The Science of Everything Podcast Episode 92: How Computers Work Part II - Silicon and Transistors
Jan 9, 2018
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Binary Encoding And The Digital Abstraction
- Modern digital computers represent all information as binary sequences of zeros and ones encoded as voltages.
- The digital abstraction treats voltage ranges as logical 0 or 1 to ignore continuous noise and ensure reliability.
Why Semiconductors Are Ideal Switch Materials
- Semiconductors conduct between metals and insulators and their conductivity is tunable during manufacture and operation.
- That tunability makes them ideal for building tiny, low‑power switches used in computers.
Band Gaps Arise From Lattice Periodicity
- Crystal lattices create band gaps: energy regions with no allowed electron states due to periodic potentials.
- These band gaps critically determine whether a material behaves as a metal, semiconductor, or insulator.