Central processing unit
Electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program.
- Central processing unit500 related topics
Graphics processing unit
Specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device.
Their parallel structure makes them more efficient than general-purpose central processing units (CPUs) for algorithms that process large blocks of data in parallel.
Peripheral
Auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer.
The term peripheral device refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by the computer system, but they are not the core components of the computer, such as the CPU or power supply unit.
System on a chip
Integrated circuit (also known as a "chip") that integrates all or most components of a computer or other electronic system.
These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory interfaces, on-chip input/output devices, input/output interfaces, and secondary storage interfaces, often alongside other components such as radio modems and a graphics processing unit (GPU) – all on a single substrate or microchip.
Microcontroller
Small computer on a single metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip.
A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals.
Computer program
Sequence of instructions in a programming language that a computer can execute or interpret.
The central processing unit will soon switch to this process so it can fetch, decode, and then execute each machine instruction.
Vector processor
In computing, a vector processor or array processor is a central processing unit (CPU) that implements an instruction set where its instructions are designed to operate efficiently and effectively on large one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors.
Software
Set of computer programs and associated documentation and data.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists of machine language instructions supported by an individual processor—typically a central processing unit (CPU) or a graphics processing unit (GPU).
Input/output
Communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing system.
In computer architecture, the combination of the CPU and main memory, to which the CPU can read or write directly using individual instructions, is considered the brain of a computer.
Multithreading (computer architecture)
In computer architecture, multithreading is the ability of a central processing unit (CPU) (or a single core in a multi-core processor) to provide multiple threads of execution concurrently, supported by the operating system.
Control unit
The control unit (CU) is a component of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) that directs the operation of the processor.