Your computer is just a smarter light bulb.

Warning! Might contain some useful information if you are from the Engineering field.

Remember (Part One) where we discussed the “Black Parts”/Transistors? No?

 

Don’t worry. I got your lazy ass covered.

 

Basically, what you would have learned if you had read the article is the core of computers, and why we work with 0s and 1s. 

 

Computers a just a box full of billions of transistors or “black parts” as we refer to them. 

 

These black parts can only be turned on or turned off. 

 

We basically tell it to either hold a voltage or not hold a voltage and, “ON” or “OFF” / 1 or 0.

And computers are full of these “black parts”/Transistors, billions of them in a single computer.

 

So that is the heart of a computer, billions of “black parts” turning on and off.

 

This is a short example of on and off states and it’s a dumbed-down version for you, in short “binary” or 0 and 1.

 

For example, here we look at 8 “black parts” that are on or off. 

 

 

Simple enough?

 

Now, let’s jump a bit forward and look at what generally see in our computers.

 

In a poor person’s computer (Windows), we generally see the processor name and @2.40 GHz or some number. 

 

We know that more GHz means faster and better computers, right? But how?

 

Think.

Think Again.

 

If you can answer, just close this tab and go, and never come back.

 

But if you can’t, well, well, well. 

 

Remember the black parts, the core of the computers that can just be in on-state or off-state / 0s and 1s.

 

We cannot have those black parts always on, can we? Why?

 

If we always had those black parts in ON state, what would the result look like, well just 1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111.

 

Yes, basically like a light bulb. Nothing to do! Just a dumb box.

 

Since, the computer is not just a light bulb, the transistors, “black parts” are turned on and off during processing.

 

Okay, so we turn it on and off then, how does it work then?

 

That is where the weird number beside the processor comes into play. Remember the number after the processor name like - 2.4GHz or some number. We call this the “Clock Speed”.

 

It means the computer can turn on and off all those black parts 2.4 Billion times a second. Yes, in a single second. That is when the dumb box changes into something intelligent.

 

For eg.

 

Every second, for each transistor, the “black part”, can be turned off and turned on, holding either 0 or 1.

 

 

All of these happen in one single second.

 

Each black box can be turned on and off billions of times every second.

 

Without this clock, your computer is just a light bulb. Just 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111.

 

Unless you are reading this from a light bulb, I am right.