Hardware

Hardware

1. The Central Processing Unit

   • Uses of CPU
     • Brain of the Computer
       • Handles all computer data
     • Carries out 3 actions: Fetch-Decode-Execute
       • Fetch
         • Collects the data
       • Decode
         • This is where the data that was fetched is decoded
       • Execute
         • This is where the action commanded is performed
     • Clock speed and cores
       • Can complete millions of actions at once
       • Determines how fast data is processed
         • The more cores the faster data is processed
           • Slow clock speed means data is being processed slowly
       • Measured in hertz (Hz)
         • One Hz = 1 instruction each second
       • If you had a quad core processor it would multiply the amount of hertz by 4
         • So basically your computer runs nearly 4x as fast
       • Kilohertz (KHz)
         • Megahertz (MHz)
           • Gigahertz (GHz)
             • 1 billion cycles per second
           • 1 million cylces per second
         • 1000 cycles per second
     • Cache
       • Stores data that might need to be used again
       • Quicker than main memory
       • Stores very little
       • Everything stored on the Cache is lost when the computer is shutdown
   • ALU - Arithmetic Logic Unit
     • The ALU is a digital circuit used to perform arithmetic and logic operations. It represents the fundamental building block of the CPU.

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