(#03) More processing power please!
Processor
The Processor, often said online as the "brain or heart of the computer" although new views are being shared that the software would the "brain of the computer" and the processor would be rather a very power efficient calculator. (See history of CPU's) It is a internal component for a unit system to work.
It handles the instructions from the hardware and the software of the computer system, transfers data at the rate of "speed of light" and is held in the CPU socket on the motherboard. It works in the order of fetch, decode, execute, taking input data from the user (by a peripheral input, i.e. mouse, keyboard), which it then fetches from main memory such as a hard drive. It will then decodes the data into commands, finally executing the commands for the user to see visually usually through a peripheral output such as a computer monitor or projector, finally storing the results in the main memory.
History of Processors
The history of processors dates back to Intel in the late 1960 early 1970's when they were tasked by Japanese company Busicom to design new integrated circuits for their new electronic calculators in 1969. By doing this, they invented the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Which held disputes over rights as Busicom owned the designs, but later shared with Intel a year later. Since then, there has been hundreds to thousands of micro-processors created, most commonly, doubling every two to three years following Moore's law until 2010-2015 where there is not enough room on a dense circuit to fit the quantity of transistors.
Clock Speed
The specifications of a processor are determined by cores clock rate and cache memory. As soon discussed above in history of CPU's, generations of processors have developed faster and more efficient.
The clock rate determines the overall clock speed of the CPU which is measured in MHz/GHz.
MHz = 1 million cycles
GHz = 1 billion cycles.
Using the Intel 4004 as an example again, the clock speed of the first microprocessor was 74 million cycles a second (1970), where-as today Intel have released mobile processors that run at 290 million cycles a second (2018).
Cores
Processors over the years have developed multiple processing cores, which allows the processor to manage more processing tasks more efficiently. When a modern processor has the title "with Turbo Boost" this indicates the clock speeds from the processors can be used to generate more cycles. However this does not mean that a dual core processor performs 50x more than a single core processor. If the user only manages individual small tasks at once, then the second core would have no purpose, and they are intended for more stronger projects such as rendering for animations, and can be used to assist large gaming applications. (although this is more directly handled by the GPU).
The types of cores that the processors feature are single core, duo core and dual core which are most commonly in modern computers, tri-core, quad core in high end systems, and quad-core, hex-core, and octi-core in high system enterprises. Each core is an independent processor working its own set of individual tasks, providing a multitasking performance for the user at a much faster rate.
Cache Memory
Cache memory is supported by the CPU and every processor usually has cache memory built in to it. The CPU will firstly go to cache memory to look for the memory before RAM or a hard drive to find computer instructions or data that has been asked by the user, once the CPU has processed the data it is looking for, the write-back function of the CPU will save the cached data which would allow faster retrieval for the CPU to then access that data again in the future.
History of Processors
The history of processors dates back to Intel in the late 1960 early 1970's when they were tasked by Japanese company Busicom to design new integrated circuits for their new electronic calculators in 1969. By doing this, they invented the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Which held disputes over rights as Busicom owned the designs, but later shared with Intel a year later. Since then, there has been hundreds to thousands of micro-processors created, most commonly, doubling every two to three years following Moore's law until 2010-2015 where there is not enough room on a dense circuit to fit the quantity of transistors.
Clock Speed
The specifications of a processor are determined by cores clock rate and cache memory. As soon discussed above in history of CPU's, generations of processors have developed faster and more efficient.
The clock rate determines the overall clock speed of the CPU which is measured in MHz/GHz.
MHz = 1 million cycles
GHz = 1 billion cycles.
Using the Intel 4004 as an example again, the clock speed of the first microprocessor was 74 million cycles a second (1970), where-as today Intel have released mobile processors that run at 290 million cycles a second (2018).
Cores
Processors over the years have developed multiple processing cores, which allows the processor to manage more processing tasks more efficiently. When a modern processor has the title "with Turbo Boost" this indicates the clock speeds from the processors can be used to generate more cycles. However this does not mean that a dual core processor performs 50x more than a single core processor. If the user only manages individual small tasks at once, then the second core would have no purpose, and they are intended for more stronger projects such as rendering for animations, and can be used to assist large gaming applications. (although this is more directly handled by the GPU).
The types of cores that the processors feature are single core, duo core and dual core which are most commonly in modern computers, tri-core, quad core in high end systems, and quad-core, hex-core, and octi-core in high system enterprises. Each core is an independent processor working its own set of individual tasks, providing a multitasking performance for the user at a much faster rate.
Cache Memory
Cache memory is supported by the CPU and every processor usually has cache memory built in to it. The CPU will firstly go to cache memory to look for the memory before RAM or a hard drive to find computer instructions or data that has been asked by the user, once the CPU has processed the data it is looking for, the write-back function of the CPU will save the cached data which would allow faster retrieval for the CPU to then access that data again in the future.
