Computers exist as a collection of interrelated components functioning together under the control of a central processor known as the central processing unit (CPU). The CPU is responsible for manipulating data and coordinating the activities of the...

The central processing unit (CPU) is the component of a computer that actually processes the data. CPU designs vary a great deal, but for our purposes we may treat all CPUs as having simply an arithmetic-logic unit, a control unit, and several...

The term cycle is applied to computer hardware in several different ways. Most fundamentally, there is the clock cycle, which determines the maximum rate at which any device in the computer can change its state. There are also instruction cycles, an...

Principal component of a digital computer, composed of a control unit, an instruction-decoding unit, and an arithmetic-logic unit. The CPU is linked to main memory, peripheral equipment (including input/output devices), and storage units. The control...

The part of a computer system that does the actual “thinking” or information processing of the...

A Central Processing Unit (CPU), or sometimes just processor, is a description of a certain class of logic machines that can execute computer programs. This broad definition can easily be applied to many early computers that existed long before the term...