1. Chapter One Understanding Computer Hardware Part I: Processors

2. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Strata Objectives Covered 1.1 Identify basic IT vocabulary –Processor speed/cores 2

3. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What is a Processor? Processors are integrated circuits containing transistors Transistors are electrical gates that let power through or don’t depending on their state Transistors are the basis of binary processing (processing based on 1 or 0) 3

4. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What is a Processor? A processor accepts data to process, and numeric codes representing math operations (instructions) to perform on them. Different processors have different instruction sets Different processors can accept a different number of bits at once (word size) A bit is a single binary digit 4

5. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Processor Brands Intel –Intel Core (i3, i5, i7) –Codenames for different sub-types such as Gulftown and Sandy Bridge AMD –Phenom II –Athlon II –Turion II 5

6. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Processor Sockets Pin Grid Array (PGA) Ball Grid Array (BGA) Land Grid Array (LGA) 6

7. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Processor Speed Measured in Hertz (Hz) Megahertz (MHz) = millions of Hz Gigahertz (GHz) = billions of Hz The fastest processors today run at more than 3 GHz 7

8. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Instructions Per Second IPS, the number of instructions a processor can complete per second Measured in millions MIPS = millions of instructions per second For example, the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition runs at 3.3GHz and processes 147,600 MIPS 8

9. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Processor Cache L1, on die –Smallest –Closest to CPU L2, on chip L3, on chip –Largest –Farthest from CPU –On multi-core CPU, shared among all cores 9

10. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Multicore Processors Multiple CPUs in a single chip All on the same die Dual-core and quad core are common 10

11. © 2006-2011 Wiley, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cooling Fans and Heat Sinks Active –Moving parts (usually a fan) –Very effective –Uses power Passive –No moving parts –Not as effective –Does not use power 11