CPU
Characteristics that affect performance
number of core
Clock speed
Cache size
A cpu with 2 cores is like having two cpus ion one. The more cores, the more instructions the CPU can process at a time
Cpus can only carry out 1 instruction at a time. The speed at which they are carried out is controlled by a clock. The faster the clock, the faster the CPU runs. Measured in cycles per second - GHz
The bigger the cache, the more quickly commonly used instructions and data can be brought to the processor
Components
F-D-E
The CPU performs the fetch-decod-execute cycle
CU
ALU
Cache
Control unit
Manages all instructions
Temporarily stores data and instructions waiting to be processed
Arithmetic Logic Unit
Performs all logical and arithment calculations
Purpose
Fetches data and instructions from the cache and decodes it and executes it
Von Neumann
MDR
Program counter
MAR
Accumulator
Memory Data Register
Memory Address Register
As each instruction is processed the program counter is updated with the address of the instruction to process.
Used to temporarily store data whilst calculations are taking place in the alu.