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When looking at a CPU, there are a few basic things that we
should know about it:
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A CPU has four basic tasks that it performs. They are Fetch,
Decode, Manipulate and Output.
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Speed rating, although not accurate, is almost always measured by MHz.
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The CPU speed is determined by a combination of raw MHz as well as design
and other features such as the FPU of the chip.
Before we get into details about how it works, we must remember that, like
many other computer parts, the CPU is comprised of millions of logic gates
embedded into it which then are used to complete a variety of different
operations. The size of the CPU core, the part with the logic gates, can
be as small as the size of a smaller coin.
The gates are used with a clock that regulates the speed at which the CPU is
fed data. The speed at which it does this is measured in Hz (amount of
clock pulses in one second), MHz (about 1
million Hz) and GHz (about 1000 MHz). If there was no clock to regulate
the data flow, the CPU would be unorganized and useless. The clock does a
similar thing for the CPU as traffic lights do for the traffic. It makes
everything organized and tells when the data should pass through, and when it
should not.
Aside from the high MHz speed, Intel's MMX technology made the
Pentium a dominating CPU for the PC
© 2001 by Intel Corp.
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