Ask HN: Where can one learn about how computers work?

8 points by shliachtx ↗ HN
A friend of mine wants to understand how computers work. I began explaining how binary works and a (very) basic introduction to how the processor, RAM, and graphics card work, but I am looking for a book or other (online?) resource that I can recommend to him (and possibly even read/watch myself) to get a more thorough understanding.

I would appreciate any references, including but not limited to: logic gates, RAM, units of measurement (MHz, MB, etc.), and input/output.

Thank you in advance.

8 comments

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I always recommend Code by Microsoft Press--good introduction to the fundamentals of computer engineering.
After Code, I recently discovered Brian Kernighan's D is for Digital, published in 2011, which gives a much more concrete description of how modern computing works.
Nand2Tetris, looks quite good but I havn't read it myself
Charles Petzold, "Code".