Central Processing Unit [CPU] (Hardware L#3) (© All Computer Studies)

The Central Processing Unit or CPU is the main arithmetic and logic processing unit in a computer system. The CPU carries out all the instructions you give to your computer. In modern computer systems the CPU is a microprocessor chip and its installed in a socket on the motherboard. The CPU communicates with the rest of the computer system via the bus on the motherboard.

The CPU consists of different parts such as:

Control Unit: The control unit directs the fetching, decoding, execution and storage of results of instructions in a CPU.

Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU): The aforementioned ALU performs the arithmetic and logic functions in a CPU.

Registers: Registers are high speed storage areas that store data related to program code that is being executed.

Cache: Cache consists on of on-die SRAM or high speed memory used to improve access times to main memory by pre-fetching data needed by the CPU.

Floating Point Unit: The FPU is used to perform complex calculation involving fractional numbers.