Computer - Device

About

A device is any machine or component that can perform an operation.

It is built upon logic gates and therefore only (accept|understand) a series of 0 and 1.

The first device was a transistor.

Type

Programmable

A device with its own set of instruction (ie machine language) is a programmable device. See Device - Programmable Device

Storage

Interface

The interface of a device is its pins.

The following interfaces are the only software interface:

Writing device drivers is essentially learning the functionality of each register and how to use them properly to control the device.

Example

Chip

The 74HC00 is a chip device composed:

  • internally of four 2-input NAND gates
  • and externally of 14 pins:
    • 8 input pins (red)
    • 4 output pins (green)
    • 1 pin for connecting to a voltage source (Vcc brown)
    • 1 pin for connecting to the ground. (GND brown)

The chip comes with 4 gates that can be combined to create other logic gates (ie logic function)

74hc00 Circuit 74hc00 Photo

Adder

See Bit - Adder Device (Adding two bits)

Windows

On Windows

  • Type
  • Container
  • Connections

Example: Device by type view on the window Device manager:

Hardware Device Windows Computer Management

Task Runner