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| What is it? | What are the Myths? | How does it work? |
The Central Processing Unit is the part of the computer that processes instructions from the data instructions that it retrieves from RAM. The computer then sends the results back to RAM to be stored or delivered to output.
One major myth that was bestoyed on the CPU was that it was the same thing as the motherboard. The motherboard is in fact, the main board that sets the structure for the whole computer system. The CPU is thought of as the "brain" of the computer. The CPU takes care of the information, and dumps it onto the bus (circuits that that provide the electronic roadway for the information processed by the CPU). The bus and the CPU are located on on this main board.
The CPU is made up of one or more integrated circuits. A micro-computer has one single integrated circuit. It is called a mircoprocessor.
The microprocessor plugs into the motherboard and connects to the data bus.
Two Parts of the CPU
| 1. Arithmethic Logic Unit performs addition and subtraction by comparing two numbers. 2. Control Unit directs & coordinates processing. |
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A computer accomplishes tasks by following very complex single steps called instructions. The instructions tell
the computer to preform a specific task.
The CPU speed is influenced by clock rate, word size, cache and instruction set size. Computers can have a highly rated processor but if it has a slow hard drive or small amount of RAM it still may be slow.
| 1. | Power Up. Turn on the power switch. The power light comes on and power is sent to the main board & internal fan. |
| 2. | Start Boot Program instructions stored in ROM are executed by the microprocessor. |
| 3. | Power on self test completes & runs diagnostic tests on system components. |
| 4. | Load operating system. (copying of operating system from disk to RAM) |
| 5. | Configaration check and customize mircoprocessor checks and reads configuration data and starts up are executed. |
| 6. | Then it is ready for commantry and data entry. |
For the more advanced user click here to learn how to install CPUs.
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