October 2000
Intermediate to advanced
400 pages
13h 30m
English
Content preview from Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, First EditionBecome an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
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Chapter 22. The Operating System
We have, at long last, assembled—at least in our imaginations—what seems to be a complete computer. This computer has a microprocessor, some random access memory, a keyboard, a video display, and a disk drive. All the hardware is in place, and we eye with excitement the on/off switch that will power it up and bring it to life. Perhaps this project has evoked in your mind the labors of Victor Frankenstein as he assembled his monster, or Geppetto as he built the wooden puppet that he will name Pinocchio.
But still we’re missing something, and it’s neither the power of a lightning bolt nor the purity of a wish upon a star. Go ahead: Turn on this new computer and tell me what you see.
As the cathode-ray tube warms ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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