The CPU
Key Facts!
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CPU stands for Central Processing Unit.
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The CPU is known as the brain because it is used to process data and instructions.
What is clock speed?
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The clock speed is the measure of how fast the CPU runs.
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Clock speed is measured in Gigahertz (GHz). 1 GHz is 1 billion cycles a second!
What does the CPU do?
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The CPU’s job is to perform the FDE (Fetch-Decode-Execute) cycle very, very quickly.
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The FDE cycle allows a computer to run programs by processing instructions.
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The faster the clock speed of a computer, the more FDE cycles can be processed.
What are the components of the CPU?
The control unit directs the flow of data and information into the CPU.
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It also controls the other parts of the CPU.
ALU stands for Arithmetic Logic Unit. It performs simple calculations and compares data.
The registers are temporary storage spaces for instructions inside the CPU.
What is overclocking and underclocking?
Clock speed:
3.7 GHz
3.9 GHz
3.5 GHz
Overclocking is when the computer's clock speed is increased higher than the recommended speed.
This will make the computer perform faster but it can lead to overheating and could damage the computer.
Underclocking is when the computer's clock speed is decreased lower than the recommended speed.
This will make the computer perform slower but will increase the lifespan of the computer.