![[LMG S10] Issue 130: Power limits](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue130/issue130_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 130: Power limits
Previously: The larger the surface area, the faster an object loses heat. The larger the temperature difference between an object and its surroundings, the...
![[LMG S10] Issue 129: Cooling](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue129/issue129_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 129: Cooling
Previously: Upgradable parts need a slot or socket to be inserted into; these slots/sockets need to be made robust enough, causing them to take up more space...
![[LMG S10] Issue 128: Upgradeability](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue128/issue128_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 128: Upgradeability
Previously: USB Power Delivery is a specification that describes how much voltage and current can be supplied by different categories of USB cables. It...
[LMG S10] Issue 127: USB Type-C Power Delivery
Previously: USB is a (licensed) technical standard that describes how devices connect to each other through a cable. USB Type-C is a new connector standard...
![[LMG S10] Issue 126: USB Type-C](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue126/issue126_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 126: USB Type-C
Previously: Analog formats such as VGA mostly contain the control signals that the CRT needs to operate, while digital formats such as HDMI and DisplayPort...
[LMG S10] Issue 125: Analog and digital conversion
Previously: The VGA video format originated in the time of cathode-ray televisions (CRTs). It was superseded by HDMI, a video format standardised by consumer...
![[LMG S10] Issue 124: Video formats](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue124/issue124_01.png)
[LMG S10] Issue 124: Video formats
Previously: Graphics cards contain lots of tiny cores that are much better at performing the same calculation for lots of decimal numbers. These cores are...
![[LMG S10] Issue 123: Graphics cards: The Pixel Factory](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue123/issue123_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 123: Graphics cards: The Pixel Factory
Previously: Computers are general-purpose machines that usually process integer calculations. The graphics pipeline requires more specialised hardware that...
[LMG S10] Issue 122: The great flattening
Previously: 3D models are represented with vertices (points), edges (line segments between points), and faces in a computer. Images known as textures can be...
[LMG S10] Issue 121: In graphic detail
Previously: Driver files provide information about the driver, and instructions on how to receive information from the device, and encode information to be...
![[LMG S10] Issue 120: Drivers, the glue between hardware and firmware](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue120/issue120_01.png)
[LMG S10] Issue 120: Drivers, the glue between hardware and firmware
Previously: Solid-state disks are much faster than hard disks because they have no moving parts, so no time is wasted waiting for parts to get into the right...
![[LMG S10] Issue 119: Solid-state disks, an upgrade from hard disks](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue119/issue119_01.jpg)
[LMG S10] Issue 119: Solid-state disks, an upgrade from hard disks
Previously: A hard disk consists of a read arm, and a set of magnetic platters which store data. To read or write data, the read arm must move to the...
![[LMG S10] Issue 118: When I run two file-copy processes at the same time, why are they much slower?](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season10/issue118/issue118_01.gif)
[LMG S10] Issue 118: When I run two file-copy processes at the same time, why are they much slower?
Previously: Operating systems use a page file on the storage disk as a complement to physical memory. This allows OSes to behave more performantly than they...
[LMG S9] Issue 117: Swap space
Previously: Hibernation mode causes the computer to store the data configuration into a hibernation file on disk. When powered up, the OS reads the data...
[LMG S9] Issue 116: Hibernation
Previously: When you shut a computer down, it sends an exit signal to all running programs to get them to do their exit routine. This process can sometimes...
[LMG S9] Issue 115: Shutdown & standby
Previously: Embedded operating systems are unlike user operating systems. They are designed to run the software needed for an appliance’s operation, and are...
[LMG S9] Issue 114: In the beginning (firmware)
Previously: If you can’t get to a BIOS screen, it is likely a hardware problem and has to be solved by a technician. If you can’t get the the OS loading...
[LMG S9] Issue 113: A computer’s existential crisis (boot failure)
Previously: When a computer is booted up, it runs the BIOS from a chip on the motherboard. The chip checks that core parts are present, checks for a storage...
[LMG S9] Issue 112: Bootstrapping into existence (bootup)
Previously: Moving a file (within the same disk region) merely updates its file table record, and this happens really quickly. Copying a file, or moving it...
[LMG S9] Issue 111: Copying, moving, and deleting files
Previously: Filesystem journals are a record of changes made to the disk, so as to enable those changes to be rolled back, or to be completed properly in...