Today, I’ve been learning about the CPU.
What is the CPU?
The CPU (also known as the Central Processing Unit) is probably the most important component of a computer: the CPU is the brain.
How does it work?
The CPU is made up of three parts: the control unit (CU), immediate accesses store (register) and the arithmetic logic unit (ALU). The CU manages the flow of data, the register stores data the CPU currently needs, and the ALU performs calculations and logic operations.
To carry out instructions, the CPU uses the fetch-decode-execute cycle. First, the CU fetches an instruction from memory. Then, it decodes said instruction to figure out what to do. Finally, it executes the instruction. Even simple tasks may require multiple cycles of this.
The flow chart below shows how a computer would work out the age of Bo (a dog) in human years.
