{"id":3515,"date":"2017-03-17T09:46:34","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T14:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/?p=3515"},"modified":"2020-08-17T17:36:24","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:36:24","slug":"understand-microprocessors-by-looking-at-this-beautiful-blinking-megaprocessor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/2017\/03\/17\/understand-microprocessors-by-looking-at-this-beautiful-blinking-megaprocessor\/","title":{"rendered":"Understand Microprocessors By Looking at This Beautiful Blinking &#8216;Megaprocessor&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From: <a href=\"http:\/\/sploid.gizmodo.com\/understand-microprocessors-by-looking-at-this-beautiful-1793360706\">Gizodo<\/a><br \/>\nBy: Rhett Jones<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.dan-kohn.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jxyhwohtoyhbsgpvqgpm.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.dan-kohn.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jxyhwohtoyhbsgpvqgpm-300x150.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3516\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jxyhwohtoyhbsgpvqgpm-300x150.gif 300w, http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/jxyhwohtoyhbsgpvqgpm-768x384.gif 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pretty much everything that\u2019s great about technology today is thanks to the microprocessor. Billions of them are manufactured every year and they are one of the many reasons you can read this fine website. But few people understand what\u2019s going on inside that little integrated circuit. Here\u2019s a crash course.<\/p>\n<p>The fine folks at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge have a half-ton machine that blows up all of the little details happening in a microprocessor to a size that\u2019s more easily inspected. It has been dubbed \u201cThe Megaprocessor\u201d and its creator, James Newman, walks us through how it works in the video below. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.dan-kohn.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/qbsk5sbf8x3flklqbwfg.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.dan-kohn.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/qbsk5sbf8x3flklqbwfg-300x168.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-3518\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Newman\u2019s creation is cool enough to just admire it on its own. Using about 40,000 transistors and 10,ooo LEDs, it diagrams all of the various communications and number crunching going on inside a microprocessor in order to ultimately play a big ass game of Tetris.<\/p>\n<p>To really grok the fine details, you\u2019ll have to pay a visit to the museum itself and spend some time with The Megaprocessor. But I assure you, in a little less than seven minutes you can understand the basics of what goes on in a microprocessor well enough to fake it at a really nerdy party.<\/p>\n<p>Since many of us can\u2019t visit, I highly recommend the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/computermuseum?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">CCH\u2019s Twitter account<\/a>. It always has great old school gear and graphics to check out.<\/p>\n<p><code><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EMO3dZAizb4?ecver=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/code><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From: Gizodo By: Rhett Jones Pretty much everything that\u2019s great about technology today is thanks to the microprocessor. Billions of them are manufactured every year and they are one of the many reasons you can read this fine website. But &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/2017\/03\/17\/understand-microprocessors-by-looking-at-this-beautiful-blinking-megaprocessor\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4914,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3515\/revisions\/4914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}