A central processing unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that carries out instructions of a program and does basic math and controls the input and output processes. A CPU can generate any number of memory addresses. It can generate a physical address that refers to a specific device, a virtual address that addresses a virtual memory address, and a CPU may also refer to a memory address that resides as part of the general registers of a computer that do math as well as execute some low level computer programs such as assembler.
The most basic operation of a CPU is to execute a sequence of stored instructions in the form of a program. The program is held in memory as a series of numbers. The CPU has come a long way since the days of the earliest computers and the introduction of the integrated circuit had a profound effect on CPU technology.
Today CPUs are referred to in terms of their performance. Speed or clock speed is expressed most often in Hertz and instructions per clock (IPC) and these terms refer to the number of instructions a CPU can process in a given time frame. The faster the CPU, the more expensive it is, though relative prices have dropped so much that computers became a common item in households in the 1980's.
The CPUs operating laptops and PCs are many thousands of times more powerful than the computers we used to land on the moon in the 1960s. Progress in this field is so fast that a new computer you buy today will be obsolete in two or three years. New CPUs come out every year and you can expect them to be faster and faster in the future as computers take hold of just about every part of business and personal life.
The most basic operation of a CPU is to execute a sequence of stored instructions in the form of a program. The program is held in memory as a series of numbers. The CPU has come a long way since the days of the earliest computers and the introduction of the integrated circuit had a profound effect on CPU technology.
Today CPUs are referred to in terms of their performance. Speed or clock speed is expressed most often in Hertz and instructions per clock (IPC) and these terms refer to the number of instructions a CPU can process in a given time frame. The faster the CPU, the more expensive it is, though relative prices have dropped so much that computers became a common item in households in the 1980's.
The CPUs operating laptops and PCs are many thousands of times more powerful than the computers we used to land on the moon in the 1960s. Progress in this field is so fast that a new computer you buy today will be obsolete in two or three years. New CPUs come out every year and you can expect them to be faster and faster in the future as computers take hold of just about every part of business and personal life.
