Exploring How Computers Work 

Hi everyone! I work with computers pretty much every day, but know shamefully little about what actually goes on inside them. I've been trying to remedy that recently by learning some of the (very) basics, and I thought it'd be fun to make a few videos about it along the way. It's a bit different from my usual content, but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway :) Edit: I see there’s some interest in getting access to the little simulation tool I made. It’s not in a very user friendly state at the moment, but I’ll see about polishing it up and releasing it for free sometime soon! Edit2: The simulation tool is now available here: sebastian.itch.io/digital-logic-sim Along with source code over here: github.com/SebLague/Digital-Logic-Sim If you'd like to support me in creating more videos about programming, game development, etc. I'd greatly appreciate your support on Patreon www.patreon.com/SebastianLague

"I am not too good at giving instructions" *Makes a simulation that can simulate what it's being ran on*

as a programmer watching this made me realize how privileged i am to live in a time when high level programming languages exist. can't imagine what the computer pioneers had to go through. mad respect for them.

There's a game called Turing Complete that's perfect for this sort of study. It takes you from making a NOT gate all the way to writing assembly programs that run on the computer you eventually build. I strongly recommend.

I got lost halfway through, but this was so well made and clear to see I'm still fascinated! Thank you for making these! I always struggled with this and it made a bit more sense today.

You're actually explaining my university course far clearer than my lecturer lol. Love the videos

this might just be the most concise explanation of how to get from a transistor to an ALU

It always blows my mind trying to figure out how we got from simple earth materials to a computer. How when arranged just right and using electrons to flip ones and zeros you can make a virtual world that can be interacted with. Not even for work or anything either, this technology is so standardized that everyone uses it for just about anything you can think of. Most have no idea how it works but they don't even need to. It's so incredibly advanced and new yet people treat computers like they're any other tool. Imagine trying to explain how a phone works to someone living in the Roman Republic. How could you even convince them that it's made from the metals and earthy materials found all around them?

I took a course on computer architecture where we learned about all this stuff, but your explanation of the sign bit and calling it -8 was so clever! The sign bi, two's compliment, and everything has always been such a weird concept, especially when trying to explain it to others.

I found out how to use simple logic gates from games like scrap mechanic and minecraft. It's strange building a computer, inside a video game that's running on a computer.

Quite frankly, the most impressive thing about this video is how easily he puts components into a breadboard

I can’t believe how well put this is. So simple yet explains a lot of concepts clearly and in detail. Teachers do matter.

Your digital logic Sim is ...more exciting than anything I could have imagined having as a kid in the 80s... and the things I could imagine Cost way more than I could have afforded. ... I applaud your efforts man. You do a service to all future people. Cheers.

This would be such an incredible tool for educational settings like classrooms.

I'm suprised with every thing, from how computers work to how he can make the lines look so beautiful

I studied this stuff decades ago, and have now stumbled onto this video looking for a good tutorial for my grandson. Am just six minutes into it, but holy cow, it's brilliant. Best explanations I've ever seen. Bravo, Mr Lague.

Hey Sebastian. Here's some praise: Your channel is a great candidate to being my favorite on youtube. Your videos are very focused and well explained, very well produced without being overproduced in any way, the vibe is perfectly wholesome, you go deeper than surface level, but not 4 hour videos. And it seems you put a lot of work into each video off screen and the quality is just wonderful. I get very inspired to create and explore but do not feel any pressure to also be cool and like you, as I can get from watching videos by other cool people.

I like the way of thinking of the sign indicator as -8. never hear of this idea before

As a senior electrical and computer engineering student, this has been the best video I've seen in awhile! Explained the core of digital systems in a simple and intuitive way. Subscribed

Wow! This is without a doubt the best, most concise introduction to digital system in all of RU-vid. And despite of being short and extremely concise, you explained it perfectly. As with many others in the comments, this complements my university course perfectly! Will share it with my friends, thanks!

