In an effort to make it easier to understand how these marvels of modern technology actually work, engineer James Newman has built a room-sized computer he calls the Megaprocessor, which is big enough to walk through and studded with LEDs to visually represent data moving through the system

At 10 m long and 2 m tall (32.8 x 6.6 ft), the machine reveals the inner workings of a microprocessor on a macro scale. In creating his Megaprocessor, Newman says he wanted to demonstrate the invisible processes that take place inside modern microprocessors to let the layman see behind the curtain of electronic devices they use everyday.

Just like modern processors, the key to the Megaprocessor is transistors. Current microprocessors use millions or billions of tiny ones on a tiny integrated silicon chip, but to blow it up to a scale we can actually see, Newman built the Megaprocessor using tens of thousands of larger, electronic hobbyist transistors, with LEDs attached to the inputs and outputs that light up as the current moves through them.