Central processing unit (CPU) Ch 1, Lesson 3

Clock Rate

- the speed at which instructions are executed by CPU. - This speed is regulated using an internal clock and is expressed as the number of clock cycles per second.

Arithmetic logic unit (ALU)

The first component CPU, performs simple arithmetic and logical operations

Central processing unit (CPU)

brain of your computer.

Bottom-view of an Intel CPU

the gold plated pins provide the connections to the motherboard

hertz

- unit used to express the clock rate is hertz, abbreviated as Hz. - So when a processor has a clock speed of 3.5 GHz that means 3.5 gigahertz, or 3.5 billion clock cycles per second

ALU

- where the calculations occur - To a computer, the world consists of zeros and ones. Inside a processor, we can store zeros and ones using transistors.

heat sink and/or fan

A CPU gets very hot and therefore needs its own cooling system in the form of a

motherboard

CPUs are located on here. they have a socket for this, which is specific for a certain type of processor.

microprocessor

Early CPUs consisted of many separate components, but since the 1970s, they have been constructed as a single integrated unit called a microprocessor. - A CPU is a specific type of microprocessor. - The individual components of a CPU have become so integrated that you can't even recognize them from the outside.

several hundred million

Modern day CPUs contain roughly this many transistors

cache

Third component of CPU, serves as high-speed memory where instructions can be copied to and retrieved.

Top-view of an Intel CPU

Top-view of an Intel CPU - because it is a single integrated unit, the components are not visible from the outside

CPU

central processing unit

integer range

defines how a CPU represents numbers. Bits are binary digits: zero and one. This is rather simple, so to represent more complicated numbers, we need more bits.

Central processing unit (CPU)

handles all the instructions you give your computer, and the faster it does this, the better.

silicon

material that computer chips are made of

transistors

microscopic switches that control the flow of electricity depending on whether the switch is on or off. - contains binary information - a one if a current passes through - zero if a current does not pass through. located on a very thin slice of silicon. - A single silicon chip can contain thousands of transistors.