Damn. Is this going to be another Ben Eater? If so, I'm in.

When Sebastian says he's 'not so good at giving' computers instructions, a collective gulp can be heard from the rest of us.

Liked the video before watching, this guy is amazing, not only the topics are interesting, but the way he delivers the content is so good (approach, graphics, framing, etc).

Hi Sebastian, I recently stumbled upon your project and videos and I really like your simulation tool. I sure hope you will continue to work on it to make it even more complete :) Hope to see more from you in the future!

This is absolutely the best description I never ever seen in my entire life. As a dev for 10 year interested in electronic, I finally got the “aha” moment. Thank you.

I've taken 4 years of computer science classes and no one has once explained this as well as you have. Great video

I've gone through NAND2Tetris and Ben Eater's videos, and your simulated approach is by far the most intuitive and simple to watch.

Brilliant! It's fabulous how he takes us from a simple set of and and not gates and creates all the other basic gate types, and then creates an addition unit. Very cool.

This explains in less than 20m what our computer class needs weeks for.

I learned this years ago just with tables. This tool is such a genius idea. You should really make it "polished" as you've said and give it out to schools and universities. Every it-student will love you for this.

my whole semester's digital circuits and logic design lectures summed up in 18 minutes! thank you for this incredible and amazing video!

How can even you get anytihng done with that cute cat trying to catch the things on the monitor ._.

Me at start: Oh thats simple 1 and 1 goes in ,then 1 goes out Me just 3 minutes later: w0t

How are you so good at programming and technology yet at the same time such a great educator, videographer and animator?! I love all of your content and want to thank you sincerely for creating it with such amazing depth, structure, aesthetics and attention to detail!

This is spectecular, it's fascinating! Not only your voice and temp is so relaxing and chill, but the way how you bind boolean algebra and computer electronics with arithmetics is just fascinating! I have noticed some correlations between binary addition and some specific boolean operations as well, but thinking that arithmetic itself is built on top of combining these foundational operations into higher-level abstractions is just outstanding and gives a deeper glimpse into the design of lower-level languages like C and explains why overflowing numbers sets them to zero.

omg, calling the sign bit "-8x" makes so much sense! None of my professors taught it that way! I'd always kind of struggle because I had to remember the formula/steps to get the 2's complement, but thinking of it as -8x just takes that need away!!

This is exactly how I taught my nephew in 7th class how to code. Once he understood the alu structure, it was all a piece of cake for him. It took me 4 years of grad school and 3 years working in the industry to understand all this in a way I could teach a 12 year old. We never had such informative video back then. ❣️

As always with Sebastian's videos, I'm awed just as much by the work he puts into visualizing the concepts he describes as I am by concepts themselves

This 18 minute video taught me, and explained to me, more about bits and computing than my entire Computing course in college... Genuinely, from the very bottom of my heart- Thank you.

"Wait, Its all booleans?" "Always has been..." *Cocks gun*

This is a boiled down version of what took me $4000 and 6 months to learn when I was getting my university degree. It's an excellent example of how RU-vid is making college obsolete.

Mr. Lague, you are an excellent teacher and a tremendous asset to this planet. I subscribed a few days ago, you deserve to have many more. Thank you for this video.

This is such an awesome video. It requires a few watches to truly understand the logic but the logic is so sound and you show it so well that I plan to show in my Computer Science Principles class since I am getting questions on how exactly do computers work.

hey Sebastian! I just got into software engineering at my local uni !! I just wanted to say that you were a big part of that decision. Your exploration of computing has completely captured my interest and guided me on my own little programming explorations. Cheers! Jonah :)

This is embarrassing within 2 minutes you explained basic "and" and "not" gates 100% better than what my uni did for me, i had a course i struggled with greatly in which my tutor always mocked me for not understanding what he taught. But the difference is that this is better than my course and is free, and my course is more expensive and much worse at explaining. I'm considering sending this anonymously to my university course coordinator to show how embarrassing the teaching methods that we pay for are taught significantly more poorly than a free youtube video, this is making it very hard for me to consider staying in the course considering i am a third year and feel like ive learnt it all myself through the Internets free resources.

