dumb first time turbo owner questions - what does the boost psi gauge really mean? are my turbos "always on" or only when the psi numbers > 0

for example - does it mean when I don't see the psi numbers going up that I am operating as a non-turbo car, essentially ~400hp motor instead of the 500 my 997.2 is rated for with turbo?

are my turbos always on when car starts and the boost is just extra juice for when I'm really flooring it? or turbos only come on when I see the boost bar go up?

last - only have 1.1k miles driven but have now done a few spirited drives, nothng close to redline or launch control yet, but I notice that with accelerator pushed to 3/4 when I punch it for a brief sprint - I only see my PSI bar go to 7. On the horizontal version, I see it labeled from 0 to 14 (with a 7 marker in the middle).

I've never seen my boost go above 7 - is that normal? Do I need to really push the pedal all the way to stop to go above 7?

 

Hit the gas (putting the pedal to the floor), shift up through the gears and watch the PSI meter top out before 100 MPH!

 

Well, at late night with about as minimum traffic as LA will get - went out on highways and I tried a full pedal sprint. Saw my boost go to 10 - didnt get over boost arrow so I suppose I'll have to experiment with that

Read the posts here now about having to really quickly push down and not gradual press to get over boost to come on

I'll have to get on some longer/straighter stretches of highway - I kept running out of road by the time I had to back off on the boost - so 10 is highest so far

 

Here you go:

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/turbo.htm

 

Normal turbo pressure is 1.0 bar (and yes the turbos are always on...at least while the engine is running since they turn because of the exhaust). Here's an explanation of overboost.