> When power stabilizes, the CPU resets itself to a tiny, old‑fashioned mode called real mode. Real mode dates back to the original 8086 chip. The rules are simple on purpose. Memory addresses are built from two values the CPU keeps in special fast storage called registers. You combine a segment and an offset like this:
physical_address = (segment << 4) + offset
Your grandmother sounds unusually proficient with this sort of thing.
I dont know, i just don't like the tone. This is a complex subject where the target audience should probably already know what is an hexadecimal number or an interrupt and the explanation of a cpu register ought to be better than:
"A register is a tiny slot inside the CPU. It holds a number the CPU is using right now."
If the subject interest you, you deserve better.
There's nothing wrong with it but most people striving to do this would make each bit clickable to detail or something so that you can read at your level. I imagine this was a constraint of the site framework or the author's writing style.
But hey what the heck, it's fine. An LLM can rewrite it to whatever level of knowledge you like so the deepest level is optimal.
I wonder if anyone will actually write their own article/blog providing a much better explanation of the subject matter. Or at least provide links to those articles that are alternatives to this.
One of the things we were taught in uni was audience analysis. I think about it a lot. What's expected to already be known? What acronyms or phrases need defining? Etc. This is an art I'm far from perfect at and it seems a lot of tech writers are too
