what do you mean "understand hardware"? there are a variety of levels of understanding.... if you want to design circuits, there are some great texts out there. If you want to know enough to build your own computer, that is not terribly difficult. Could you be more specific in your question?

yes, now I see it was too generic. At this point, I'm afraid I know too little to even ask the right question. Need a more proper research :)

Basically, I meant the basic understanding of what is chip, what are circuits and transistors, how Software ane Hardware communicate, etc.