Central processing unit

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"CPU" redirects here. For other uses, see CPU (disambiguation).

"Computer processor" redirects here. For other uses, see Processor.

An Intel 80486DX2 CPU, as seen from above

Bottom side of an Intel 80486DX2, showing its pins

A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor or main processor, is
the electronic circuitry within a computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by
performing the basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations specified by the
instructions. The computer industry has used the term "central processing unit" at least since the
early 1960s.[1] Traditionally, the term "CPU" refers to a processor, more specifically to its processing
unit and control unit (CU), distinguishing these core elements of a computer from external
components such as main memory and I/O circuitry.[2]
The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed over the course of their history, but
their fundamental operation remains almost unchanged. Principal components of a CPU include
the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) that performs arithmetic and logic operations, processor registers that
supply operands to the ALU and store the results of ALU operations and a control unit that
orchestrates the fetching (from memory) and execution of instructions by directing the coordinated
operations of the ALU, registers and other components.
 Most modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning they are contained on a single integrated
circuit (IC) chip. An IC that contains a CPU may also contain memory, peripheral interfaces, and
other components of a computer; such integrated devices are variously
called microcontrollers or systems on a chip (SoC). Some computers employ a multi-core processor,
which is a single chip containing two or more CPUs called "cores"; in that context, one can speak of
such single chips as "sockets".[3]
Array processors or vector processors have multiple processors that operate in parallel, with no unit
considered central. There also exists the concept of virtual CPUs which are an abstraction of
dynamical aggregated computational resources.[4]

Contents

 1History
o 1.1Transistor CPUs
o 1.2Small-scale integration CPUs
o 1.3Large-scale integration CPUs
o 1.4Microprocessors
 2Operation
o 2.1Fetch
o 2.2Decode
o 2.3Execute
 3Structure and implementation
o 3.1Control unit
o 3.2Arithmetic logic unit
o 3.3Memory management unit (MMU)
o 3.4Clock rate
o 3.5Integer range
o 3.6Parallelism
 3.6.1Instruction-level parallelism
 3.6.2Task-level parallelism
 3.6.3Data parallelism
o 3.7Virtual CPUs
 4Performance
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8External links

History[edit]
Main article: History of general-purpose CPUs
EDVAC, one of the first stored-program computers

Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which
caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers".[5] Since the term "CPU" is generally
defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly
be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.
The idea of a stored-program computer had been already present in the design of J. Presper
Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished
sooner.[6] On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumanndistributed
the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a stored-program
computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949.[7] EDVAC was designed to perform a
certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types. Significantly, the programs written for
EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the physical
wiring of the computer.[8] This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable
time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task.[9] With von Neumann's
design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by c