Comments on: What Is A CPU and What Does It Do? [Technology Explained]

By: Alita

Alita — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:48:44 +0000

Nice article, thanks a lot!!!

By: Jim Hamm

Jim Hamm — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 22:10:38 +0000

Shouldn’t that be 2.8 billion cycles, not 2.8 thousand? ….You stated: “2.8 GHz (Gigahertz), which means that the clock cycles two thousand eight hundred times a second”

By: Angelina

Angelina — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:12:54 +0000

That was a typo… I’ll ask the editor to revise it. Thanks for pointing it out!

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:25:12 +0000

Yeah, 2.8 Gigahertz is 2.8 billion clock cycles per second.
Not 2800, more like 2 800 000 000.

By: JustMe

JustMe — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:37:47 +0000

Wow, that’s interesting.

By: Brian Tkatch

Brian Tkatch — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 22:55:49 +0000

“Assembly language is a language that the CPU understands,”

The CPU does not understand Assembly. It’s understands op codes. An Assembler assembles the op code from the Assembly code.

“binary code”

I think you mean op codes. Which are in binary. But then again, all code is ultimately binary.

“Using its Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), the CPU can calculate extremely complicated mathematical functions”

Not really. The CPU does simple functions. A library usually breaks down complex functions into simple ones for the CPU.

There are many other things the CPU does, such as handle interrupts, redirect instructions, and whatnot.

I look forward to part 2.