Central Processing Unit(CPU)

A central processing unit (CPU) is the electronic circuitry within a computer that guides, directs and
governs all operations and components inside the computer. So, it is considered as a brain of the
computer. It is linked with various peripherals equipment including I/O devices, secondary storage and
memory unit. It performs mathematical computation, logical comparison, executes instructions and
transfer information between all parts of computer.

Function of CPU are:

 Fetching data and instructions from memory.

 Perform the computing tasks specified in program.
 Communicate with all peripherals using the system bus.
 Controls the sequence of instructions.
 Performing communication among the I/O devices.

The different components of the CPU are:

 Arithmetic and Logic Unit(ALU)

 Control Unit(CU)
 Set of Register

Arithmetic and Logic Unit(ALU)

ALU stands for 'Arithmetic and Logic Unit' which is a part of CPU. The ALU performs arithmetic operations
such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and logical operation such as comparison (equal
to, less than, greater than) etc. Beside these operations some processors also support operations which
check if particular bits are on or off.

Control Unit(CU)

Control Unit makes decisions and sends the appropriate signal down its lines to other parts of the
computer. It controls the timing of operations in the computer and controls the instructions sent to the
processor and the peripheral devices. There are two types of control unit hardware control unit and micro
programmed control unit.

Set of Registers

Register is a special temporary storage location within CPU which is made from transistors and flip-flops.
They are mainly used to store data during the time of processing inside ALU. The instructions execution is
performed in the CPU registers. CPU contain multiple register, some of them are: Instruction Register(IR),
Accumulator register(AR),Memory Address Register(MAR),Program Counter(PC),Memory buffer
Register(MBR) etc.
Factors affecting the speed of CPU

Factors affecting the performance of the CPU include:

Clock Speed

The clock speed (or clock rate) is measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz), and refers to the
speed at which the processor can execute instructions. The faster the clock, the more instructions the
processor can complete per second.

Word Length

Word length refers to the number of bits processed by a computer's CPU in one go (these days, typically
32 bits or 64 bits). Higher the word length, faster the CPU will be.

Bus width

The size of a bus, known as its width, is important because it determines how much data can be
transmitted at one time. For example, a 16-bit bus can transmit 16 bits of data, whereas a 32-bit bus can
transmit 32 bits of data. Larger the width, faster the CPU will be.

Instruction Set

An instruction set is a group of commands for a CPU in machine language. The term can refer to all
possible instructions for a CPU or a subset of instructions to enhance its performance in certain
situations.
Introduction to Buses

A bus is a common pathway through which information flows from one computer component to another.
This pathway is used for communication purpose and it is established between two or more computer
components. Broadly we can divide buses into three categories: Address Bus, Data Bus and Control Bus.

A system bus is a single computer bus that connects the major components of a computer system,
combining the function of data bus, an address bus, and a control bus to determine its operation.

Address BUS

The address bus carries the address of the piece of memory or I/O device to be read from or written to. It
is a unidirectional bus, which is to say that data travels only one way; from the CPU to memory. The
number of lines on the bus determines the number of addressable memory elements. For example an 8
bit bus can represent (28) unique addresses. This equates to 256 unique memory addresses. A 16 bit bus
can address 65536 unique addresses and so on.

Data Bus

Data bus is the channel across which actual data are transferred between CPU, memory and I/O devices.
The data bus consists of 8, 16, 32 or 64 parallel lines called data lines. The no. of wires inside the data bus
determines the amount of data that can be transferred at a time. The data bus is bidirectional bus, means
the data can be transferred from CPU to main memory and vice versa.

Control Bus

Control bus is the path for sending the control signals generated by Control Unit. Data and Address bus is
shared by all the components of the system through the control bus. Some control signals are Read, Write
and Fetch etc. Various operations are performed by microprocessor with the help of control bus. Control
bus is also unidirectional because only CPU sends control signals to other devices.