• Question: how do they make computers?

    Asked by _Game_Name_938:) to Gavin, Karen, Mark, Michel, Roisin on 14 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Mark Kennedy

      Mark Kennedy answered on 14 Nov 2016:

      Computers are really fascinating objects. At their most basic, all a computer is is a series of transistors which are small electrical components that can have 2 states – 1 or 0. 1 means on, 0 means off.

      And all a computer really is is a lot of transistors put together, which can express lots and lots of 1’s and 0’s. It’s crazy to think that, at it’s core, that’s a computer is! A string of 1’s and 0’s!!

      So, if you want to build a computer, just buy a tonne of transistors, link them together, and then write a bit of software telling them how to interact with each other (that last bit is the tricky bit 😛 )

      The very first computer had a total of 92 transistors in it. Nowadays, a typical computer has 1,300,000,000 transistors! Which is a lot (you wouldn’t think there’s that many when you look at your laptop or PC). But transistors nowadays are really small! Back in 1920, transistors were about 10 metres big. Now, they’re about 0.00000001 metres big!

    • Photo: Michel Destrade

      Michel Destrade answered on 15 Nov 2016:

      Yes it’s scary to think of the miniaturisation of electronic components. If you’d told me 20 years ago that a computer could fit in your pocket I wouldn’t have believe you. You can buy ready made components and assemble your own computer, in fact many gamers do that. If you’d like to know how they make the components, you’ll have to study electronic engineering and work at a place like Intel I guess. If you’d like to know how they are programmed to perform tasks, you’d have to study computer science. It’s possible to go down to the nitty gritty of a given piece of equipment or software, but probably not anymore to know about absolutely everything in a computer.

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