Advanced Redstone Computer Tutorial 2: What is a computer?

This video talks about what a computer is, and the basic design of one

I said in the video there is a slight technicality with the idea that modern computers use Von Neumann design. That's because in Von Neumann's original design, it had a significant flaw in terms of speed. His original design only had 1 way of getting information from memory to the processor. The reason this was an issue is because the processor takes 2 types of information: Data and Instruction. This meant you had to read once for the instruction, then read from memory again to get the actual data you wanted to process. This issue was so significant it became known as the Von Neumann bottleneck.

In order to make computing more efficient, what people started doing is allowing 2 reads at once: One for data, and one for instruction, and sending both to the processor at the same time. Strangely enough, people decided this modification was so significant that it justified being considered as an entirely new model. Thus, Harvard architecture was born.

However, Harvard architecture still wasn't perfect. It still had some internal separation of what's data, and what's an instruction. So the architecture was modified again, this time to break the differentiation between instruction and data. This meant you could send data as an instruction, or an instruction as data. This modification was considered less significant, so it simply became known as Modified Harvard architecture.

So to sum up everything I said here, technically modern computers use Modified Harvard, not Von Neumann. However, there's some things that should be considered.

First off, both Harvard and Modified Harvard are derived from Von Neumann. In fact, they're both completely identical except for the few minor adjustments I talked about earlier. The key thing here is that they're both still using Von Neumann's mathematical model. Logically and Mathematically, all of these "different" architectures are all doing the exact same thing. The only difference is the more recent ones have had some tiny details tweaked for performance reasons.

That's why you can say modern computers are still using a Von Neumann architecture, since both Harvard and Modified Harvard use the Von Neumann model of a computer. Although, generally I'd recommend against doing this.

In more recent times, the meaning of the term Von Neumann architecture has changed to refer to computers which have the Von Neumann bottleneck. So if you're having a professional discussion, it's probably best not to generalize everything as a Von Neumann machine. Of course, the reason I did it here is because there's no justifiable reason to be confusing people with these minor technicalities at this point. However, in order to provide as accurate information as possible, I've left this here for those interested.

Hope you found it interesting and managed to learn something! :)

[fisrt]

dude i swear in my life this is by far the best tutorial video ever. thank u so much

[Ivanx]

I'm suprised the guy wanted to build something without probably knowing how it works, that's all that matters for me. I have built the 4 bit computer that's on your channel and thx to that series i have learned many, many new things about redstone. I wanted to build a computer just so i could see how you could put a bunch of logic gates together and call it a machine and now i understand how to make nice redstone contraptions. Thank you!

[masongtv]

i just thought id thank you for taking the time to do these videos, im an engineering and applied sciences student so as you can imagine ive always been pretty apt at visualizing and breaking down how things work and computers have always been a mystery to me mostly because i cant actually go inside and play with the parts as easy as an engine or a plasma but being able to build it from the ground up like this is amazing thank you,

[ellegaardtheengineer]

Bennyscube: Friendly redstone teacher= the best

[crazystunts]

i learned everything about computers and most of redstone from you and i've successfully (mostly) made a computer of my own. Its 6 bits for a little more functionality and i have a 6 function ALU installed. I cannot wait for this new coming series

[SantiAcq]

Thank you for the video and the description, the amount of work in your channel is amazing

[ario]

Thanks for making this video/series i just started and this is exactly what I wanted, I wanted an explanation plus a tutorial of how to actually make it a and for those who are hating in the comments he said what he would do and he did it so this obviously isn't the series for you and this information will be very useful to me.

[eekrats]

I haven't even started this yet and I can tell this is gonna be fun. Also it's like 6 years old, but I think it is still a great tutorial. I think I could learn alot. Also you are very good at making videos. :)

[ReactSchadow]

Benny I can't explain how awesome it is to watch your amazing videos :)

[wesleymays]

"...And if it doesn't, you get angry and start yelling at Microsoft." comedy gold

[itamide]

Absolutely amazing. Im 12, and wanting to build a redstone computer, but do not know how. This really helps make an image on what it would look like, and what should I do to make it. When I see those other redstone computers (no command blocks), I think... That makes no sense. This really helps me. Thanks.

[ryanclancey]

You have a funny voice. :3  your style of covering material is very enjoyable and helpful. I'm very excited to watch the rest of the series, and i hope you don't do anything that i can't build in the limited console edition of minecraft.

[bennyscube]

That really goes for most things. In the end, just about everything isn't as hard as you expect it to be. Hopefully this won't be an exception to that.

There will be a programming interface for simpler programming if that's what you mean.

I'm not sure what you mean about better and more powerful RAM. It's difficult to make it do much more than read and write, so really all you can do is make more of it.

[timbrown]

Actually I know quite a bit about real computers and how to repair and use them I am also quite knowledgeable about Redstone and have built redstone computers before. But I have to be honest and say that to learn to make a redstone computer and make my first one took me about a month but I'm not talking about a big redstone computer. But thank you for making this series and helping me further my knowledge of redstone:-) you just got a like and a sub.

[Cade]

You are amazing. You need more subscribers and views.

[bennyscube]

A calculator simply does math. A computer can perform a variety of arithmetic and logical functions in many different ways to achieve any result that the programmer desires.

[voodoovideos]

I start to follow your series and I'm searching about all those therms e components that you use and I'm finding every thing.
I must know, If I had the resources, could I build a computer in real life using the same schematics and components that you use in minecraft?

ah, thanks for all and nice job! xD

[bennyscube]

As of now, I'm planning on having them separate simply for performance reasons, but there's no reason you couldn't do it the other way around.

[bennyscube]

The "?" videos don't have a numerical place in the series at the moment. The "?" videos are legacy and discontinued, so you don't have to watch them to follow the series, unless of course you'd want to. The numbered versions are the only official part of the series at the moment.

Hope that clarifies things, good luck!

[bennyscube]

First off I'm sorry for misleading you, it most certainly wasn't my intention when I made this. I called this a tutorial because it's part of a tutorial series on a redstone computer. Unfortunately, computers do require some explanation to be fully understood, which results in a few videos like this.

I agree the title is misleading for these explanation videos, but I'm not sure what else to do without breaking the continuity of the series. If you have ideas though, it's most certainly welcome.