whether or not you know how to code many of you have probably seen a few lines of
a program written in a language like C python or Pascal which are all based on
English and designed to be readable by humans to some degree but when you get
right down to it the CPU that processes all of that code is just a hunk of
silicon and the last time I had a conversation with an inanimate object I
didn't feel like it had a whole lot to contribute to the discussion so how do
CPUs actually take code that's expressed in letters and numbers and put things
onto the screen that make sense to us carbon-based life forms well it first
helps to realize that what we call code can actually refer to a number of things
usually when people say code they're talking about source code which is the
English or Chinese or whatever language you really want based set of
instructions written in whatever programming language you like but after
a programmer finishes writing a program in source code it needs to be further
processed so that the CPU can actually understand it which is done by running
source code through a special kind of program called a compiler that will
check the code for errors and convert it into a CPU understandable form which is
called object code or machine code the
reason that a CPU can interpret machine code is because it's compiled in binary
the series of ones and zeros that is the basis for all modern digital Computing
but hold on a minute why can CPUs understand ones and zeros which are just
another form of human readable information well they they can do this
because those ones and zeros are really just representations of an electrical
signal which is on or off machine code
travels around the inside of your PC as a series of electrical pulses that
correspond to each of one and zero that the compiler spits out and when these
pulses hit your CPU a large number of things happen an average CPU has
millions of transistors many of which serve as logic gates that open or shut
depending if they're receiving an electrical impulse in other words
whether they're receiving a zero or one logic gates will open and shut to
manipulate machine code in very complex ways until the CPU spits out process
data that travels to other parts of your computer although the principles behind
processor design are immensely complicated you can think of the
transistors inside of a CPU as beads on a really big Abacus these beads are
arranged according to the processor's micro architecture denoted by code names
such as Haswell Broadwell and ivybridge for Intel CPUs or bulldozzer Steamroller
and pile driver for AMD chips however even with all these different
architectures most modern applications will run on any of these processors
because nearly any PC CPU is going to
use the same instruction set which is just what it sounds like the set of
binary instructions that the CPU can use to understand and execute current
consumer CPUs for desktops and laptops virtually all use either the x86
instruction set or the newer but backwards compatible x86-64 instruction
set for 64-bit systems since so many
different microarchitectures make use of the same instruction set the main
difference between them is how quickly and efficiently different processors can
execute those said instructions although a newer model Intel Core i7 and an older
model Core 2 Duo can understand the same
instructions the i7 is often going to be much much faster due to its radically
different micr architecture it's a little bit like the difference between
accelerating in a Maserati versus a Yugo
both cars understand that pressing down the Gas Pedal means go but because the
Maserati's different engine architecture it can execute the instruction much
faster than a Yugo and suddenly you're being pulled over don't worry though
you'll never get pulled over for overclocking your processor you might
just avoid your warranty speaking of logical systems
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