Processing and Memory - Strata Study Guide - page 4

Every computer, whether it's a high-speed supercomputer at
a research facility or a hand-held game for children, has a
processor—the component that performs math calculations.
Every computer also has some type of random access memory (RAM), which is used for
temporary data storage as data moves into and out of the processor.
In this chapter, you'll review the basics of processors and RAM. Having this information
will help you evaluate these components in the computers you buy, use, and maintain.
Processors
Every computing device has a central processing unit (CPU) , more commonly known as a
processor (or microprocessor). Processors are a part of mobile phones, gaming consoles,
digital music players, and everything from automobiles to washing machines. Some computers
even have multiple processors that share the computing load for faster performance.
Processors are integrated circuits containing millions of electronic components called
transistors. Transistors are an important component in any electronic device, including
a computer. Transistors are electrical gates that let power through or don't depending on
their current state. They're the basis of binary processing—that is, processing based on
things being in one of two states: on or off, 1 or 0.
At its most basic level, a processor's job is to do math. It accepts numbers as input,
performs calculations on them, and delivers other numbers as output. It's mostly oblivious
to the signifi cance of those numbers; it just runs the instructions it has been given. It's a
common misconception that the processor is the brain of the computer—it's not nearly
as sophisticated as a human brain. It just does what it's told, like a hand-held calculator,
but at incredibly high speed. The brains of the operation would more accurately be the
operating system (OS) , which feeds the numbers to the processor and uses the results.
Different processors have different instruction sets —that is, different math calculations
they can perform. The advanced processors in personal computers (PCs) have very large
and complex instruction sets; the simple processors in items like appliances have fewer
instruction sets. The OS must be written with the processor's instruction set in mind so it
can send the right codes to activate the desired instructions.
Processors also vary in the number of bits they can accept and process as input. A bit is
a binary digit, either 0 or 1. The more bits a processor can accept simultaneously, the faster
it can work through the backlog of data to be processed. The earliest PCs had 8-bit or
16-bit processors; today, PCs have 32-bit or 64-bit processors. The higher the number of
bits, the larger the word size the processor can accept. Word size refers to the amount
of data that can simultaneously enter the processor in one operation.