The Different Parts of a CPU and Their Functions

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) handles all the instructions from a
computer’s software and hardware.  The importance of this component is largely
felt when it comes to the task you want to perform.

It’s also referred to as a processor, central processor, or microprocessor.  With

each new CPU release, laptops are becoming faster, more powerful and more
efficient.  Essentially, the faster the CPU = the faster your laptop.
Trying to make sense of all those numbers, abbreviations and other technical
specifications as you shop for a new laptop can be intimidating.  Use this guide
to familiarize yourself with the different parts of CPU and their function.
 
WHAT IS A CPU?
Acronyms are the tech world’s attempt at making confusing technology more
accessible.  This effort isn’t always successful, however.

The terms “CPU” and “processor” are often used interchangeably.  While this is
technically correct, a laptop is made up of many processers.

And although, it’s often referred to as the “brain of a computer”.  In truth, it’s
more like the heart since (like the human heart) it’s important for the
performance of a laptop’s system. 

In actually, the software is the brains of a computer because without it, a laptop
would have all the usefulness of a very efficient calculator.

 
WHAT DOES A CPU LOOK LIKE?
It’s basically a silicon chip in the shape of a square or rectangle with millions of
microscopic transistors.  On the bottom and backside are hundreds of short,
rounded, metallic connector pins.

WHERE CAN I FIND THE CPU?

A CPU’s connector pins plug into corresponding holes in a socket found on
the motherboard of a laptop.  The notched corner of a CPU helps you guide it
(pin-side-down) properly into the compatible socket located on the
motherboard.  A small lever secures the CPU in place.
 

CPUs GET HOT

After running even for a short while – like other components on a laptop – CPUs
produce heat.  Heat sinks and cooling fans are usually attached on top of the
CPU to keep them cool and running smoothly. Some laptops come bundled with
cooling components for the RAM, GPU and CPU.  Advanced cooling systems
include:  water cooling kits, which you’ll find in gaming and workstation level
laptops.
 

INTERNAL COMPONENTS OF A CPU EXPLAINED

The 3 main parts of a CPU are the ALU, CU and memory unit.  Since the
1970s, these components have become so integrated into the overall design of a
CPU that it’s difficult to recognize them from the outside. 
So, here’s a basic CPU parts list to clear things up:
Source: stackoverflow.com
1. The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) performs mathematical, logical, and
decision operations.  It can be divided into the arithmetic unit (responsible
for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division).  And logic
unit (responsible for comparing, selecting, matching and merging different
data or information).  The power and efficiency of the CPU depends on the
design of the ALU. 
2. Next up is the control unit (CU) which directs all the processor’s
operations.  It’s where the CPU reads and interprets requests from memory
and transforms them into a series of signals (binary).  Then it sends the
operation to various parts of the laptop as instructed.  The CU calls the ALU
to perform the necessary calculations.  It also coordinates all input/output
devices to transfer or receive instructions.
 3. The main job of the memory unit is to store data or instructions and
intermediate results.  It is divided into primary memory and secondary
memory to supply data to other units of the CPU.  It allows the CPU to
perform functions requested by programs like the operating system without
having to ask RAM.
Another element of the CPU not depicted in the diagram is transistors.  To
carry out calculations, binary information (ones and zeros) is stored in these
microscopic switches.  They control the flow of electricity depending on
whether the switch is ON or OFF.  Signals turn off and on different
combinations of transistors to perform calculations.  A very thin silicon chip can
contain several hundred million transistors.
 

HOW DOES A CPU WORK?

Source: missallger-iteach.org
The main function of a CPU is to take requests from programs, applications,
peripherals (like, the keyboard, mouse, and printer) and interpret what they
need.  It then performs the request, or outputs information onto the display.
 

CPU CACHE
Cache is a type of fast memory that buffers between RAM and the CPU.  It’s
like a temporary holding place on the CPU for data that’s used all the time.  The
front side bus (FSB) of a CPU connects with RAM on the motherboard.
Instead of relying on RAM for commonly used data.  It’s stored on the CPU’s
cache, which is faster than RAM because of its physical proximity to the CPU’s
processors.  This setup allows the CPU to take requests off memory, greatly
increasing laptop speeds. 
Source: LWN.net
There are three levels of cache.  Whether the CPU has an L2 or L3 Cache, on-
the-other-hand, is a reference to the CPU’s on-board memory.  It determines
how speedy this on-board memory will be during processing.  The more cache
you have, the faster your CPU will perform.

The REGISTER is just a small amount of data storage that helps with some CPU
operations.  But it’s not cache.

