August 2022
Intermediate to advanced
480 pages
12h 55m
English
Content preview from Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, 2nd Edition
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Chapter Twenty-Five
Peripherals
The central processing unit (CPU) is certainly the most important component of a computer, but it must be supplemented with other hardware. As you’ve seen, a computer also requires random access memory (RAM) that contains both machine-code instructions for the processor to execute and data for these instructions to access. As you’ll also recall, RAM is volatile—it loses its contents when the power is turned off. So another useful component of a computer is a long-term mass storage device that can retain code and data in the absence of power.
The computer must also include some way for those instructions to get into RAM, and some way for the results of the program to be examined. Modern computers also have microphones, ...
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