Part 1 The 8-bit world: the microcomputer - an overview; hardware, the anatomy of a computer - the bus system, input and output ports, introduction to memory/memory hierarchy, primary memory, secondary and backup memory, the central processing unit, introduction to processing action; basic processing action, the metabolism of a computer - timing and multiplexing; software, the spark of life - the data-transfer group, the arithmetic group, the logical group, loops and jumps (introduction to assembly-language programming), reasoning (the conditional jump), calls, subroutines and stacks, interrupts. Part 2 The 16/32-bit world: advanced processors, the new generation - the 8086/8088 16-bit microprocessor, the 80486 microprocessor, 8086/8088 assembly language programming, the C high-level language, the IBM PC family, keyboard/video systems (animation), the 8253 timer/clock chip (computer music), parallel I/O (a printer/typewriter), serial I/O (computer talk); spreading your wings - two real-world applications - signal processing (a low-pass filter), a robotic control system (light radar).