CPU

The brains of your computer. In fact, the main silicon chip that runs the operating system and programs, and controls essential operations.

Central Processing Unit that encompasses a computer's RAM, processing, and control circuitry, including the arithmetic-logic (ALU) unit. Both the ALU and the control units are wholly contained on the microprocessing chip whereas the primary storage is on the mother board or the expansion bus. For test comparisons of Intel Pentium, PowerPC, and Mips R4X00, and DEC Alpha, see Montgomery (1994) . Montgomery ranks Pentium and Mips highest in terms of file servers. He ranks Pentium higher on most graphics and business applications criteria except for price since PowerPC is a cheaper alternative. There are, of course, other considerations. The PowerPC currently performs better than Pentium in terms of temperature, speed, and price, but all these advantages are expected to disappear when Intel introduces its upgrade versions of the Pentium. The PowerPC, however, will not perform as well using DOS and Windows operating systems. (See also Alpha processor , Pentium , MIPS , PowerPC , CISC , RISC , Operating system , and Motherboard )

CPU (Central Processing Unit ) The central processing unit is the main brain of the computer,where the information is processed and calculations are done.

Stands for "Central Processing Unit." This baby is the brain of your computer. It processes all basic instructions and pretty much runs the show. Any time something needs to be computed, it gets sent to the CPU. Every day, it's compute this, compute that -- you'd think the CPU would need a break after awhile. But no. It just keeps on processing. Amazing. The CPU is also referred to as the simply the processor. Some people refer the entire motherboard as the CPU, but that's just wrong.