Learning Objectives To be able to describe the purpose of the CPU To be able to state the function of the CPU (fetch and execute instructions stored in memory) To be able to describe how common characteristics of CPUs affect their performance: Clock Speed Cache Size Number of Cores

Key Words Processor Execute MHz Clock Speed GHz Cache Hertz Core Instruction Execute Clock Speed Cache Core

What is the Purpose of the Processor? The processor is “the brains of a Computer System” It Processes Data Carries out instructions (Executes Them) Processors have a Clock speed measured in Hertz Number of Cycles Per Second

Processor Speed Measured in Hertz (Hz) Typical Speeds have spanned across MHz and GHz 1GHz Processor executes 1 Billion Instructions per second 2GHz Processor executes 2 Billion Instructions Per Second

Processor - Cores Each processor has a “core” in which instructions are executed. Processors can be multi-core Dual Core Quad Core 8 Core Each core executes instructions independently Dual Core may execute up to twice as many instructions per second

Processors – Cache Size Processors have “Cache” – This is very fast, and usually a very small amount of memory on the processor chip The Cache acts as an intermediary between the processor and the Main Memory As programs are executing – the Cache holds commonly used instructions

What affects Performance? Clock Speed Doubling the clock speed will double the number of instructions executed per second Cores Quadrupling the number of cores may quadruple the number of instructions executed per second Cache Size Increasing the cache size will reduce the number of memory to disk transfers and thus may speed up processing of these instructions