A central processing unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that executes instructions that make up a computer program.
CPUs can only carry out one instruction at a time.
It might seem like CPUs can perform many instructions simultaneously, since it is possible for you to do homework, read instant messages and listen to music at the same time. However, the CPU is able to carry out instructions at such speed that it can seem like it is simultaneous.
The speed at which the CPU can carry out instructions is called the clock speed. This is controlled by a clock. With every tick of the clock, the CPU fetches and executes one instruction. The clock speed is measured in cycles per second, and one cycle per second is known as 1 hertz. This means that a CPU with a clock speed of 2 gigahertz (GHz) can carry out two thousand million (or two billion) cycles per second.
The higher the clock speed a CPU has, the faster it can process instructions.
Note: When referring to a computer processor or CPU, GHz is a clock frequency, also known as a clock rate or clock speed, representing a cycle of time. An oscillator circuit supplies a small amount of electricity to a crystal each second that is measured in kHz, MHz, or GHz. “Hz” is an abbreviation of Hertz, and “k” represents Kilo (thousand), “M” represents Mega (million), and “G” represents Giga (thousand million).
A CPU is traditionally made up of a processor with a single core. Most modern CPUs have two, four or even more cores.
A CPU with two cores, called a dual core processor, is like having two processors in one. A dual core processor can fetch and execute two instructions in the same time it takes a single core processor to fetch and execute just one instruction. A quad core processor has four cores and can carry out even more instructions in the same period of time.
When dealing with multiple cores, instructions have to be split up to decide which core will execute them and the results have to be merged together again at the end, which slows the processor down a little.
A cache (pronounced ‘cash’) is a tiny block of memory built right onto the processor. The most commonly used instructions and data are stored in the cache so that they are close at hand. The bigger the cache is, the more quickly the commonly used instructions and data can be brought into the processor and used.