How a Computer Works - from silicon to apps

A whistle-stop tour of how computers work, from how silicon is used to make computer chips, perform arithmetic to how programs run and computer graphics are displayed.

Contents:
00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - Transistors
08:05 - Logic gates
11:34 - Binary numbers
16:55 - Memory and clock
24:56 - Instructions
29:30 - Loops
33:55 - Input and output
41:28 - Conclusion

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Further watching if you are interested

Computerphile has many great videos, such as this in-depth look at floating point numbers:
For many in-depth computer subjects I highly recommend Brian Will's channel:
Particularly his videos on graphics:

[ImprobableMatter]

I had not played Minecraft before making this video, or watched any Minecraft YouTubers.


I'm glad people have been enjoying this video. There is still one pop culture reference I'm surprised nobody has mentioned. :)

[almguyYT]

This video essentially describes what computer engineering students learn at a high level. Anyone interested in this major would greatly benefit from watching this, well done!

[GoddamnAxl]

Best intro to computer architecture ever. Simplified enough so most people can understand, deep enough to spark interest for learning more.

[TheDecree]

How does this not have over a million views

[Francisco-Danconia]

I have searched the term "how a computer actually works" over and over only to see "the CPU is the brain of the computer" type crap. This is the video I've been searching for. THANK YOU

[beytankurtulus]

Dude, this took me to the time I learnt those 15 years ago and this time everything made much sense, thanks to the brilliant presentation and simplicity of the text.

[mk-tbgm]

Nice job! This is exactly how an "introduction to computers" class should be done at a university. I always disliked how my professors through us into the thick of computing without first explaining the reason why it all exists in the first place.

[NiceMicroTV]

Hi!
I'm a researcher working on semiconductors and also a computer aficionado, and wanted to make a video like this for ages, thank you for saving all the work for me! :D

[airplayn]

I was a semiconductor process engineer and worked in every part of the FAB from the mask shop through printing, plasma etching and diffusion. Speaking of oversimplification, I went even further when I used to give talks to an auditorium of school children in which I opened with, "give me sand, crude oil and a few piles of dirt AND -- tens of billions of dollars and we can build a computer" ;-)

[bravefastrabbit]

Whats even more amazing is how this video isnt monetized.

Thank you for your truly astounding work!

[anotherelena]

This was a great, very informative video. It also put me straight to sleep. I've tried guided meditations and all that nonsense but nothing worked. Your calm voice and the subject matter, straight to sleep. If you're interested in making more videos on complex topics, there's definitely a market for it. Thank you and good luck.

[MisterWillow]

Thank you refreshing the NAND logic (for me).
I am a computerprogrammer since the 1990's and it is refreshing to hear the low-level logic behind it once in a while.
I also re-appreciate the amount of work taken out of my hands (mem-allocs, garbage collection, etc, We take it all for granted these days!) by watching presentations like yours.
The whole presentation sounds boring (superficially), untill you listen to it closely, then you notice the speed is actually pretty high. I had to rewind a few times.
Great job. Thank you!

[nishafnisthar]

One of best video I watched in YouTube.As a IT teacher I searched lot of YouTube videos to teach “How computer works” to student .It is very useful for who following IT

[thatsnare]

You mentioned at the end how it’s amazing that going from doping silicon to binary arithmetic to logic etc can lead to everything we have today. That’s what I love about computer science and why I’m so obsessed with it. It’s all so simple at its core but expands so much into this phone I’m holding and this YouTube app I’m using and this software keyboard I’m typing on. It’s beautiful.

[ynngih]

I'm able to appreciate the intricacies of this superb explanation, but I'd be lying if I said I fully understood anything. It's amazing that people are able to turn these galimaties into working computers.

[askemervigbahnson]

How does this gem of a video only have 18k views and 988 likes?
I feel like I've wondered about this my whole life. Still a lot more needs explaining, but I got a sort of feeling for how the clinic logic of transistors and gates step by step by step turns into the magic of a computer running programs. I always wondered how the written language of a computer program turns into the 1's and 0's and logic gates of the actual electronic sircuit. Thanks for introducing me to the term "compiler".
I always pondered upon the fact that we in the modern computer have created something so complicated that no human knows how all of it work. Instead, a myriad of different people know exactly how a single teeny tiny bit of it works. That's wild to think about.

[rlhf]

More people need to know that this video exists. Well done.

[tomfahey]

A fantastic summary - I think you mostly nailed the important concepts whilst leaving room for interested viewers to engage in their own further investigations.

Having even a general understanding of the operation of computers, from the transistor to the user application, is a truly wonderful and very satisfying accomplishment. It's an often overlooked fact, that the computing devices that support the modern age may as well operate on black magic, from the perspective of 99.95% of people, so to have that understanding is an enormous privilege.

[deadreaper]

I love technical videos. They are informative and sleep inducing. It isn't because the subject matter is boring or incomprehensible, it's simply that I can only do so much learning at once. Thank you for your work! As far as I know you've done an excellent job on the subject.

[alienspecies]

Bro, 3 parts of this video are topics in my computer science book, and I didn't liked to read the book or pay attention in class because those parts wern't connected and made n sense to me. Like saying someone to learn the words apple, mango, orange and not teaching that they are all fruits that come from plants. Thanks for connecting all these workings of the computer for me.
Your way of explaining and teaching is very good!