The CPU: The Real Computer
- interprets and executes the instructions in each program
- supervises arithmetic and logical data manipulations
- communicates with all the other parts of the computer system indirectly through memory
- an extraordinary complex collection of electronic circuits
- housed along with other chips and electronic components on the motherboard
- All software is not necessarily compatible with every CPU
- software written for the Power PC family of processors used in Macintosh computers wont run on Intel processors
- Both programs written for Linux cant run on Windows
- Both systems run on PCs powered by Intel's microprocessor
- CPUs in the same family are generally designed to be backward compatible
- Newer processors can process all the instructions handled by earlier models
- Applications require faster machines to produce satisfactory results
- A computer's overall performance is determined by: its microprocessor's internal clock speed, measured in units called gigahertz (GHz) fir billions of clock cycles per second
- the architecture and word size of the processor
- High-end workstations and servers use a 64-bit processor
- most PCs and Macs use 32-bit processors
- some embedded and special-purpose computers still use 8 and 16 bit processors
- Techniques for speeding up a computer's performance: parallel processing, server clusters
- Application require faster machines to produce satisfactory results
- A computer's overall performance is determined by: Its microprocessor's imternal clock speed
- measured in units called gighertz (GHz) for billions of clock-cycles per second
- The architecute and word size of the processor
- High-end workstations and servers use 64-bit processors
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