How Computers Work

Having sold more than 2 million copies over its lifetime, it is the definitive illustrated guide to the world of PCs and technology. In this new edition, you’ll find detailed information not just about PCs, but about how changes in technology have evolved the giant, expensive computer dinosaurs of last century into the smaller but more powerful smartphones, tablets, and wearable computing of today. Whether your interest is in business, gaming, digital photography, entertainment, communications, or security, you’ll learn how computing is evolving the way you live. Only the accomplished and award-winning team of writer has the unique ability to meld descriptive text with one-of-a-kind visuals to fully explain how the electronic gear we depend on every day is made possible. In addition to all the content you’ve come to expect from prior editions, this newly revised edition includes all-new coverage of topics such as:

1. The Ghostly LEGOs of Computing

How Waves Take the Universe on a Joy Ride, How Information Rides the Waves
How Electromagnetism Is the Ghost in the Machine
How We Control Electricity
How Computers Create Our World Using Numbers

2. How Computers Remember

How a Little Transistor Does Big Jobs
Writing Data to RAM
Reading Data from RAM
How Flash Memory Remembers When the Switch is Off

3. How a Little Microprocessor Does Big Things

How a Processor Tracks Numbers
How a Processor Does Math
How a Processor Moves Data
How Multi-Core Processors Work
How Desktop CPUs Keep It Complex
How Mobile CPUs Keep It Simple

4. How Motherboards Conduct a Symphony of Data

How a Motherboard Brings It All Together
How the Chipset Directs Traffic
How PCI-Express Breaks the Bus Barrier

5. How Words Are Stitched into Programs

How a Program Is a Roadmap
How Software Interpreters Generate Action
How a Compiler Churns Out Software

6. How Applications Work So You Can Play

How Text SHOUTS and Whispers
How Databases Track Everything
How Databases Pack it In
How Databases Make Connections
How Spreadsheets Solve Formulas
How Numbers Become Pictures
How Art Is Compressed to Save Space
How Imaging Software Paints by Numbers
How Photo Editors Revive Old Memories
How Apps Fuel Mobile Devices

7. How Games Create New Worlds

How Computers Plot a 3D World
How 3D Gets Dressed
How Shaders Control the World
How Games Populate New Worlds

8. How Security Software Fights Off Invaders

How Computer Hackers Break In
How Spyware Reports Everything You Do
How Viruses Invade Your Computer
How Viruses Hitch Rides in Your Email
How Antivirus Software Fights Back
How Firewalls Keep Hackers Out
How Spammers Find You
How Antispam Software Sniffs Out Phony Email
How Prime Numbers Protect Prime Secrets

9. The Origins of Computer DNA

Fossils of the Premobilian Era
Persistent Relics: The Mouse
Persistent Relics: The Keyboard
How the Workaday Floppy Drive Ruled
How the CRT Was the Grande Dame of Displays
How the Impact Printer Was Right on the Spot
The Unlikely Progenitor to the Internet: The Dialup Modem
How Cabling Was Worse: Serial
How Cabling Was Worse: Parallel
How the Power Supply Hasn’t Changed
How the iPhone Made It Slick

10. How Small Mutations Pay Off Big

How USB Really Is Universal
How Little Bits Add Up to Big Changes
How File Compression Makes Files Smaller
How Solid State Drives Command the Instant
How Solid State Drives Take Out the Trash
How PCs Use Light to Remember
How Optical Disc Drives Write with Light

11. Honey, I’ve Shrunk the PC...

How Computers Get Smaller… and Better
How iPods Dish Out Media
How eInk Puts Words on Your eReader
How All Those Smarts Got Packed into a Smartphone
How Google Glass Makes Us Cyborgs

12. Evolution of the Super Computer

How Video Cards Break the Game Barrier
How Overclocking Multiplies Time
How a PC Keeps Its Cool
How Advanced Cooling Refrigerates Your PC
How Jailbreaking Frees Your Devices

13. How Cameras Capture Memories

How Digital Cameras Capture the Moment
How Autofocus Clears the Picture
How Cameras Choose an Exposure

14. How We Stay in Touch

How Your Smartphone Knows Where You Are
How Devices Recognize Our Touch
How Glass Becomes Strong and Supple
How Game Controllers Let You Play
How Game Controllers Let You Feel the Force
How Smartphones Get Good Vibrations
How Devices Capture Light
How a Flatbed Simplifies Scanning
How Codes Keep Track of Everything (Everything!)
How Optical Character Recognition Works

15. How a Computer Creates Visions

How an LCD Creates Glowing Colors
How Plamsa Displays Glow
How DLP Spins Colors
How OLED Lights Up a New Generation of Displays
How 3D Makes You Duck

16. How Computers Tickle Your Ears

How Your Device Listens
How Speakers Sound Off
How Digital Sound Tricks Your Ear
How 3D Audio Surrounds You

17. How Networks Tie Computers Together

How Computers Connect to Each Other
How Data Travels Between Computers
How Wi-Fi Makes the Internet Portable
How Bluetooth Keeps Devices Connected
How NFC Lets Smart Devices Make Close Calls

18. How the Internet Brings Us the World

How Broadband Crams in the Data
How DSL Turbocharges a Phone Line
How Cable Brings the Internet to Your Neighborhood
How Fiber Optics Lights Up the Future
How Computers Make Phone Calls
How Cellular Evolved
How Networks Talk with Each Other
How Information Travels the Internet
How Online Services Serenade You
How Movies Flow into Your Home

19. How the Web Puts It All at Your Fingertips

How a Browser Opens Pages
How a Browser Displays Web Pages
How Cookies Trade Crumbs of Data
How Google Knows Everything
How eBay Sells Everything

20. How We Keep in Touch the Internet Way

How Email Outraces Snail Mail
How Facebook Lets Your Cat Go Viral
How Twitter Changes Communication
How Internet File Sharing Works
How BitTorrents Spread the Wealth
How Clouds Encompass Us All

21. How Black and White Printing Works

How Printers Make Cookie Cutter Text
How Outline Fonts Set the Imagination Free
How a Printer Writes with Light

22. Printing Gutenberg Never Imagined

How Printers Create Color
Ho an Ink-jet Sprays Images
How a Printer Spits Out Photographs
How a Laser Printer Creates in Color
How a Solid Ink Color Printer Works
How Printers Create in 3D

RON WHITE