Update: Here are a few other great resources. This page has a nice embedded video, along with some great downloadable sortware+video tutorials to simulate your own logic circuits: https://sebastian.itch.io/digital-logic-sim
And, if you want to see a guy build a computer from scratch, you can check that out here: https://eater.net/8bit/
Maybe someday, when I have nothing else to do, I'll give it a whirl with electronic components. However, I think it would be cooler to "find" a computer out in the real world.
I've always been a huge fan of computers, but it had always been somewhat of a mystery to me about how they work. In essence, I never understood them well enough to build one from scratch, therefore I felt that I didn't understand them whatsoever.
I wondered, why are modern computers set up in terms of a CPU/RAM/HD architecture and how is that related to a Turing Machine? How is information encoded and interpreted? What are the historical reasons for popular computer components and architectures?
Why RAM? Why CPU? Why have a separate hard drive and RAM chipset? Why is everything based on binary transistors?
At work, my colleagues recommended some great videos that answered all my questions! This last month was so insightful and cool that I want to share it with you.
Below is the first video series, which is something like 15 videos long. It will take a while to go through, but it is well worth the time spent. Take a look! It will answer all of your computer questions. By the end, you'll have a really good sense about how computers work and why they're set up the way they are:
Let's see a more detailed example of a computer from the 1960's, namely, the Saturn V rocket's computer. What's really cool about this video is that they show you exactly how the memory modules are constructed and how they operated to store encoded information:
Did you hear Dr. Talley say that they only had 10 miscomparisons between the two memory copies? That's a really low number! The logic was triple-checked and the memory was double checked as the rocket flew.
Last summer, I visited the Saturn V rocket in Huntsville with my family. I had a blast learning about the computer from the volunteers and looking at the little parts with my own eyes:
Here's one sheet of the memory module up close. Women actually wove this by hand! That must have been difficult. But it made a lot of sense that they would hire textile crafters for these types of tasks. Textile workers were some of the very first human computers because they understood algorithms based on their experiences with weaving:
Each bit is so tiny!
Again, I love computers. This makes me wonder about all the possible ways computers could be built. I like to think that houses are computers in some kind of way. What do they compute? They allow humans to perform certain tasks easily. These tasks include sleep, stay warm, take showers, cook food, etc. We don't put objects down in our houses randomly, we put certain things in certain rooms, and we have separate areas for specific tasks. The physical state of the house has a direct relationship with the tasks that people inside can perform, and to what degree of efficiency!
I love it when people build computers in strange systems. In this video, someone builds a computer with logic gates in Conways' Game of Life. You'll also see a quad-core computer implemented in Minecraft:
What about other physical systems, particularly those used by living systems that are non-human? How is in anthill like a computer? Do other animals and creatures modify their environment to be able to perform certain tasks easier? I love thinking about these questions. Maybe someday, we'll know the answer.
