How Computers Work - Softcover

White, Ron; Downs, Timothy Edward

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0789725495 ISBN 13: 9780789725493

Publisher: QUE, 2001

Synopsis

How Computers Work shows you how chips, software, memory, and hardware work using detailed four-color drawings. An interactive game-like CD-ROM takes you directly inside your computer. This book is completely updated and revised to include the latest technology developments.

An updated introduction to the workings of the computer explores the basics of microchips, hardware, software, and computer memory, providing an entertaining and informative tour of every part of the computer, from hard drive and processor to mouse, monitor, and keyboard. Also takes you through the workings of digital cameras, ebooks, Bluetooth, and much more.

About this title

Review

Written by Ron White and superbly illustrated by Timothy Edward Downs and Stephen Adams, Que's How Computers Work, Millennium Edition is reminiscent of those books published in the 1980s for wannabe computer geeks, which have long since disappeared. But this millennium edition is one that should long have a place in every computer user's bookcase, to satisfy those moments of intense curiosity.

White does not shy away from the complexity of the technology behind the modern computer, its software and its hardware. The book deals almost exclusively with desktop boxes, rather than the other applications in which computers are used (car radios, dishwashers, mobile phones and the like).Ideas are explained skilfully and the text is cleverly integrated with graphics and diagrams, so that even hard-to-grasp ideas like compression and disk structures can be easily digested. Unlike its 1980s predecessors,How Computers Work covers the cutting edge of technology, with everything from DVD to CD-R and modems to multimedia. --Josh Smith

From the Author

You asked for it. You get it!
For the Fourth Edition of "How Computers Work" I reread letters I’ve received from readers of earlier editions to see what I could do to improve the book. The most often requested feature was a glossary of computer terms. Always happy to oblige, this time I’ve added "Key Concepts" to the overview for each part of the book. Here, I explain important terms that you’ll encounter frequently throughout the chapters. I hope it helps.

A large part of creating the Fourth Edition has been finding out what new technologies are likely to be important. This time there are new explanations of digital light processing, global positioning system, fingerprint recognition, palm PCs, gas plasma displays, accelerated graphic port, and flash memory.

And because I can’t help fiddling, I’ve made changes to many of the illustrations and explanations throughout the book. In the last edition, the explanation of how accelerated 3-D graphics works was too cramped for comfort. We’ve added two pages to that explanation to give this exciting computer technology the space it deserves. Many of the other changes are so small they might not be noticed, but I hope they make a difference.

Because this latest edition of "How Computers Work" has just been released, there aren’t a lot of reader reviews here on Amazon.com. But if you’d like to see what readers have said about previous editions – one of which was chosen, ah-hem, as best non-fiction computer book of the year – I’ve included a few reviews from past editions.

gdavis3@aol.com from Little Rock, AR , September 21, 1998 A great book for beginners. I think this is an excellent book. The pictures and terminology are easy to understand. I plan to use this book to educate some of my coworkers. Diosnel Herrnsdorf (diosnel@krauch.com.py) from Asunción, Paraguay , August 23, 1998 A good school mate. I bought the book because it was listed in a subject's bibliography; in fact, it was the book he most recommended. I found it very useful, and most of all, very easy to follow. All the information was there to grasp at first reading. A reader from Cleveland, OH , March 26, 1998 An absolute must have for anyone with a computer! This is a GREAT book. I have used this book to explain our home computer to my family. With this book, the kid's have begun to understand why it is important to know everything you can about the equipment we use today. A great way to get almost anyone interested in understanding "technology" in an easy to read (and picture) format. I recommend this book to all my friends who ask me to help them computer shop.

And if there’s anything you’d like to seen in future editions, please let me know atron_white@zd.com.

I hope you buy -- and enjoy -- the book!

Ron White

About this edition

• Publisher: QUE
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0789725495
• ISBN 13: 9780789725493
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 6
• Number of pages: 416