![[LMG S11] Issue 138: System-on-Chip (SoC)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue138/issue138_01.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 138: System-on-Chip (SoC)
Previously: The M1 goes one step further: not only does it make do with fewer chips, it does so with passive cooling. In Issue 136, I showed the...
![[LMG S11] Issue 137: The M1 Macbook Air](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue137/issue137_01.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 137: The M1 Macbook Air
Previously: Slim laptops have been undergoing a gradual transition: more and more of their chips are no longer available as a replaceable card, but instead...
![[LMG S11] Issue 136: The mobile workstation – laptops](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue136/issue136_01.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 136: The mobile workstation – laptops
Previously: A modern CPU is manufactured through a process called photolithography, by which the CPU components are etched onto the silicon substrate by...
![[LMG S11] Issue 135: Part 2 – Unifying the CPU and MCH (post-2008)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue134/issue134_02.gif)
[LMG S11] Issue 135: Part 2 – Unifying the CPU and MCH (post-2008)
Previously: Light takes 0.3 ns to travel 10 cm, approximately the distance by wire between the CPU and the MCH. This potentially causes operations between...
![[LMG S11] Issue 134: Part 1 – the Intel Core i-series launches!](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue134/issue134_01.gif)
[LMG S11] Issue 134: Part 1 – the Intel Core i-series launches!
Previously: The ATX form factor also brought with it a new breed of computers with more specialised chipsets: the memory controller hub (MCH) and peripheral...
![[LMG S11] Issue 133: the ATX form factor (post-1995)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue133/issue133_02.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 133: the ATX form factor (post-1995)
Previously: Chipsets served as go-betweens in the AT form factor by IBM. In 1993, Intel launched its Pentium line of processors; barely two years later, in...
![[LMG S11] Issue 132: the AT form factor (pre-1995)](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue132/issue132_01.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 132: the AT form factor (pre-1995)
Previously: CPUs have limited throughput, since there is a max frequency they can operate at, and a limit to the number of wires they can be connected to...
![[LMG S11] Issue 131: What do early CPUs and startup founders have in common?](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ngjunsiang/laymansguide/release/season11/issue131/issue131_01.jpg)
[LMG S11] Issue 131: What do early CPUs and startup founders have in common?
Previously: AC power from the wall uses electric current that alternates directions, while DC power from batteries uses electric current that flows in one...
![[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...