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With advice from the experts, a user-friendly, hands-on approach and a 16-page, full-colour insert, this book helps users better understand their PC, realise its potential, foresee possible problems, and make the right decisions.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Part I The Big Picture(p. 1)
• 1 The View from Afar(p. 3)
• Don't Blink(p. 4)
• The Plague: Jargon(p. 5)
• Do the Time Warp, Again(p. 6)
• The Bottom Line: What You Must Know and Why(p. 8)
• A Method and Plan for Our Journey(p. 10)
• 2 How (Almost) Any Computer Works(p. 13)
• The Logical Parts of Any Computer(p. 13)
• What Makes a Computer More than a Calculator?(p. 24)
• Summary(p. 27)
• 3 Understanding Bits, Nybbles, and Bytes(p. 29)
• What Is Information? How Much Room Does It Takes Up?(p. 29)
• Bits, Bytes, Nybbles, and Words(p. 39)
• Representing Numbers and Strings of Characters(p. 42)
• Symbols and Codes(p. 49)
• What Is Data and How Is It Processed?(p. 58)
• Part II A First Look Inside Your PC(p. 59)
• 4 understanding Your PC's Parts(p. 61)
• A PC as a Chamber Orchestra(p. 61)
• The Three Main Pieces(p. 62)
• Controlling Chaos by Leaving the Legacy Behind(p. 86)
• What Parts Are Where in Your PC; Some Things to Think About and Try(p. 94)
• Summary IBM's Grand Innovation/IBM's Great Folly(p. 94)
• 5 How to Get Your PC to Understand You(p. 95)
• What Language Does Your PC Understand?(p. 95)
• Where Are Instructions and Data Kept?(p. 98)
• How Mere Humans Can Manage All This(p. 105)
• 6 Enhancing Your Understanding by Exploring and Tinkering(p. 107)
• Why Is This Valuable? And, Is It Dangerous?(p. 107)
• Windows 98's Best Hidden Secret(p. 111)
• An Introduction to DEBUG(p. 113)
• Using the Norton Disk Editor(p. 116)
• Some More Things to Think About and Try(p. 118)
• Summary(p. 121)
• Part III The Standalone PC(p. 123)
• 7 Understanding PC Processors(p. 125)
• A Sea of Change in PC CPUs(p. 126)
• Intel, IBM, and You(p. 128)
• What If It Isn't Intel Inside?(p. 143)
• It's an Increasingly RISC-y Business(p. 150)
• Are More Brains Better than One?(p. 152)
• Other Processors in Your PC(p. 152)
• Major and Minor Improvements(p. 153)
• When to Upgrade Your PC(p. 154)
• 8 How Your PC "Thinks"(p. 157)
• What Is a Computer Architecture?(p. 157)
• Details of the x86 CPU's Architecture(p. 158)
• The Architecture That Goes Around the CPU(p. 179)
• Interrupts: The Driving Force(p. 188)
• What Is a DMA Channel?(p. 194)
• Keeping Up with the Clock(p. 196)
• How Your PC Wakes Up and Prepares Itself for Work(p. 200)
• Some Things to Think About and Try(p. 205)
• 9 You Can Never Have Too Much Closet (or Data Storage) Space(p. 207)
• Traditional PC Disk Drives(p. 207)
• Understanding the DOS Perspective (and Why This Still Matters)(p. 212)
• Learning About File Formats(p. 244)
• Summary(p. 249)
• 10 Digging Deeper Into Disks(p. 251)
• How Hard Disks Are Different(p. 251)
• Managing Multiple PC Disk Drives(p. 256)
• Variationis on the Theme of PC Storage(p. 262)
• How DOS and Windows See Optical Discs--The Origin and Value of ISO9660 and UDF(p. 281)
• Disk Utilities(p. 284)
• Some Things to Think About and Try(p. 290)
• 11 Giving Your CPU Enough Elbow Room--PC Memory(p. 293)
• Understanding PC Memory(p. 293)
• Not All Memory Is Equal(p. 315)
• Your PC's Memory Needs to Be Managed(p. 321)
• Understanding Windows Memory Use(p. 331)
• So, How Much RAM Do I Need, Really?(p. 334)
• Some Things to Think About and Try(p. 335)
• 12 Getting Your PC's Attention: Input Devices(p. 337)
• The Keyboard Is "Key"(p. 338)
• The Point Is Pointing (Mousing Around)(p. 348)
• Some Other PC Input Devices(p. 360)
• The "Dark Side" of PC Input(p. 369)
• Summary(p. 371)
• 13 Seeing the Results: PC DIsplays(p. 373)
• It's Just No Good If You Can't Get the Information Out(p. 373)
• Getting the Colors (Almost) Right(p. 391)
• How to Talk to a Video Display(p. 392)
• Understanding Display Technologies(p. 393)
• Running the Display System Backward(p. 401)
• Summary(p. 404)
• 14 Getting It All Down on Paper; Printers(p. 405)
• The Purpose and Power of PC Printers(p. 405)
• Printing Technologies--An Overview(p. 405)
• Impact Printers for PCs(p. 410)
• Nonimpact Printers for PCs(p. 413)
