Each variable type is bits, but how does the compiler store them in machine code? Is the variable type like a tag that follows the number everywhere ( processor, memory, HDD etc. )?

I’ll make a comment that has to do less with programming( it’s the lounge ) and more with common sense. I’ll give you a cultural example. If you say numbers and words are different basic types that’s not true. The Old Covenant for instance is about both words and numbers. If you take the Eastern Orthodox Church and Chinese culture that’s conflicting basic types. EOC is very sign oriented ( the cross for instance) the Chinese culture is very sign oriented as well. It’s a mismatch. (that’s not a problem because the two don’t meet in real life anyways.)

>This is something I have been fighting I know it’s an important problem. If you don’t understand that it’s like having a car which has doors that don’t close properly.

Thank you guys. I’m going to stop bugging you with my questions, at least for now.

What does driver development look like? What language do they use? Do they use machine code? Physically the exchange between the motherboard and an extension board is raw bits. Do they convert that to human readable numbers when they write drivers? Is a machine instruction a 32 bit word/variable? And yet another question. Processor machine instructions. Processor Alu deals with true numbers not machine instructions. The type of operation ( addition, substraction etc.) might be a machine instruction but everything else is just numbers. There are other areas of the processor that are mostly machine instruction oriented. Is that how it works?

I’ve had a good time reading that

I have a question about PC motherboards. What is the purpose of all the chips on a motherboard. Some of them help various slots to function but I’m wondering if there is a hierarchy among them. Is there a top motherboard chip that governs the communication between the CPU and everything else found on the motherboard ( slots, drives, ports etc)? How does the Operating System perform I/O operations? Does he talk directly to the Hard Drive or is the communication mediated by the motherboard? If I want to make my own OS how do I talk with the Hard Drive from Assembly?

I’m learning a lot from your posts tronderen. Thank you for taking the time to write down thorough explanations. I bet there are other newbies around too who find them useful

Does a clocked digital circuit board have “cells” resembling CPU registers, something that plays as persistent memory between flashes/waves of current. I’m just trying to visualize how a board you plug into a motherboard works. In the short blackout between cycles information has to be kept somewhere.

Off topic electronics question: Digital circuit means that it is clock based, the circuit board functions at a certain clock frequency. A washing machine digital circuit board functions at a certain clock rate just like a PC motherboard. Is that true?

I find that very interesting

What happens if a driver developer sends a command to a sound board ( just a random pick) which the board doesn’t recognize/doesn’t know how to handle? Could that cause a crash of the sound board and require a restart? If the data on the sound board gets corrupted could that make the entire OS unstable?

How was switching from one generation of languages to another? Was it a hurdle or a natural evolution as the computers got better.

Can you tell an approximate timeframe for when C took over? Was Dos written in C?

What was the mainstream programming language before C took the lead?

Quote:

In the old days (DOS), applications relied on the drivers that are part of the BIOS

How did that function? I don't understand much about hardware or driver programming and I'm looking to broaden my horizons. Without a driver the CPU doesn't know the 'love language' of the equipment that sits in a slot. But only the equipment producer knows how to address the piece of hardware it has produced. Is there a universal language that works for all video cards, sound boards etc.? Back in the old days (and even today I think, I'm not sure I've only had laptops in recent years) a slot like PCI matched hardware from different categories how did that work?

Thank you for taking the time to reply tronderen, that’s an interesting post.

Does bios function like an operating system? It captures keyboard input, has the ability to display characters on screen, on my laptop it even displays animations. All this is done without using drivers. What does the battery on the motherboard do? Does it help keep the bios always loaded in memory or is the bios booted from permanent memory when you turn on the PC? Bios uses the processor to function hence it must be written in assembly, is that how it works?

I get the picture, thank you

I’m trying to get a better understanding of how RAM memory works. I brought up this question before. This time I’m trying to find out a little bit more. There is no optical fiber on the motherboard hence in the scenario where you want to place 32 bits in memory if you want to send them at one time you need 32 copper lines connecting the CPU socket to the memory slots. What happens if you want to send more information. Let’s say you want to send four 32 bit integers. Before sending the actual data does the CPU ( the Operating System) use the same 32 lines to instruct the memory slots where should the integers about to be sent be placed? How does the memory know the address range in which it should place the four integers?