La Cpu

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Central processing unit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"CPU" redirects here. For other uses, see CPU(disambiguation).

An Intel 80486DX2 CPU from above

An Intel 80486DX2 from below
The central processing unit (CPU) is the portion of a computer system that carries outthe instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brainin thecomputer. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.[1] The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliestexamples, but their fundamental operation remains much the same.
On large machines, CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal computers and smallworkstations, the CPU is housed in a single silicon chip called a microprocessor. Since the 1970s the microprocessor class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other CPUimplementations. Modern CPUs are large scale integrated circuits in packages typically less than four centimeters square, with hundreds of connecting pins.
Two typical components of aCPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes andexecutes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.
Not all computational systems rely on a central processing unit. An array processor or vector processor has multiple parallelcomputing elements, with no one unit considered the "center". In the distributed computing model, problems are solved by a distributed interconnected set of processors.