Microprocessors are integrated circuits that are designed to
process instructions. The microprocessor is the most important and the most
expensive part of the computer. There are multiple levels of performance on
multiple microprocessors. These levels of performance are based on several
factors, these factors include clock speed, bus speed, word size, cache size,
instruction set, number of cores, and processing techniques. Computer
performance seems to be measured with MHz and GHz, which actually indicates the
speed of the microprocessor clock. The microprocessor is a timing device that
sets the pace for executing instructions. Most of the ads that are seen for
computers being sold will specify the speed of the microprocessor in gigahertz.
A gigahertz are billions of cycles per second and cycles are the smallest unit
of time in a microprocessor's universe. There are other types of microprocessors
such as the multi-core processor. A multi-core processor is a single
microprocessor that contains circuitry for more than one processing unit. The
more cores usually produce faster performance.
There
are more factors pertaining to the performance of a microprocessor. The FSB or
the front side bus, a term that refers to the circuitry that transports data to
and from the microprocessor is one of these factors. The faster the front side
bus moves data the then the higher the capacity the microprocessor can work at.
RAM,
random access memory, is a temporary holding area for data, application program
instructions, and the operating system. RAM acts as a “waiting room” for raw
data as well as the instructions for the program. RAM is obviously not the only
type of memory used in a computer. There is also hard-disk storage. They both
share the function of holding data, only RAM holds data in circuitry that is
directly connected to the system board. Hard-disk storage is on magnetic media.
Basically, RAM is temporary whereas hard-disk is more permanent.
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