Data Flow Inside Computer

🔄 🏭

Your computer is like a factory with conveyor belts. The CPU is the assembly line, RAM is the work table, Storage is the warehouse, and Buses are the conveyor belts that carry data everywhere.

Choose a scenario:

⌨️Keyboard

🖱️Mouse

📊 Data Bus 📍 Address Bus 🎮 Control Bus

🖥️Monitor

🔊Speaker

🎮 Control Bus

Signals: READ / WRITE / INTERRUPT

📊 Data Bus

Carries: numbers, letters, pixels

📍 Address Bus

Carries: memory location / WHERE

🧠 CPU

ALU

REG

💾

RAM

Scratchpad

🗄️

Storage

Warehouse

Step Progress

What's happening?

Select a scenario and press Next Step to begin!

You'll watch data travel along the computer's buses — just like packages on a conveyor belt.

Active Bus

No bus active yet

Event Log

Ready.

🔄

How Data Flows Inside a Computer

In the simplest possible terms

🏭

Your computer is a factory!

🧠

CPU (Brain/Assembly line) — Does all the work. Reads instructions, processes data, controls everything.

💾

RAM (Work table) — Temporary workspace. Programs and data live here while in use. Fast but lost on power-off.

🗄️

Storage (Warehouse) — Permanent storage. Hard drives and SSDs. Slower but keeps data forever.

⌨️

Input Devices (Sensors) — Keyboard, mouse, microphone — bring data INTO the computer.

🖥️

Output Devices (Muscles) — Monitor, speakers, printer — send data OUT of the computer.

🚌 Buses are the highways connecting all computer components. There are three types:

📊

Data Bus — Carries the actual data (numbers, letters, pixels). Like the package on the conveyor belt. Goes both ways (bidirectional).

📍

Address Bus — Carries the memory address (WHERE to read/write). Like the label saying "deliver to shelf 1024". One-way only.

🎮

Control Bus — Carries control signals (WHEN and HOW — read? write? pause?). Like the warehouse manager giving instructions.

🧠 Inside the CPU are 3 key parts:

Control Unit — The manager. Reads instructions, tells other parts what to do, coordinates timing.

ALU

Arithmetic Logic Unit — The calculator. Does all maths (+ - × ÷) and logic (AND, OR, compare). This is where "thinking" actually happens.

REG

Registers — Tiny ultra-fast memory slots inside the CPU. Hold the numbers currently being worked on. Like the calculator's screen display.

🔄 A typical memory read works like this:

CPU puts the memory address onto the Address Bus → "I want data at position 1024"

CPU sends a READ signal on the Control Bus → "Please send me that data"

RAM responds by sending the data on the Data Bus → data arrives at CPU

CPU stores the data in a Register and processes it with the ALU

Result may be written back to RAM or sent to I/O

Step 1 of 7

Welcome!

Let's learn how data flows.