BINARY IS A CPU’s NATIVE TONGUE

The laptop CPU handles two types of data at any given time:  Data that needs to
be processed and the program code connected to it.  These are written in bits –
a binary sequence of ones and zeros which is the language the CPU understands.
A processor doesn’t receive a consistent flow of data.  Instead it’s received in
smaller chunks, called a “word” or bits.  The CPU is limited by the number of
bits in a word.  This determines the amount of information that can be processed
at one time during one cycle of the laptop’s internal clock.  And the amount of
RAM that can be accessed within the same time.

Whether your laptop can run a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system (OS), for
instance, depends on the size of data units the CPU can handle.  More memory
can be accessed at once, and in larger pieces with a 64-bit CPU.  Which is why
you’ll find that a 64-bit OS can’t run on a system with only a 32-bit CPU.

As a result, since the OS plays a key role in communicating with hardware

components.  It needs to be on the same level as the CPU to handle process
scheduling, memory addressing, and storage accessing. That’s why an OS is
either marketed as 32 or 64-bit.
 

THE POWER OF MULTIPLE CORES

How quickly a CPU can process data is also affected by the number of cores it
has. 

A CPU contains at least one processor or “Core,” which is the chip inside the
CPU that performs calculations.  In the early days, CPUs only had one core.
This limited computers to a single set of tasks, which made computing slow and
time-consuming.

Multi-core CPUs address this time constraint by including more than one
processor core on a single chip.  In general, by increasing the number of cores
CPUs can handle multiple processes simultaneously, making them more
efficient.
Most modern CPUs have at least two processors in what’s called a Dual-Core
CPU.  CPUs can also come in Quad-Core, Hexa-Core and Octo-Core
configurations.  A quad-core processor can perform tasks like video
editing almost twice as fast as a dual-core chip.
It’s true that multiple cores will give your laptop a speed boost.  But that’s only
if the program your running is optimized to take advantage of the extra power.

TYPES OF CPU
The power of the CPU determines the speed at which software programs can
operate.  More cores mean a CPU can do more work.  A CPU with DUAL,
TRIPLE or QUAD cores will make a significant difference in the processing
power of the laptop you choose.  The best is from Intel’s Core i5 family of
CPUs.
THE SINGLE CORE CPU
These are the oldest types of CPUs.  Since they can only start one request at a
time, they’re not very good for multitasking.  If you often run more than one
application at a time, you’ll notice a sharp decrease in performance.  Clock
speed largely affects the performance of these types of CPUs (we’ll talk more
about clock speed in a moment).

THE DUAL CORE CPU

This CPU has two cores that give it the performance of two CPUs.  Dual Core
CPUs can handle multitasking much more efficiently than Single Core CPUs:  If
you call on more than one application, it can start them at the same time instead
of switching back and forth between different data streams.  But in order to take
advantage of this technology, the operating system and the program running on
it must have a special code written on them called SMT (simultaneous multi-
thread technology). 

THE QUAD CORE CPU

These CPUs refine dual core technology.  They supersede them by adding two
more cores for a total of four to the CPU design.  Quad Core CPUs allow for
even greater multitasking.  But just like dual cores, unless the program the CPU
is running has the SMT code written on it, you won’t feel the difference.  And, it
doesn’t mean that just one request will be accomplished faster.  Rather, your
laptop will feel more responsive when you start more than one request at a time.

 
CLOCK SPEED
Once upon a time, frequency (Clock Speed or clock rate) was a CPU’s most
important performance metric.  Clock speed measures a CPU’s operating speed
and indicates how many operations it can perform in a second (CPU cycle).
Clock Speed used to be measured in hertz (Hz).  But due to speed improvements
given by the extra cores in a CPU, it’s now measured in gigahertz (GHz). 
Clock speeds are useful for comparing CPUs within the same family.  Say
you’re you’re comparing two laptops with a dual core Kaby Lake i5 CPU.  One
has a clock rate of 2.2GHz and the other has a 2.5GHz base frequency.  The
latter will perform faster when both are running at their Max Turbo Frequency.
 

CLOCK SPEED DETERMINES THE POWER OF THE CPU

But not necessarily the processing power of the laptop.  What does this mean?

A CPU with a Clock Speed of 2GHz can process 2 billion instructions each
second.  But, doubling this to 4GHz won’t necessarily double the processing
speed of the laptop. 
Unless, the laptop has two CPUs working side by side.  Then it will be able to
manage twice the instructions per second, drastically improving the system’s
performance.

There are other components that determine how fast a laptop CPU executes
tasks besides the clock speed.  Add hyper threading to the mix and the CPU can
perform even more tasks at once for a MUCH faster laptop.

 
HYPER-THREADING
A “thread” (like a word when we were talking about cache) is a stream of data.

Remember that an individual processor can only execute one instruction at a

time.  As such, if you’re running multiple programs.  Each thread into the
processor must be scheduled and executed by the core individually.  This causes
the delay you notice when you’re multitasking with more than one program
open.

