The CPU

The CPU

The Central Processing Unit (CPU)

• Known as the ‘brain’ of the computer, handling instructions it gets from the memory.
• Contains the Control Unit (CU) and the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).
• Has multiple cores to process tasks more efficiently - potentially doubling the processing speed with each additional core.
• The working (or ‘clock’) speed of a CPU is measured in Hertz (Hz) which can range into several Gigahertz (GHz) when looking at modern systems.

The Control Unit (CU)

• Oversees the operations of the computer, managing the three steps of the Fetch-Decode-Execute (FDE) cycle.
• Controls the movement of electronic signals between the processor and the other hardware components in the computer.
• Important for maintaining the order of operations in the system.

The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)

• The part of the CPU that does all the calculations and logical decisions.
• Arithmetic operations could include addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.
• Logical operations involve comparing two pieces of data, examples include checking if equal, not equal, greater than, or less than.

Registers

• Act as temporary storage within the CPU.
• Some, like the Program Counter (PC), have special tasks such as holding the memory address of the next instruction to be processed.
• Others are more general-purpose and can store any data that needs to be quickly accessed by the CPU.