Computer Hardware

Computer Hardware

1. Uses of a CPU

   • Central Processing unit
     • Handles all computers data
     • Attached to motherboard under heat sink
     • The Computers Brain
     • Carries out 3 actions- Fetch, Decode and Execute
       • Fetch
         • Collects and grabs the data before sending it to be decoded
       • Decode
         • This is where the data passed on by fetch is decoded
       • Execute
         • This is where the computer carries out the action, after its been decoded. The action has been performed
     • Clock Speed and Cores
       • Determines how quickly data is processed
       • Can complete millions of actions at once, becomes very very hot
       • The higher the amount of cores, the faster the clock speed becomes
         • It acts as a multiplier, if you have a quad cores processor it would mulpltiply the amount of hertz by 4
       • Measured in hertz (Hz)
       • 1 hertz= 1 instruction carried out a second
         • 1 kilohertz= roughly 1000 cycles per second
         • 1 megahertz= roughly 1 million cycles per second
         • 1 gigahertz= roughly 1 billion cycles per second
     • Cache memory
       • Commonly used data, such as passwords
       • Stores very little amount of data, however it is the fastest storage space when collecting data
       • Quicker than main memory
       • Stores data that might need to be used again