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To: TGPTNDR who wrote (64235)	11/21/2001 4:53:40 PM
From: tcmay	Respond to of 275872

"Tim, Your problem seems to me that you can't picture the 'first' switch. I visualize that first switch as existing in the software of the program interacting with the software of the operating system. "The program says 'take the data at this logical location'. The OS says 'that logical location is this physical location -- CPU, send a request for that data' and the cpu closes the switch to get the data." I've written enough to Tim [Fowler}, so I hope he finds the articles in Sci Am and elswhere. This whole business about "physical switches" and size and how he can't see how they could work is confusing to me. It's possible, at least it could be done in the old days, to literally open and close MOS switches inside chips by touching the external pins with the leads from power supplies. (Actually, any voltage excursions between ground and the VCC or whatever device design voltage _will_ be throwing switches somewhere in the chip.) No magic in these switches. --Tim May