Learning the very low level aspects of a computer?
I'm trying to learn a bit about the REALLY low aspects about a computer. To start out fun I've actually messed around a bit with how making a redstone computer in Minecraft works. How close can I get this to the real thing (I'm pretty doubtful that they work almost identically)? On a side note, I've been considering getting a Raspberry Pi. Can anyone tell me about this? It looks pretty interesting, especially for only $35.
I love it as a toy but I have spent almost 90£ on it altogether!
First I bought a little tft for 15$ and pulled it apart, theres usually an input for 5volt usb in them, you just solder it on ourself,
then i bought a wifi dongle (10£) that was supposed to work on the RPI, It doesn't, because my USB battery pack (£25) cant support the extra power the USB ports need, so I bought a powered USB (5£) and a bluetooth keyboard (5£) (plus RPI and a few cables for setting up/running headless and thats 90£!) so I could have pulled apart an old netbook really :/
but I can have it all up in an old cd wallet, so I can unzip and mess about, I was thinking it would be fun to hid a computer in a book, with a screen hidden behind he first page and he workings opened up from the back (held shut tidily with magnets :D)but why I went through that hassle and forgot about it? I will build some circuitry for it and get it doing something useful one day though I hope, I was thinking HAL2000 for the house.
Oh yeah and the powered usb doesnt work, it powers the raspberry PI up through its USB tottaly by mistake causing it to reject its normal power supply and reset, so it just blinks on and off, very annoying
First I bought a little tft for 15$ and pulled it apart, theres usually an input for 5volt usb in them, you just solder it on ourself,
then i bought a wifi dongle (10£) that was supposed to work on the RPI, It doesn't, because my USB battery pack (£25) cant support the extra power the USB ports need, so I bought a powered USB (5£) and a bluetooth keyboard (5£) (plus RPI and a few cables for setting up/running headless and thats 90£!) so I could have pulled apart an old netbook really :/
but I can have it all up in an old cd wallet, so I can unzip and mess about, I was thinking it would be fun to hid a computer in a book, with a screen hidden behind he first page and he workings opened up from the back (held shut tidily with magnets :D)but why I went through that hassle and forgot about it? I will build some circuitry for it and get it doing something useful one day though I hope, I was thinking HAL2000 for the house.
Oh yeah and the powered usb doesnt work, it powers the raspberry PI up through its USB tottaly by mistake causing it to reject its normal power supply and reset, so it just blinks on and off, very annoying
Last edited on
closed account (G309216C)
Hi Austin,
I have never ever tried or bought Raspberri Pi but I heard they are awesome.
If you wish to learn Low Level Aspects of Computing I will first say Hardware in Computer so how to assembly the peices to make a Computer it can take up to 20 days but majority of people learn that in few days , 10 - 11 it is quite easy.
Then I suggest you learn Assembly & Driver Programming which gives you the status Techno-functional which is a very good achievement in some Companies it is well respect and look at speaking in Employment Area.
Good Luck
I have never ever tried or bought Raspberri Pi but I heard they are awesome.
If you wish to learn Low Level Aspects of Computing I will first say Hardware in Computer so how to assembly the peices to make a Computer it can take up to 20 days but majority of people learn that in few days , 10 - 11 it is quite easy.
Then I suggest you learn Assembly & Driver Programming which gives you the status Techno-functional which is a very good achievement in some Companies it is well respect and look at speaking in Employment Area.
Good Luck
If you mean assemble the computer as in, here's a motherboard, here's a RAM slot, put the RAM in the RAM slot etc. then I'm good there. It's not difficult assembling the parts as long as you make sure everything is compatible.
I'm interested in learning the really gritty stuff on how RAM cards, CPU's etc. work. I'm not expecting to be making parts, I just mean having a basic understanding of what the engineers handle.
I haven't gotten into assembly yet, I'll get there sometime, meanwhile pure C is the lowest level thing I can use.
I'm interested in learning the really gritty stuff on how RAM cards, CPU's etc. work. I'm not expecting to be making parts, I just mean having a basic understanding of what the engineers handle.
I haven't gotten into assembly yet, I'll get there sometime, meanwhile pure C is the lowest level thing I can use.
closed account (N36fSL3A)
Why don't you start by making a 4 bit computer out of transistors? I'd recommend learning assembly (which I've looked into) to get a basic Idea of how computers work.
Do you know where I can purchase the needed items? I have feeling tiger direct won't quite cut it.
Unless you plan to design computer chips, learning the little tiny parts of how computers work isn't very useful. You should look into logic gates and electronics; see if you can build some interesting circuits that perform basic tasks.
Last edited on
I think using minecraft for such emulation is too much,use some other *Emulation* software e.g. logicsim.
DO NOT try to make your computer(first) by hand , start with a simulation , will reduce much overhead.
It is not easy to do so using transistors. If you just want to learn use a simulator then thought of using transistors.
It is a headache to even make a simple 4-bit adder using transistors ,takes much more time and effort than a simulation.
Talking about learning how each thing works then you have to do quite some research on your own,I have never found a resource where you can learn all the aspects of low-level hardware details etc. together.
Though I suggest you go this path :
How transistors Work -> Logic Gates -> Making them using transistors and resistors -> Compound system using logic gates and constructs(e.g. flip-flops,adders,multiplexers,demuxers,en/decoders etc.) -> Processor architecture (start with schematics of old and basic processors) -> ...
Side readings : RAM and other computer parts articles on wikipedia etc.
EDIT:It seems this is quite old , i didn't see the date before.Sorry for reviving an old topic.
DO NOT try to make your computer(first) by hand , start with a simulation , will reduce much overhead.
It is not easy to do so using transistors. If you just want to learn use a simulator then thought of using transistors.
It is a headache to even make a simple 4-bit adder using transistors ,takes much more time and effort than a simulation.
Talking about learning how each thing works then you have to do quite some research on your own,I have never found a resource where you can learn all the aspects of low-level hardware details etc. together.
Though I suggest you go this path :
How transistors Work -> Logic Gates -> Making them using transistors and resistors -> Compound system using logic gates and constructs(e.g. flip-flops,adders,multiplexers,demuxers,en/decoders etc.) -> Processor architecture (start with schematics of old and basic processors) -> ...
Side readings : RAM and other computer parts articles on wikipedia etc.
EDIT:It seems this is quite old , i didn't see the date before.Sorry for reviving an old topic.
Last edited on
Topic archived. No new replies allowed.