I work for a major electronics and computer hardware retailer in my country in the RMA department in a senior position.
Very often I also fill in for technitians in our branches and I'm regarded as "knowledgable" on the matter of computer hardware and software.
Indeed I believe I'm capable of building new computer systems quite efficiently and quickly; And can identify a lot of hardware failures. But here's the thing - The more I know the stupider I feel: I can identify the faulty hardware but really I'm very ignorant when it comes to actually knowing in a lot of detail what's going on there.
While the whole process of merely identifying and replacing faulty hardware may be satisfactory for commercial purposes, I really don't like concluding "Yeah this part is just bad".
I do want to know further what are possible causes and how the hardware works in great detail.
I am actually going to start studying software engineering in Uni in March which will cover this matter somewhat, but until then - Where can I find out and learn more in-depth about computer hardware?
Thanks!
tl;dr: What are good resources for learning about computer hardware in depth
There's a couple different routes you can go by in here. If you prefer the physical hardware and playing with probes, soldering, etc., then you'll want to check out electrical engineering. If you want to tag things with the software side and understand what the chips do from a logical level, then you'll want to head into computer science and find a path towards computer hardware engineering.
I can't speak for electrical engineering and as for hardware engineering, I'm not sure of a book that is directly related to the field, however I have taken a machine architecture course which touched on things like how logical circuits work, how assembly relates to it and how it all interfaces together; and this book was recommended very heavily by our instructor: [url]https://www.amazon.com/x86-PC-Assembly-Language-Interfacing/dp/0135026482[/url]
It's a bit of an older book and a bit expensive, but the concepts are basically the same and should get a lot of basics covered.
I learned about hardware due to currently taking Computer Science courses in college, having to learn the parts and their functions for the CPU. The other way was by watching LOTS of videos on hardware and the market, where I came across a lot of videos that go in depth about the hardware itself.
I would recommend the videos from this [URL="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmbkRUS_4Efdt5UIhwNqtcw/videos"]YouTube channel[/URL], he has a series called "Crash Course" which covers a lot of stuff pretty in-depth.
[URL="https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile/videos"]Computerphile[/URL] also has a lot of videos, but most of them are either about software or much older hardware & concepts, and the videos can be a little slow and dry sometimes, but they are very informative.
Going through A+ study material is great for a foundation knowledge too. Check out professormesser's videos on youtube or his site.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.