This channel is incredibly valuable. Part of me wants you to monetize half this video or the rest of the series behind a paywall but the other part of is sincerely grateful to you for having sought out this knowledge and organized it so well in your own mind that it influences and motivates someone like me to become intensely focused on the information and knowledge provided. Thank you!

This is amazing! I previously took a course on computer logic, but this video and that software makes learning more intuitive by visualizing each step of constructing the building blocks of the computer

What I love about these videos is that they talk about programming concepts in a easy to digest way without talking down to the audience. You very much feel like you're learning alongside Sebastian, even if he's over simplifying concepts for the sake of a video. This is easily one of the best programming related channels on RU-vid.

Such a neat little program you got there! This would be so nice for schools. A program where you have nothing but an AND gate and an inverter at the start. While you learn you build your own more and more complex components and some little pocket calculator at the end? Would be cool to have 7-segment displays where you have to build the logic for as well!

Using your simulator program and following along with the video I would have to say I have learned a lot about logic gates. I always understood what the names meant and kinda how they worked with the truth tables, but breaking it down in this way and using just the AND and NOT gates to create the rest of them and then build an adder really drove home the logic, thank you!

I am a computer programmer with 7 years of professional experience. I felt like sitting in class back in the day. Amazing nostalgic experience. Keep building brother. Waiting for part two of this.

Hey! Turns out I didn't watch your video before starting to work on my own little boolean circuit simulation. It has come quite far, allowing non-sequential circuits and even sharing of circuits with a link. I will be watching your project closely to see how you tackle the ui problems; your work is truly amazing ^^

Hello Sebastian! I really like your videos! I ended up on the very first one cominfrom the 8 segments display :D Such a good ; it's very lovely - Keep up the good work Cheers

He explains all my semester's lessons in just 18 minutes in more comprehensive way. Thank you very much🇵🇭😆

After years of trying to learn this stuff I finally understand. your teaching approach is incredible. Please continue the series!!

I catch myself getting back to your video on semi-monthly basis, its so calming and adicitivly developing

I am a complete noob with this stuff however I downloaded your program and having some fun with it even though I have little to no Idea what I am doing right now. Thank you Sebastian!

My god that may be the cutest cat I've ever seen in my life

I gotta say. Its incredible how condensed and smooth your explanation of the matter is. I needed about 4h to understand these fundamentals and ironically your video featured information completely new to me. Only roadblock for me was the speed at which everything was going. If I wouldn't know the things discussed beforehand I'd need multiple watches and attpempts at recreation to understand properly. But that is a personal problem. The video is hands down excellent. Keep it up :D

oh my God this is the #1 video that actually makes sense out of basically 1 million other videos that try to explain

Excellent! Introduction to digital logic, I will be watching all your videos.- Thanks for all the work you did into making these videos.- m

This is one of the best node editors I've ever seen! Love how you can organize and branch the connections so easily.

I've never seen someone working out two's complement directly

Best explanation ever of all times, cleared my doubts which I am having since years, thank you so much :)

This is as good as an educational video can be. Truly. You have a gift, sir. Amazing content and I am now I LOYAL subscriber.

This 18 minute video sums up combinational logic in a *significantly* better way than my university's Intro to Digital Design course. Well done!

Your content is literally exactly what I’m interested in right now - like I just spent the last three hours watching Ben eater and then this is a perfect summary of what I learnt

I JUST WANT TO SAY YOU ARE FREAKING AMAZING! Like seriously as soon as i can afford to i am donating money to your project asap. THIS IS SINGLE-HANDEDLY THE MOST AMAZING SOFTWARE I HAVE SEEN IN FOR EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please continue your amazing works. You have my absolute support. I'm also your new subscriber!

