Chapter 3- CPUs Flashcards
What three components make up a CPU?
- microprocessor
- heat sink
- cooling fan
external data bus
physical communication method between CPU and the RAM; wires connected to CPU that emit and transmit electrical pulses representing binary code
register
the register is a workspace for the microprocessor; the general purpose registers are AX, BX, CX, and DX
machine language
binary codes that act as commands; placing these as lines of codes on the EDB will give the CPU tasks to complete
instruction set
machine language commands that are understood by a specific CPU
clock wire
a wire that transmits a pulse to the microprocessor which causes it to initialize or complete a command
clock cycle
a single charge to the clock wire
clock speed
maximum number of clock cycles a CPU can handle in a given period of time as determined by its manufacturer
What measurement do we use for oscillating waveforms of electromagnetic energy known as AC?
hertz; 1 hertz is equivalent to one cycle per second
system crystal
the silicon crystal soldered onto a motherboard that determines a CPUs maximum speed for that system; flaws in silicon inside of a CPU determine top speeds for a CPU
How does the quartz oscillator regulate top speed for a computer system?
The quartz oscillator sends a pulse to the clock chip, usually many millions of times in a second. The clock chip increases the pulse by a large multiple and sends it to the clock wire of the CPU. The CPU then interprets these pulses as commands.
RAM
random access memory; the CPU will access any line of code (randomly) through the RAM
How many bits makes up a byte?
8 bits
memory controller chip (MCC)
a chip that communicates between the CPU and RAM which allows the CPU to pull any specific line of code from the RAM “spreadsheet”
address bus
second set of wires from the CPU to MCC which tells the MCC which lines of code to grab from the RAM
How many bytes is in a kilobyte?
1,000 (2^10=1024)
