How Computers Work, Ninth Edition

Before You Begin

THIS book has been written with a certain type of personal computer in mind—the Wintel, a PC most often built around an Intel processor and running Microsoft Windows. Many of the specifics in these explanations apply only to that class of computer and those components.

In more general terms, the explanations also apply to Macintosh computers, Unix workstations, and even minicomputers and mainframes. But I’ve made no attempt to devise universal explanations of how computers work. To do so would, of necessity, detract from the understanding that comes from inspecting specific components.

Even so, there is so much variety even within the Intel/Microsoft world of PCs that, at times, I’ve had to limit my explanations to particular instances ...