CPU the computer processor
The CPU or Central
Processing Unit is the brain of your PC
computer. This electronic chip is the one that
interacts with the chipset and other
components of your computer to achieve all the
tasks you ask your computer to do. The faster
your CPU is the faster the computer will be.
There are a lot of different
generation of CPUs and there also different
kind within the same family of processors. For
example, some cpu's will have different amount
of on-chip cache memory, different voltage...
even if they are parts of the same CPU group.
So before upgrading a CPU you have to make
sure you buy one that is compatible with your
computer main board.
The computer's CPU is the
chip that gets requests from the different
components of the PC devices and process them.
It controls all the PC devices and use them to
achieve the task then returns the resulting
data to the device requesting it.
Most processors have on-chip
high speed cache memory to store bios commands
and data for faster access to them. The
computer ram being slower than cache ram,
storing commands or data used repetitively in
the CPU cache will speed up things quite a
bit.
Processors generate heat and
have to be cooled with a CPU fan and heatsink.
If the CPU overheats then it will fail and
eventually be damaged if the faulty CPU fan is
not cleaned/replaced. Some computer BIOS will
have a temperature monitor for the processor
and give a high temperature warning.
The motherboard are usually
made to support one family of CPU. Some may
accept different brands like Intel or AMD
cpu's and compatible models. It usually
depends on the physical characteristics like
voltage, the pin alignments...
The processor's speed is
usually expressed in MHZ (MegaHertz) or in GHZ
(GigaHertz). A Pentium 600 runs at 600HMZ and
a P4 1.4 runs at 1.4GHZ or 1400MHZ which is
the same but expressed with a different unit.
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