Central Processing Unit
What is its purpose?
How does it connect?
The CPU connects to the computer system via a socket on the motherboard either called a ZIF( Zero Insertion Force) or LGA( Land Grid Array) socket, different makes of processor have different sockets for example AMD FX8350 processors uses the AM3+ socket whereas the Intel i3, i5 and i7 use the 1155 socket along with others but they are the most notable, this is important when buying processors to make sure that it is compatible with the motherboard. Brands?
The most notable brands for processors are Intel and AMD, there are other brands like IBM who make processors but are less known so not many people buy them. Models / varieties/ types?
As stated above there are two main brands of CPU AMD and Intel these have many different models and variations of the same models for example the Intel Pentium has 47 different variants, there are also 13 different types of Intel processors including mobile and server processors, these include the Intel Atom, Celeron (desktop), Pentium (desktop), i3, i5, i7 and the i7 extreme for desktop, for mobile there is the Intel Atom for smartphone and tablet, Celeron (mobile), Pentium (mobile), i3, i5, i7 and the i7 extreme and finally for the server there is the Intel Itanium, Xeon E3 family, Xeon 500 sequence, Xeon E5 family and the Xeon E7 family. Each of these processors has different variations of them. There are 10+ AMD processors including server and mobile, there are 317 different types and variants of desktop processors, the 5 main types of desk top processors are the AMD Sempron, Athlon, Phenom, A-series and the FX range. |
How is it used within a computer system?
A CPU is used as the “brain of the computer” and handles all of the processing in the computer. Cost?
A low range Intel Pentium is about £50, a low range Intel i3 is about £90, a mid-range i5 would cost £174 and a top of the range Intel i7 would cost £268 A low arrange AMD Athlon would cost about £39, a mid-range AMD Phenom is around about £118, whereas the top of the range AMD FX9590 is £700 this includes a whopping 4.7GHz clock speed. Speed/Capacity?
All speeds in a CPU are controlled by the CPU clock that runs at a certain frequency usually in the GHz range, the speed of a CPU is either measured in operations per second or million operations per second (MIPS) this is in most modern computers. The frequency of the CPU determines how many cycles the CPU does a second. Compatibility issues?
Compatibility issues arise from there being two different makes of processor is that there will be two different types of socket one for AMD processors (there are different types of AMD sockets too) and one for Intel (there are different types of Intel sockets too) meaning of you had an AMD motherboard and you wanted to get an Intel processor you will have to either buy the AMD equivalent or buy a new motherboard with the correct Intel socket. |
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cpu.docx | |
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