Demon of Turing

In physics, more precisely, in thermodynamics, there is such a mythical creature - Maxwell's demon. This is the name of a fictional ultra-miniature creature that sits in a container of gas and opens or closes the door in front of flying molecules. Acting according to the algorithm "let molecules pass at a speed higher than average and not let the rest pass", the demon is able to collect a certain amount of hot gas behind the door, lowering the entropy of the system and thereby violating the second law of thermodynamics.



What's interesting about the architecture of a personal computer is the fact that it all consists of a considerable number of devices, each of which operates in accordance with its own internal logic, is controlled by its own processor and is forced to coordinate with the rest to work together.



Actually, this fact is not surprising - the very appearance of the personal computer is due to the fact that many of its components were available at that time "by themselves".



All resourceful teenagers like Jobs and Wozniak had to do was simply put them together and write a minimal software wiring.



Disk drives were used in mainframes, microprocessors were used in calculators, COM ports were part of the remote control loops for various industrial equipment and the main component of teletypes, and so on.



For the correct operation of all this conglomerate of devices in a modern PC, generators of completely different frequencies are required, which then still undergo multiplication or, conversely, division. We need sources of several voltage levels (for almost gone into history COM ports, a 2-pole power supply was generally required!), From 12 volts for all motors to a little more volts for processor cores, and a bunch of voltages in the middle for powering buses, chipsets, memory.



It would be interesting to run some nano-creature inside the computer and eavesdrop on how the whole process actually takes place while the computer lazily draws its windows. Hardly everything goes as smoothly as it is drawn on the screen - adjusted by Mr. Moore's sweatshop system, all components operate at exorbitant frequencies, which many overclocking enthusiasts generally drive into the extreme region. Let's call the creature a Turing demon and send it to the very hell. Their main processor, of course, is, of course, but to say that everyone is doing its commands one-two, it would be an exaggeration.



- Hey, on the bus, on the bus, why don't you output data from memory, I already have 20 idle cycles in a row?

- I give out statistics of getting into the cache:

- Got it.

- Missed.

- Missed.

- I got it.

- Missed.

- Missed.



A total of 33% of hits in the last 314 microseconds



- do you think this is normal work?

- I work, you are a processor - you count.



- Branch prediction block! How do you manage to calculate in parallel the option when A is equal to B, and the option when A is not equal to B?

- What is it? My conveyors are idle!

- Nothing, it's just that people call it schizophrenia.



- USB port! Only 3 interruptions in the last 5 seconds! I dump idle cycles ...

- What can I do? There is a penguin sitting there and barely moving the mouse.

- If only it worked with the frequency of the external bus!

- If he worked at least with the frequency of the external bus, he would not need any computers to help him for nothing.



MEMORY CONTROLLER - PARITY ERROR! PROCESSOR - LORD JESUS. ...



- Hard disk, what's going on there? Where is the data: lane 38, sector 234, fourth surface?

- Oh, you know how everything works inside me! I'm generally one-blinded.

“I don’t want to know!”

- Well, don't stop me from moving the bad sector, I'll be ready - I'll send an interrupt.



The Turing Demon continues his hard work. Wait for new reports!