How Computers Work for Programmers

What you’ll learn

General Unix

Binary and Number Representation

Types and Number Representation

The CPU

Memory

Peripherals and buses

The Operating System

Virtual Memory

Requirements

Description

In a nutshell, this course is intended to be a shop class for computer science. Young computer science students are taught to “drive” the computer; but where do you go to learn what is under the hood? Trying to understand the operating system is unfortunately not as easy as just opening the bonnet. The current Linux kernel runs into the millions of lines of code, add to that the other critical parts of a modern operating system (the compiler, assembler and system libraries) and your code base becomes unimaginable. Further still, add a University level operating systems course (or four), some good reference manuals, two or three years of C experience and, just maybe, you might be able to figure out where to start looking to make sense of it all.

To keep with the car analogy, the prospective student is starting out trying to work on a Formula One ee without ever knowing how a two stroke motor operates. During their shop class the student should pull apart, twist, turn and put back together that two stroke motor, and consequentially have a pretty good framework for understanding just how the Formula One ee works. Nobody will expect them to be a Formula One eeer, but they are well on their way!

Who this course is for:

Programmers who wish to have a deeper understanding of how computers work.

Anyone who is interested in how computers work.