When learning about the architecture of computers and how it works, we are thoug

Question

When learning about the architecture of computers and how it works, we are thought that the lowest language that we can find that the machine understands is binary as 1&0. And anything that we input will have to be transformed/converted to binary, but being binary numbers wouldn't that mean that we would need another interpreter/compiler to transform binary into actual machine language? We all know from electronics that a computer is mainly composed of cpu which is an IC that is therefore made out of transistors etc, and the only thing that those tools understand is electricity, therefore electricity will be the lowest understandable language for a computer. So my concern is, is binary really 1s&0s or the 1s&0s are just used to represent the absence and or presence of electricity? Supposing that it's just a representation for absence or presence of electricity, wouldn't there be another intermediate or even lower language between the commands that we input and binary, so that the circuits would know where to send the current to and where not to?

Explanation / Answer

Digital computers work so that (almost) at any given point in time, any wire carries (roughly) one of two possible voltages, one signifying 0 and the other signifying 1. The voltages depend on the convention being used. In this sense, digital computing does work with 0s and 1s. However, even digital computers interface with analog devices, such as physical storage and networks. The way that data is encoded in networks can be somewhat different, since several bits can be encoded at once, depending on the encoding.

Let me explain my qualifications in the first sentence above. "Almost" refers to the fact that when wires switch from 0 to 1 or vice versa, there will be intermediate voltages. These switches are synchronized across all the wires so that whenever wires are "read", the switch (if any) has already occurred. "Roughly" refers to the fact that the voltages are not exact. There are two small ranges of voltages which correspond to 0 and 1. The devices should be able to "read" bits throughout these ranges, but usually "write" them more restrictively.

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