INTRODUCTION
Imagine for a moment that you are reduced to the size of a molecule and were standing on an Intel processor. What would you see? Mostly, you would see gates. A gate is a kind of transistor that controls the flow of electricity.

What you see might see could look a bit like the image at the right, but naturally it makes no sense, yet. But understanding gates and why they occur in computers is useful for understanding the need for binary and hexadecimal number systems. If you look at the on/off switch on your computer, you will probably notice that the icon on the switch looks like a circle with a line passing through the top. That is actually a zero and a one. Zero means “off,” and one means “on.” When you switch your computer on, you are switching it to a state of “1.” Gates work much the same way. Collections of gates working in combination can create a binary number (e.g., 01001011) that becomes a meaningful message. By putting billions of gates into a processor, Intel and other chip manufacturers make it possible to create general purpose, programmable computers.

This chapter explains how it all works. Next

The above image is much like Intel would use to explain how gates work on their processors. Presently, it makes no sense. By the end of this chapter, however, it should all come together.