything I don't know as well.

 

[UaVaj]

isn't it easier to just spend $300 on an i7 and not have to know exactly how it works. just has to work.

that $300 is money well spent vs the money on brain damage recovery due to trying to learn how it actually works.

 

[Eureka]

Because there are some of us who actually want to know how things work.

For most practical applications, it really isn't that complicated to figure out the basics. Sure, I can't go past the molecular level, and I can't explain a lot of the layers in any detail, but I have an understanding of transistor theory, and from there I can go through digital logic up through the user interface. My knowledge is lacking in a lot of these layers but I can at least grasp higher level concepts.

To fully build what we have, requires the sum of knowledge applied en masse. The difficulty is not in understanding but in perfecting and producing the different layers required to build a computer. I can figure out a simple logic table and build a NAND circuit, but to build a full APU (on paper) is something that will take me a bit of time, and to do it on a large enough scale to produce an x86 processor, that would take an obscene amount of time. But it is beyond the capabilities of one person? Not at all, and I don't consider myself particularly knowledgeable when it comes to computing.

There are people who have build x86 computers using breadboard circuits, to show that it really isn't that complicated if you take the time. A lot of modern computing is just application and repetition. Especially since the theory is now already developed, it takes a lot less time to read it and to replicate something than was required to create it. Now to take that knowledge and reapply it is something else.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I've always thought it would be neat to get deeper and learn exactly how they work.

I really think colleges should actually teach this stuff, but they seem to add filler courses and BS that really does not matter instead.

I've always thought it would be neat to actually build a primitive computer from scratch. Something like the univac but much smaller.

 

[Eureka]

I've always thought it would be neat to get deeper and learn exactly how they work.

I really think colleges should actually teach this stuff, but they seem to add filler courses and BS that really does not matter instead.

I've always thought it would be neat to actually build a primitive computer from scratch. Something like the univac but much smaller.

They do.. Take a computer engineering degree at a good university...

 

[cubby1223]

Simple answer? No.

There is no single person who knows everything about a computer.

Perhaps at a certain level there are people who know almost everything, like you have the chemical level, the transistor level, digital circuitry level, hardware level, software level, etc.

But everything is just not possible.

 

[piasabird]

The knowledge is a moving target. It is constantly developing at an ever increasing pace. Just when a company thinks they developed something nice like the fastest processor there is a need for a computer like a tablet that uses the least amount of power possible. Then some smarty pants decides an SSD that is economical is within reach and all hard drives should be obselete. Computer standards quite often prohibit faster development of products.

If you look at the development of Apple Products most of the big name players and even the Corporate and the infrastructure people said the i-phone represented a threat to Networks and it would not be accepted. However, they were all wrong and it revolutionized the the computer industry. So what did Apple really do? They ignored the standards committes and developed a product anyway. We need more companies like Apple that can push the envelope. Now what we need to do is get rid of these large clunky DVD Drives.

 

[007ELmO]

lol at his avatar! i'm a computer programmer (software) and I've dealt with hardware a lot, so I do know most of the basic architectures...

 

[JTsyo]

While in college a lot of my friends were getting dual degrees, Computer Engineering (hardware) and Computer Science (software). I imagine between the two degrees, they got all the basics on both.

 

[Maximilian]

Nobody likes my avatar lol

 

[Hitman928]

There are people who have build x86 computers using breadboard circuits, to show that it really isn't that complicated if you take the time. A lot of modern computing is just application and repetition. Especially since the theory is now already developed, it takes a lot less time to read it and to replicate something than was required to create it. Now to take that knowledge and reapply it is something else.

Any examples of this? Even intel's original 8086 processor had around 30000 transistors, back in the 70's. That would be hard to fit on a bread board, even a simplified model.

 

[Sheep221]

Any examples of this? Even intel's original 8086 processor had around 30000 transistors, back in the 70's. That would be hard to fit on a bread board, even a simplified model.

He probably meant it as CPU and all the parts still being standalone and only connected together via breadboard.

Technically computers aren't that complex, everyone who works with electronics knows how computer works.
The software part is abit more complex for its diversity and wide range of programming languages, but it's aint a big deal either.
So many people who don't know shit about computers have their computer science degree now.

Edit: For me 100% knowledge doesn't really exist, the smart people know how to think about stuff and raw information(formulas, schematics, drawings or procedures) they need in the mean time, will find in files, sheets and other sources so they necessarily don't hold them in the head.

 

[DanDaManJC]

Yeah, basically any electrical engineering student who focused on computer engineering as a focus will have a general understanding of the hardware all the way up to the software. Many EE students have also taken a few more physics courses than the average CS kid so they may even understand the underlying, physical, nature of the transistors

 

[wirednuts]

I know the basics of how a computer works. I know how silicon transistors are made and how they operate, and I know how integrated circuit boards are made and how the components operate, and I understand how patterns of 1's and 0's are compiled into code, and I also understand how light is manipulated from electrical signals into photo optics that allow you to see whats going on.

but if you ask me any real details, I would seem pretty dumb. especially on the software side.

 

[Eureka]

Any examples of this? Even intel's original 8086 processor had around 30000 transistors, back in the 70's. That would be hard to fit on a bread board, even a simplified model.

Whoops, not x86. http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/homebrewed-cpu/

But the idea is that you can still build a CPU out of basic wire and breadboards, given enough time and repetition.

 

[colonelciller]

no


:=)

 

[hackedhead]

Yes. One day junior year as a Electrical Engineer with a focus is computer I realized. I know the physics behind transistors. I know the steps to design transistor circuits into logical functional blocks. I know the process of assembling logical blocks (think adder, register, timer, etc) into a chip. I know how the chip fab process works (chemical deposition and lithography). I know how the firmware works (op codes/instruction sets defining circuit behavior). I know how assembly relates to instruction sets. I know how code is compiled to assembly/machine code. I know how code is leveraged to build and operating system. I know how chips are designed to interact with the each other system (interrupts, ports, modem, USB, keyboard). I know how the TFT or CRT monitor works. I know how the keyboard works.

There are people out there.

 

[colonelciller]

Yes. One day junior year as a Electrical Engineer with a focus is computer I realized. I know the physics behind transistors. I know the steps to design transistor circuits into logical functional blocks. I know the process of assembling logical blocks (think adder, register, timer, etc) into a chip. I know how the chip fab process works (chemical deposition and lithography). I know how the firmware works (op codes/instruction sets defining circuit behavior). I know how assembly relates to instruction sets. I know how code is compiled to assembly/machine code. I know how code is leveraged to build and operating system. I know how chips are designed to interact with the each other system (interrupts, ports, modem, USB, keyboard). I know how the TFT or CRT monitor works. I know how the keyboard works.

There are people out there.