How Computers Work, Ninth Edition

Chapter 5. How Transistors Manipulate Data

THE transistor is the basic building block from which all microchips are built. The transistor can only create binary information: a 1 if current passes through, or a 0 if current doesn’t pass through. From these 1s and 0s, called bits, a computer can create any number as long as it has enough transistors grouped together to hold all the 1s and 0s.

Binary notation starts off simply enough:

Decimal Number	Binary Number
0	0
1	1
2	10
3	11
4	100
5	101
6	110
7	111
8	1000
9	1001
10	1010

Personal computers, such as the original IBM PC and AT systems based on the Intel 8088 and 80286 microprocessors, are 16-bit PCs. That means they can ...