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.<p>I would appreciate any references, including but not limited to: logic gates, RAM, units of measurement (MHz, MB, etc.), and input/output.<p>Thank you in advance.
<i>Computer Organization and Architecture</i> by Stallings<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-Architecture-Stallings-Communications/dp/013293633X" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Organization-Architecture-Sta...</a>
After you get past the components, some computer architecture will do you good. See eg <a href="https://www.coursera.org/course/comparch" rel="nofollow">https://www.coursera.org/course/comparch</a>. There's also the classic Hennessy & Patterson book.
Building a Modern Computer from First Principles:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Computing-Systems-Principles/dp/0262640686" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/The-Elements-Computing-Systems-Princip...</a>
Here's a talk by Richard Feynman where he explains how computers work <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKWGGDXe5MA</a>