Computer Inside Map — Step 1
Base Motherboard (physical blocks only)
Click parts on the board
Motherboard
Step 1: Physical blocks + buses + interrupts (no OS concepts yet)
CPU
Chip / Package
RAM
Memory Slots
ROM / Firmware
BIOS / UEFI Chip
I/O Controller
Chipset / Hub
Storage
SSD / HDD
Devices
Keyboard / Network / etc.
Peripheral #1
Peripheral #2
PCIe
Memory Bus
I/O Bus
Storage Bus
Device Bus
Firmware Path
Interrupts
Blocks
Buses
Interrupt lines (dashed)
Tip: click any block/line
RAM Zoom
Grouped view (no clutter): Kernel Space • User Space • Shared/IPC • Per-process layout
Close
Main Memory (RAM)
Click a region to drill down
Kernel Space
Kernel + core OS structures
process table • scheduler • interrupt table • drivers • buffers • page tables
User Space
Many running processes live here
Process A
Process B
Process C
Shared / IPC
pipes • socket buffers • shared pages • semaphores • mutexes
Per-process layout
text • data • heap • stack • PCB • mmap
Boot-time note: bootloader + kernel image are loaded into RAM temporarily
Click a RAM region
Start with
Kernel Space
or
Per-process layout
.
Anti-overcrowding rule:
the diagram shows only 4 big regions. Details appear here in the panel when you click.
CPU Zoom
Registers • Cache • Timer • Interrupts
Close
CPU
Click a region to drill down
Registers
Tiny, fastest storage
PC / SP / general registers
Cache
L1 / L2 / L3
Speeds up RAM access
Timer
Hardware clock ticks
Enables time-sharing
Interrupts
Events from devices
CPU jumps to handler
Note: "Interrupt table" lives in RAM; CPU receives the interrupt signal.
Click a CPU region
Start with
Registers
or
Timer
.
No clutter:
only 4 big regions on the diagram. Details show here when you click.
Boot Zoom
ROM → RAM → Kernel → init → services/login
Close
Boot Sequence
Press Play or Step through
ROM / Firmware (BIOS/UEFI)
CPU starts here (non-volatile)
Bootloader (loaded into RAM)
Firmware reads it from storage → RAM, then runs it
Kernel (loaded into RAM)
Bootloader loads kernel → jumps to kernel start
init / system services / login
Boot explanation
Press
Play
to see the sequence. Or use
Step
.
Play
Step
Reset
Key idea:
firmware is in
ROM
, but the running OS (kernel) must be in
RAM
.
Process Life
fork → run → wait → exit
Close
Process Lifecycle
Press Play or Step through
Parent process (already running)
fork() → child created
New PID, new process entry (process table)
run (scheduled on CPU)
CPU loads its registers → executes its instructions
wait (blocked)
exit (terminated)
Process explanation
Press
Play
to see the lifecycle. Or use
Step
.
Play
Step
Reset
Key idea:
a process is a running program instance with its own PID and memory.