Recently I studied the very fundamentals of how computers work at the level of 1s and 0s, wires, and logic gates from a book written for laypersons. I followed the book along and built a very, very primitive computer with a cpu and ram in a simulator by plotting different kinds of logic gates and connecting them with wires.
After this exercise I’m left wondering how are new chips designed nowadays considering that there are billions and billions of microscopic transistors in a modern chip? I’m assuming there are some levels of abstraction to simplify the process? I can’t imagine all those billions of transistors and wires being plotted manually one by one by people. Is there like a programming language of some sort where a compiler converts syntax into circuitry layouts?
Also, I don’t mean the physical manufacturing process. I think I have a good grasp of that. I’m purely talking about the design stage.
“But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone” by J Clark Scott. It’s a short self published book aimed at laypersons written in a very simple, sort of conversational style. Through the whole book he guides you to building a functioning computer that does some bitwise operations. I built most of the computer in a simulator program called Logisim (https://cburch.com/logisim/).
I’d recommend it if you’re looking for an easy introduction to the topic. It was a fun read for me. Get the print version; some of the diagrams in the Kindle version are badly compressed.