Hyper-Threading is a technology that helps each processor core schedule and

assign resources to two threads of data at once.  So, a dual-core CPU can
“virtualize” two more cores, making it act as if it had four processing cores.
Just in case you missed it:  Virtualizing is when a CPU with only two cores
works as if it has four.  Likewise, under virtualization, a quad-core CPU will
process data as if it had eight processors.

To dive even deeper into this explanation, let’s look at Intel’s Core i chips for a
moment.  From least to most powerful:  there’s Core i3, i5, and i7.  Core i3
CPUs are dual-core chips.  Core i5s can be either a dual or quad core chip, and a
Core i7 is a quad-core chip.
What distinguishes Intel’s Core i5 CPUs from Core i3 and i7 is that they don’t
support Hyper-Threading.

Notes: Some applications and software are optimized to take advantage of these

technologies in what is called multithreading. But, physical cores perform much
better than virtual cores.

 
TURBO BOOSTING
Turbo Boost is a feature that distinguishes i5 and i7 chips from Core i3s.  This
technology enables the processor to increase clock speeds past its base speed
whenever the need arises.  Intel processors ending in a “K” can be overclocked,
which means this additional clock speed is available all the time.
 

HERE’S THE FUNCTION OF A CPU WITH A DIAGRAM

 
DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS OF A CPU
As we said from the beginning, a CPU is like a very efficient calculator.  Every
operation you do on the laptop has to go through this vital component.  In the
process of decoding data, the CPU performs four basic steps:

1. Fetch.  Requests are stored in memory each of which have their own
address.  In this step, the processor takes the address from the program
counter which is responsible for the request the CPU should execute next.
2. Decode.  In this step, programs to be executed are processed into Assembly
code which are then decoded into binary instructions.
3. Execute.  Here, one of three things happen:  1) The CPU performs
calculations with the ALU.  2) The CPU moves data from one memory
location to another.  3) Or the CPU jumps to different addresses.
 4. Store.  In this final step, the CPU gives feedback after executing a request
and the output is written to memory. 
 

THERMAL DESIGN POWER

TDP is another technical term you’re sure to come across regarding a laptop
CPU.  Unlike desktop CPUs, mobile CPUs need to strike a balance between
performance and power consumption.

TDP measures the maximum power in Watts a CPU will consume.  It ultimately
determines how power efficient the laptop will be.  And it’s an important metric
for determining how cool your laptop will stay when in use.

A BRIEF HISTORY INTO THE WORLD OF CPUs

The 4004 was the world’s first CPU.  Developed and released by Intel in 1971,
it had 2300 transistors and performed 60,000 operations per second.  

For comparison sake, Intel’s Pentium CPUs-which aren’t very powerful by

today’s standards-has 3,300,000 transistors.  And performs around 188,000,000
instructions per second.

CPUs have undergone dramatic improvements in capabilities since the 4004

chip.  Now you can find them in laptops, tablets, phones and televisions.  

They can handle other functions like Wi-Fi.  And many laptops share a chip
with graphics electronics in what’s called a chip set, which is a group of
microchips located on the motherboard.
These mobile, multi-purpose chips are known as SoCs (system-on-a-chip).
They’re optimized for efficiency and low power-consumption which allows the
device’s battery to last hours without charging.

Intel and AMD are the leading manufacturers of CPUs.  Although both make

CPUs of varied strengths under a lexicon of model names.  Almost all laptops
have an Intel CPU.
New CPUs are built on a “backward compatible” architecture.  They can
understand components that came prior to their release.  The concept was
introduced by Intel in 1978 with the 8086 processor.

THE CPU PERSPECTIVE

Among other contributing factors, CPU performance is becoming less critical to
the overall performance of a laptop.   

So, it’s better if the laptop you choose has fewer clock cycles but can do more
work instead of more clock cycles with less work.  This will not only produce
less heat but improve battery life. 
If you want your laptop to do more work simultaneously, you’ll need a CPU
with more cores.  Not only are modern CPUs manufactured with more Cores,
but they’re also endowed with a more robust cache. 

Which means modern CPUs can do more per clock cycle.  This fact makes clock
speed still an important specification to consider when qualifying CPUs because
it’s what allows a dual-core CPU to outperform a quad-core CPU.

 
FINAL THOUGHTS
The big takeaway here is that all the technological advancements we’ve seen in
CPUs is driven by our desire for a speedier computing device.  Getting the right
type of CPU is important for what you expect your laptop to handle.  For
activities like multitasking, having more cores is like having two, three, or four
CPUs working simultaneously.

Even though the CPU is not the overall factor in the speed and functionality of
your laptop, the choices you make will affect those other factors for years to
come.  We hope this guide gives you a better understanding of the different parts
of CPU and their function so you can choose the best one for your new laptop.

MORE INFORMATION
 

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