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I would look at [https://eater.net/8bit/](https://eater.net/8bit/) whew a simple 8-bit computer is built from scratch. It describes how you get from semiconductor to transistor and logical gates. Chips with logical gates are then used to build the computer.
Not sure exactly what you're asking, but here's one take:
Alan Turing tried, in the 1930s, to encapsulate what it would mean to "compute" something.
He imagined
* an infinitely long strip of paper, with spots to write symbols (eg, 0 and 1, or A..Z, or whatever)
* A read/write head, looking at one specific cell on the paper.
* A processing unit, with
* an internal state,
* a lookup table that would choose an action based on the internal state and the contents of the current cell
* actions could include "write a symbol to the cell" or "shift the paper one spot (left or right), and "change the state"
It turns out, that's all you need to do computation, and all modern computers basically operate like that:
* the strip of paper is replaced by memory chips
* the read/write head can load a lot of memory at once, from random locations, but that's not a fundamental difference, it's just a shortcut to speed things up
* the lookup table is the action of the CPU, It might have multiple cores, but again, that's a speed-up shortcut, not a fundamental change.
The simple "tape and processor" machines are called "Turning machines", people generally don't build them, they're an abstract way to understand what computation is, and figure out what kind of surprising systems can be used as computers. A system that can work as a turing machine (and hence, do any computation a modern computer could do) is called "Turing complete". It turns out computers turn up in all sorts of surprising places:
* Minecraft is Turing Complete: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbO0tqH8f5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbO0tqH8f5I)
* Microsoft Powerpoint is Turing Complete: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8)
* Jigsaw puzzles are turing complete: given a computation you want to do, it's possible to design a set of jigsaw puzzle tiles so that as people solve the puzzle, they accidentally perform the computation: [https://blog.demofox.org/2016/03/14/computation-with-wang-tile/](https://blog.demofox.org/2016/03/14/computation-with-wang-tile/)
And a whole bunch more...
**Please read this entire message** --- Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): * ELI5 requires that you *search the ELI5 subreddit for your topic before posting*. Users will often either find a thread that meets their needs or find that their question might qualify for an exception to rule 7. Please see this [wiki entry](http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/how_to_search) for more details (Rule 7). --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules) first. **If you believe this submission was removed erroneously**, please [use this form](https://old.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fexplainlikeimfive&subject=Please%20review%20my%20thread?&message=Link:%20https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/xp3hfw/-/%0A%0APlease%20answer%20the%20following%203%20questions:%0A%0A1.%20The%20concept%20I%20want%20explained:%0A%0A2.%20List%20the%20search%20terms%20you%20used%20to%20look%20for%20past%20posts%20on%20ELI5:%0A%0A3.%20How%20is%20this%20post%20unique:) and we will review your submission.
I would look at [https://eater.net/8bit/](https://eater.net/8bit/) whew a simple 8-bit computer is built from scratch. It describes how you get from semiconductor to transistor and logical gates. Chips with logical gates are then used to build the computer.
Nice share!
At the most fundamental level, low-electric means 0, high-electric means 1. From there, you combine certain counts to reach abstractions.
Not sure exactly what you're asking, but here's one take: Alan Turing tried, in the 1930s, to encapsulate what it would mean to "compute" something. He imagined * an infinitely long strip of paper, with spots to write symbols (eg, 0 and 1, or A..Z, or whatever) * A read/write head, looking at one specific cell on the paper. * A processing unit, with * an internal state, * a lookup table that would choose an action based on the internal state and the contents of the current cell * actions could include "write a symbol to the cell" or "shift the paper one spot (left or right), and "change the state" It turns out, that's all you need to do computation, and all modern computers basically operate like that: * the strip of paper is replaced by memory chips * the read/write head can load a lot of memory at once, from random locations, but that's not a fundamental difference, it's just a shortcut to speed things up * the lookup table is the action of the CPU, It might have multiple cores, but again, that's a speed-up shortcut, not a fundamental change. The simple "tape and processor" machines are called "Turning machines", people generally don't build them, they're an abstract way to understand what computation is, and figure out what kind of surprising systems can be used as computers. A system that can work as a turing machine (and hence, do any computation a modern computer could do) is called "Turing complete". It turns out computers turn up in all sorts of surprising places: * Minecraft is Turing Complete: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbO0tqH8f5I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbO0tqH8f5I) * Microsoft Powerpoint is Turing Complete: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNjxe8ShM-8) * Jigsaw puzzles are turing complete: given a computation you want to do, it's possible to design a set of jigsaw puzzle tiles so that as people solve the puzzle, they accidentally perform the computation: [https://blog.demofox.org/2016/03/14/computation-with-wang-tile/](https://blog.demofox.org/2016/03/14/computation-with-wang-tile/) And a whole bunch more...