• Getting the Color (Almost) Right(p. 418)
• Summary(p. 421)
• 15 Understanding Standard PC Input and Output(p. 423)
• Some Special-Purpose I/O Interfaces(p. 423)
• Talking Through a Tiny Pipe: Serial Ports(p. 424)
• The Keyboard Interface(p. 434)
• Bus Mice Versus Serial Mice Versus USB Mice(p. 436)
• Combining the Keyboard and a Pointing Device(p. 438)
• The Faster Output Path That Can Work Both Ways(p. 438)
• Serial and Parallel Port Addresses and Their Names(p. 443)
• Some Other Ways to Get More Than the Allowed Number of Serial (or Parallel) Ports(p. 444)
• The Video Output Port(p. 446)
• Summary(p. 448)
• 16 Faster Ways to Get Information Into or Out of Your PC(p. 449)
• The Most General I/O Interfaces: The PC Input/Output Bus(es)(p. 449)
• The Original (ISA) PC I/O Bus(p. 450)
• Growing Up ISA to Meet Modern PC I/O Needs(p. 452)
• ISA Grows Up--The Origin of IDE, EIDE, ATA, ATAPI, and More(p. 453)
• The PCI Bus(p. 460)
• The Really Good Bus with the Really Bad Name (SCSI)(p. 471)
• The Future of PC-to-Peripheral(p. 483)
• The Wonderful New High-Speed Serial Buses (USB and IEEE 1394)(p. 485)
• There Will Be More I/O Bus Standards(p. 488)
• 17 Understanding PC Operating Systems(p. 491)
• What Is an Operating System and Why Do I Need One?(p. 492)
• Microsoft Windows Takes Over(p. 499)
• Windows 9x Internal Details and Boot Process(p. 506)
• Understanding Your Choices for Your PC's Operating System(p. 511)
• Summary(p. 515)
• Part IV PC Programs: From Machine Language Bytes to Human Speech(p. 517)
• 18 Understanding How Humans Instruct PCs(p. 519)
• Harnessing the PC's Power to Help Mere Humans(p. 519)
• Dividing Up the Work(p. 531)
• How Not to Keep On Reinventing the Wheel(p. 532)
• Helping Ordinary People "Program" Their PCs Easily(p. 536)
• Summary(p. 537)
• 19 Some PCs Can Understand Speech and Talk to Us(p. 539)
• Making Conversational PCs: Breaking Down the Overall Job(p. 540)
• Making PCs Speak(p. 541)
• Teaching PCs to Listen and Understand(p. 543)
• Understanding What You Have Heard(p. 547)
• Generating Useful and Relevant Responses(p. 547)
• How Far Along Are We Now?(p. 548)
• What's Next?(p. 552)
• Part V Splendiferous Multimedia PCs(p. 553)
• 20 How to "Wow" a Human(p. 555)
• What Was a Multimedia PC?(p. 555)
• Multimedia Today and Tomorrow(p. 557)
• Direct Hardware Access(p. 580)
• Will Your PCs RUn Your Radio, Wash Your Clothes, and Program Your VCR?(p. 589)
• The Convergence of PCs, Telephones, and Television Is Here--At Last!(p. 590)
• 21 Immersive PC Experiences(p. 593)
• Immersive Technologies(p. 594)
• Immersive Applications(p. 603)
• No Longer Just for Gamers(p. 606)
• Part VI PCs Are Frequent Flyers, Too(p. 609)
• 22 Why Mobile PCs Must Be Different(p. 611)
• From Luggables to Laptops and Beyond(p. 611)
• Lessons to Be Learned from Portable PCs(p. 620)
• Power Is Previous on the Road(p. 622)
• The Ecologically Sensitive PC(p. 627)
• Mobile PCs at Home and in the Office(p. 633)
• Summary(p. 635)
• Part VII The Connected PC(p. 637)
• 23 The PC Reaches Out, Part One: Modems and More(p. 639)
• A Really Short Stretch(p. 639)
• Four Realms of PC COnnectivity(p. 641)
• Permanent and Transient Connections(p. 641)
• Modems and More(p. 643)
• Summary(p. 662)
• 24 The PC Reaches Out, Part Two: Through the NIC Node(p. 663)
• The NIC Node(p. 663)
• The NIC Node Needs a NOS(p. 676)
• Other Software for the Connected PC(p. 682)
• Summary(p. 687)
• 25 PCs That Think They're Mainframes: Multiprocessor PCs and Other Serves(p. 689)
• Analyzing the Need(p. 689)
• What's Hard About Multiprocessor PCs?(p. 703)
• Summary(p. 705)
• Part VIII PCs, the Internet, the FUture, and You(p. 707)
• 26 You Can Touch the World, and It May Touch You, Too!(p. 709)
• What Is the Internet, and How Does It Work?(p. 709)
• A Lot More Than Just Data Is Out There(p. 717)
• Be Careful: It Can Be a Dangerous World Out There(p. 733)
• Summary(p. 734)
• 27 Looking Back and Looking Ahead(p. 735)
• Learning from the Past and Predicting the Future(p. 735)
• Our Tour Is Over But the Journey Is Not(p. 738)
• How the Story Comes Out Depends, in Part, on You(p. 738)
• Remember, It's Your Personal Computer; You Are in Charge(p. 739)
• Glossary(p. 741)
• Index(p. 771)