https://github.com/hackclub/putting-the-you-in-cpu

A technical explainer by @kognise of how your computer runs programs, from start to finish.
https://github.com/hackclub/putting-the-you-in-cpu

cpu elf linux linux-kernel

Last synced: 25 days ago
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A technical explainer by @kognise of how your computer runs programs, from start to finish.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/hackclub/putting-the-you-in-cpu
• Owner: hackclub
• License: mit
• Created: 2023-06-01T19:14:39.000Z (over 1 year ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2023-12-31T02:54:40.000Z (10 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-02-17T14:36:25.159Z (9 months ago)
• Topics: cpu, elf, linux, linux-kernel
• Language: MDX
• Homepage: https://cpu.land
• Size: 6.79 MB
• Stars: 4,484
• Watchers: 26
• Forks: 125
• Open Issues: 26
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

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• backend-cheats - **Putting the "You" in CPU: explainer how your computer runs programs, from start to finish**
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README

        

  

  

Putting the "You" in CPU

A technical explainer of how your computer runs programs, from start to finish.

by @kognise and @hackclub




## From the beginning...

I've done [a lot of things with computers](https://github.com/kognise), but I've always had a gap in my knowledge: what exactly happens when you run a program on your computer? I thought about this gap — I had most of the requisite low-level knowledge, but I was struggling to piece everything together. Are programs really executing directly on the CPU, or is something else going on? I've used syscalls, but how do they *work*? What are they, really? How do multiple programs run at the same time?



I cracked and started figuring as much out as possible. There aren't many comprehensive systems resources if you aren't going to college, so I had to sift through tons of different sources of varying quality and sometimes conflicting information. A couple weeks of research and almost 40 pages of notes later, I think I have a much better idea of how computers work from startup to program execution. I would've killed for one solid article explaining what I learned, so I'm writing the article that I wished I had.

And you know what they say... you only truly understand something if you can explain it to someone else.

> In a hurry? Feel like you know this stuff already?

>

> [Read chapter 3](https://cpu.land/how-to-run-a-program) and I guarantee you will learn something new. Unless you're like, Linus Torvalds himself.




Continue to Chapter 1: The "Basics" »
(cpu.land)