CPU
CPU
CPU
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A central processing unit (CPU):
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Hardwired into a CPU's circuitry is a set of basic operations it can perform,
called an instruction set. Such operations may involve, for example, adding or
subtracting two numbers, comparing two numbers, or jumping to a different
part of a program. Each basic operation is represented by a particular
combination of bits, known as the machine language opcode; while executing
instructions in a machine language program, the CPU decides which
operation to perform by "decoding" the opcode. A complete machine
language instruction consists of an opcode and, in many cases, additional bits
that specify arguments for the operation (for example, the numbers to be
summed in the case of an addition operation). Going up the complexity scale,
a machine language program is a collection of machine language instructions
that the CPU executes.
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The design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building
smaller and more reliable electronic devices. The first such improvement came with
the advent of the transistor. Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no
longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable and fragile switching elements
like vacuum tubes and relays. With this improvement more complex and reliable
CPUs were built onto one or several printed circuit boards containing discrete
(individual) components.
In 1964, IBM introduced its IBM System/360 computer architecture that was used in
a series of computers capable of running the same programs with different speed
and performance. This was significant at a time when most electronic computers
were incompatible with one another, even those made by the same manufacturer.
To facilitate this improvement, IBM used the concept of a microprogram (often called
"microcode"), which still sees widespread usage in modern CPUs. The System/360
architecture was so popular that it dominated the mainframe computer market for
decades and left a legacy that is still continued by similar modern computers like the
IBM zSeries. In 1965, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced another
influential computer aimed at the scientific and research markets, the Transistor-
based computers had several distinct advantages over their predecessors. Aside
from facilitating increased reliability and lower power consumption, transistors also
allowed CPUs to operate at much higher speeds because of the short switching time
of a transistor in comparison to a tube or relay.
The increased reliability and dramatically increased speed of the switching elements
(which were almost exclusively transistors by this time), CPU clock rates in the tens of
megahertz were easily obtained during this period. Additionally while discrete transistor
and IC CPUs were in heavy usage, new high-performance designs
like SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) vector processors began to appear.
These early experimental designs later gave rise to the era of specialized
supercomputers like those made by Cray Inc and Fujitsu Ltd.
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A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of
a computer to reduce the average cost (time or energy) to access data from the main
memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, closer to a processor core, which
stores copies of the data from frequently used main memory locations. Most CPUs
have different independent caches, including instruction and data caches, where the
data cache is usually organized as a hierarchy of more cache levels (L1, L2, L3, L4,
etc.).
All modern (fast) CPUs (with few specialized exceptions) have multiple levels of CPU
caches. The first CPUs that used a cache had only one level of cache; unlike later
level 1 caches, it was not split into L1d (for data) and L1i (for instructions). Almost all
current CPUs with caches have a split L1 cache. They also have L2 caches and, for
larger processors, L3 caches as well. The L2 cache is usually not split and acts as a
common repository for the already split L1 cache. Every core of a multi-core
processor has a dedicated L2 cache and is usually not shared between the cores.
The L3 cache, and higher-level caches, are shared between the cores and are not
split. An L4 cache is currently uncommon, and is generally on dynamic random-
access memory (DRAM), rather than on static random-access memory (SRAM), on a
separate die or chip. That was also the case historically with L1, while bigger chips
have allowed integration of it and generally all cache levels, with the possible
exception of the last level. Each extra level of cache tends to be bigger and be
optimized differently.
Other types of caches exist (that are not counted towards the "cache size" of the
most important caches mentioned above), such as the translation lookaside
buffer (TLB) that is part of the memory management unit (MMU) that most CPUs
have.
Caches are generally sized in powers of two: 4, 8, 16 etc. KiB or MiB (for larger non-
L1) sizes, although the IBM z13 has a 96 KiB L1 instruction cache.
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Although the CPU isn’t as important for overall system performance as it
once was, it still plays a major role in running a device. Since it is solely
responsible for executing commands within programs, the faster your
CPU, the faster many applications run.
In short, the CPU isn’t everything, but it’s highly important. In general, a
faster CPU will mean that your system or device will run faster. At the
very least it won’t be a bottleneck in its own right. Multiple cores and
threads can help you do more things at once.
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1)Weik, Martin H. (1955). "A Survey of Domestic Electronic Digital
Computing Systems". Ballistic Research Laboratory.
3) Kuck, David (1978). Computers and Computations, Vol 1. John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. p. 12. ISBN 978-0471027164.
6) Brodkin, John. "50 years ago, IBM created mainframe that helped send
men to the Moon". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
7) Clarke, Gavin. "Why won't you DIE? IBM's S/360 and its legacy at 50".
The Register. Retrieved 9 April 2016.
9)"IBM z13 and IBM z13s Technical Introduction" (PDF). IBM. March
2016. p. 20.[verification needed]
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