A CPU is an integrated circuit that is responsible for performing arithmetic, logical and I/O operations.
CPUs perform these operations as instructed by a computer program.
A CPU is generally made up of two components
An arithmetic logic unit (ALU)
A control unit (CU)
Fetch - Instructions are fetched from the program in memory.
Decode - Instructions are broken up for assignment to parts of the CPU
Execute - Calculations and Logical operations are performed (such as addition)
Writeback - Results of calculations are written back to memory.
Definition: Hardware and software working together to create a working solution
Definition: Power supply to convert main AC to DC voltage for the computer
Definition: The circuit-board to which all other core components are connected
Definition: A chip responsible for performing calculations These perform instructions at a particular clock-frequency (measured in GHz) which determines how fast they can process data.
Multi-core machines can perform tasks simultaneously where this is desired.