Parts I to III preview. This edition contains The Machine, The Software, and The Network. The browser chapters are still in preparation.
- Introduction
The Machine
A computer is built from one part repeated: a switch that is either on or off, a scrap of doped silicon that conducts only when told to. These chapters stack that switch into logic, logic into arithmetic and memory, and all of it into a processor that runs a program held in its own memory. After that main path is complete, optional lettered follow-ups look at how large circuits are described, how one CPU core goes faster by overlap and caching, and how a reloadable chip can become a circuit. These side reads deepen the hardware story; the main path is complete at the CPU.
The Software
A bare processor understands only numbers. These chapters give it language: an assembler that turns names into those numbers, a linker that joins assembled pieces into one program, a lexer and a compiler that turn human-written programs into them. Separate operating-system models explain how programs share time, obtain memory, store files, and request services; they do not form one kernel running on the earlier processor.
The Network
So far each machine has run alone. These chapters connect them: bits driven across a wire and framed into bytes, one bit sent by hand, frames addressed to a neighbour, routed across many machines, made reliable, and given meaning. The final chapter explains the roles of encryption and authentication, then demonstrates a key exchange under the simpler assumption that an observer only listens.
- Glossary