A star's evolution is determined by its mass. If the star is one of a binary system, it can evolve and capture mass from its partner, changing its ultimate destination (including Type I supernovae). Look it all up in Google. The world is raining knowledge. Don't use your soup bowl as a rain bonnet.
Small stars (the Sun) will eventually bloat, blow off their outer shell of mass, and leave behind a white dwarf that will slowly cool. It's boring overall and tough on the planets.
Heavier stars will go Type II supernova: When their cores reach iron by fusion there is no further energy to be had to keep the star inflated, temperature vs. gravitation. The extraordinary temperature of that iron core plus the increasing pressure lead to sudden photodisintegration of the iron nuclei - and that is endothermic! Suddenly, nothing is holding the star inflated. The core squeezes into neutronium with a huge blast of neutrinos (90% of the total energy emitted - the big flash to follow is piddles) as electrons and protons combine. What happens next depends on the amount of mass present.
1) The remaining core is around 1.5 solar masses. As the outer layers blow off into a Type II supernova, the core is stable as a very hot, very rapidly rotating neutron star.
2) If the core is much larger, even Pauli exclusion can't keep it inflated against gravitational pressure. The neutronium collapses all the way to a singularity surrounded by a black hole.
However... SN1987a which is relatively close by and very visible, star to Type II supernova to current remnant,
http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/guidry/violence/sn87a.html
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/StarDeath/sn1987a.html
http://chem.tufts.edu/science/astronomy/SN1987A.html
left no neutron star or black hole visible to date, even by inference. This is a curiosity with no explanation.
----------------
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/qz4.htm