Computers fundamentally understand machine code, which is a low-level language consisting of binary digits (0s and 1s) that represent the instructions the computer's central processing unit (CPU) can directly execute. Machine code is the most basic form of programming that a computer can comprehend without any translation or interpretation.
While assembly language is often associated with being close to machine code, it is not directly understood by the computer. Instead, it serves as a human-readable representation of machine code. Assembly language uses mnemonics, which are abbreviations for the machine code instructions, and symbolic addresses to make the code more understandable to programmers. However, before a computer can execute an assembly language program, it must be translated into machine code by a special software called an assembler.

The process of translating assembly language into machine code is known as assembly. The assembler takes the assembly language code, which is more readable to humans, and translates it into the binary machine code that the CPU can execute. This translation is necessary because the CPU operates on binary instructions and does not have the capability to interpret assembly language or higher-level programming languages directly.

Assembly language is considered low-level programming because it is just one step above machine code. It allows programmers to write programs that are more efficient in terms of memory and processing power compared to higher-level languages. However, the trade-off is that assembly language is more complex, harder to read, and less portable across different computer architectures.

Higher-level programming languages, such as C, C++, Java, or Python, are designed to be more abstract and easier for humans to write and understand. These languages are not directly understood by the computer either. They require a compiler or an interpreter to translate the high-level code into machine code or an intermediate form, such as bytecode, which can then be executed by the computer.

Compilers and interpreters work at different stages of the translation process. A compiler translates the entire high-level program into machine code before execution, which can then be run directly by the CPU. An interpreter, on the other hand, translates and executes the high-level code line by line or block by block during runtime.

In summary, while computers understand machine code, they do not directly understand assembly language or higher-level programming languages. These languages require translation through the use of assemblers, compilers, or interpreters to be converted into a form that the computer can execute.

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An assembly language is a programming language that can be used to directly tell the computer what to do. An assembly language is almost exactly like the machine code that a computer can understand, except that it uses words in place of numbers. A computer cannot really understand an assembly program directly.read more >>