This is one of the best explanations I have ever seen! Thank you so much for making this!

This has summed up everything from two weeks' worth of Computing BTEC College lessons into 18 minutes, in the most intuitive way I've ever seen! Amazing and interesting content, I love it!

As someone who’s put a lot of time into computer architecture, I’m excited to see how you explain things :) Edit: Well done, I hope to see this continue.

Wow, I had no idea you could make all of that just basically out of the two 'and' and 'not' physical logic gates you showed at the beginning. What a fantastic video

i just watched this before my logic design exam, absolutely magnificent how much you explained in one video , thanks alot

You can't trick us! This is a cat video disguised as education!

MY GOD I LOVE THIS SO MUCH. Teaching, showing, explaining, everything! Please continue, this is A+ material so far!

This video is awesome, very pretty editing and flow ! + love the kitty

I happened to know I think everything in here, and yet... this was amazing. I loved watching it, and especially, I love the idea of sharing it with others I know who _don't_ already know this stuff. This seemed like an amazing explanation, and I hope it will be received at least half as well as I'm hoping. Thanks for this!!!

Wow this is BY FAR the most concise explanation of twos complement I’ve ever seen. In college I think this took over an hour. PLEAAASE expand this series further and show the implementation and explanation of other parts of the computer like sequential logic, to counters to registers to memory etc and continue on the combinational side like you did with adders to the rest of the ALU to instruction decoding, bus control, etc

These explanations are amazing. Which teachers had to be as compelling as you! Even your 2-s complement explanation was so clean and really gave a deep understanding of the relationship of the numbers in binary

man this is so precise and all from first principles sooo goodddd

I have been strugling to undesrtstand that deep level of computing, i used to ask my brother who is studying computer science and it would always be difficult for him to put it into words and i have been searching for information and looking for books to explain and i think i have finally reach the channel where i will find some answer. Thanks a lot!

I've been taught this stuff so many times, but this is the first time that I've actually learned it.

This is one of the coolest videos I've seen in a really long time, keep up the great work!

My man you deserve all the praise and respect in the world. This was literally the best explanation for how computers work.

Wow. How I couldn't find this incredible channel before!!! ¡Gracias por compartir!

The most clever presentation I have ever seen or could imagine on this complex topic. Great stuff!

Thanks so much man, I'm starting to approach the wonders of the computer universe, and you gave me the best introduction I could possibly get. I've never been so hyped for something like I am now for the next episode of this series, keep up with the fantastic work!

Excellent tutorial! Very clean and clear explanation with easy to understand languange and nice pace.

Thank you for this video. While I knew the different logic gates, seeing you creat each gate made it clearer for me. I also think your simulation program will really help me. I play a number of games that have varying degrees of automation of tasks. They give the basic blocks to create logic systems (power switch, sensor that detects if power has just been turned on or off, button to activate something, counter button that goes through a set number of repitions before activating something, a delay that delays activating some thing, and more.) Your program should help me figure out my logic before trying in game.

Can't belive I took a logic circuits course months ago just to see how simple the basics (in application) are here. Well done, sir!

This kinda makes me appreciate my calculator and all the complexity explained in these "How computer works" vids shows that we've taken them for granted. Thanks for the vid

damn. This video is exactly what i learned in the first two weeks of my computer organization course i just finished

Watching this with no prior experience with this aspect of computers. Yet I completely understand! You explain things so well.

NOOOOO I've found interesting series when it only started!!! now i'll have to wait for other episodes :(

Thanks for the video! It covered the subject really well, cant wait for more!

wow just came across this on the random. You're teaching skills are off the charts. It makes so much sense they way its explained.

This video is gold! Thank you so much for the explanation.

Wow, your teaching style makes perfect sense to me this is insane!

Damn, am i the only one who feels like this video ended on a cliff hanger ? I like this project, thumbs up man.

Thank you very much for this video! Very easy explained and very informative. Thank you so much! And you Sim is also great! I will share it with my classmates.