Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible, Sixth Edition

Chapter 5. Microprocessors

Microprocessors are the most complicated devices ever created by human beings. But don't despair. A microprocessor is complicated the same way a castle you might build from Legos is complicated. You can easily understand each of the individual parts of a microprocessor and how they fit together, just as you might build a fort or castle from a legion of blocks of assorted shapes. The metaphor is more apt than you might think. Engineers, in fact, design microprocessors as a set of functional blocks—not physical blocks like Legos, but blocks of electronic circuits that perform specific functions. And they don't fit them together on the floor of a giant playroom. Most of their work is mental, a lot of it performed on computers. ...