How Computer Processors Work

Written by Nicolas Ballas

(Copyright 2006 Matthew Elton)

The processor, (also known as a microprocessor or a CPU, which stands for Central
Processing Unit), does all of the computing a computer does. In other words, it is like the
computer’s brain. Not the part of the brain where memory is stored, that would be the
hard drive and RAM, but the part of the brain which does the thinking. The picture
above shows a slot 1 processor. The silver metal strips on the side of the processor are
heatsinks. These draw heat away from the processor to prevent it from overheating and
melting. A fan is also attached to the processor to prevent it from overheating too. Below
is a picture of a slot 1 processor without the heatsinks and fan, being inserted into a
motherboard connection. Slot 1 processors have the microprocessor and cache memory
attached to a circuit-board which is enclosed in a plastic shell which protects the
processor.

The slot 1 processor card seen in the above picture contains the central processing unit,
also known as the Central Processing Unit, with its level 1 cache memory. The central
processing unit also contains the control unit and the arithmetic/logic unit, both working
together to process the computer's commands. The control unit controls the flow of data,
in the form of electrical pulses, inside the processor. It gets it instructions in the form of
code, made up of binary code (positive and negative charges or pulses of electricity that
re represented by 1s and 0s) in the memory and translates the code into commands that
the computer can understand. The arithmetic/logic unit handles all of the mathematical
calculations and logical comparisons. It takes the commands from the control unit and
performs them, storing the results back into memory. These four steps, (fetch, decode,
execute, and store), are what's called the "machine cycle" of a computer; they are the four
basic steps to how the computer runs each and every program and process. The
microprocessor's level 1 cache memory is memory that is located inside the Central
Processing Unit itself. It stores the most frequently used data. The Central Processing
Unit can access the cache memory much faster than having to access the RAM, also
known as Random Access Memory, because the cache memory is right inside the Central
Processing Unit and the RAM is outside the Central Processing Unit. Below is a photo of
what's inside of a Pentium 3 processor. The control unit, arithmetic/logic unit, and level 1
cache are located inside the center Central Processing Unit chip. Level 2 cache memory
is on the right side of the processor chip.

Level 1 cache memory is memory that is located the Central Processing Unit itself. It is
often smaller and faster than level 2 cache memory. Level 2 cache memory is memory
located between the RAM (Random Access Memory) and Central Processing Unit.
Level 2 cache memory is used when the level 1 cache memory is full or is too small to
hold the data. The picture above shows level 2 cache memory on the processor card, but
not in the Central Processing Unit. The level 2 cache memory on this processor is located
beside the Central Processing Unit. Below are two photographs of a Central Processing
Unit. The photograph on the bottom is a view of the top of the Central Processing Unit
chip from the outside. The photo on the top is a map of the inside of the Central
Processing Unit, showing the different parts of the processor do. The pipelined floating
point area, logic areas, and superscalar integer execution units are part of the
arithmetic/logic unit.
At the top of the processor map you can also see the clock driver. The clock driver is
what times sets the pace for the computer. The clock's speed is how the speed of
processors is rated. Each “machine cycle” consists of two paces, set by the clock driver.
On each beat of the clock driver the control unit decodes data, which is called the
"instruction cycle” of the processor. At the same time the arithmetic/logic unit computes
and stores data, which is called the "execution cycle” of the processor. The speed of the
clock driver is rated by how many beats per second it does. One million beats per second
is called a megahertz, which is abbreviated as MHz. One billion beats per second is
called a gigahertz, which is abbreviated GHz. For every beat of the clock driver, a
machine cycle is completed. The best processors available today can perform at 3 GHz
or faster! That’s three billion (3,000,000,000) instructions completed every second! This
might sound like a lot, and it is, but a computer needs to compute this much data to run
properly. Every single little thing the computer has to do to make each of its processes
(in Windows, a minimum of 20-50 processes are constantly running at the same time) run
correctly. Each process could consist of thousands of instructions that must be
completed.

Slot 1 processors are not used much anymore. They have been replaced by faster types of
processors, such as socket939 processors and socket775 processors. Below are two
pictures of an AMD Athlon 64 FX socket 939 processor and one picture of a Pentium 4
Extreme Edition socket 775 processor. These are more modern processors than the slot 1
processors in the pictures above. AMD and Intel are the two largest companies making
processors. The way in which the processor connects to the motherboard is its socket
type, or slot type. AMD makes socket 939, socket 940, and socket 754 type processors.
Intel uses the socket 775 and socket 478 socket types for their Pentium processors. All of
these processors look similar, but they do have some slight differences, such as the
number of pins they have. Pins, also known as contact points, are tiny little pieces of
metal that connect the processor to the motherboard. Modern processors have hundreds
or even thousands of pins. The more pins there are the more routes data (in the form of
positive and negative electrical pulses or charges represented by 1s and 0s in binary code)
has to enter and exit the processor. The more routes data has to enter and exit the
processor, the more data can flow in and out of the processor, and the faster the processor
runs. Another difference in some of the newer processors is that the level 2 cache
memory is located directly on the Central Processing Unit. Any cache memory located
outside of a Central Processing Unit with level 2 cache memory inside it is called level 3
cache memory. The level 3 cache memory operates the same way the level 2 cache
memory does. Level 1 cache memory is still located closest to the core of the Central
Processing Unit and is still smaller and faster than the level 2 cache memory. Some of the
newest processors even have level 3 cache memory located directly on the Central
Processing Unit itself; with any cache memory located outside of a Central Processing
Unit called level 4 cache memory. With any processor, the higher the cache memory
number, the farther away from the core of the Central Processing Unit it is, and the lower
the number the closer to the core of the Central Processing Unit it is. Usually, the higher
the cache memory number, the larger and slower the memory is, and the lower the cache
memory number, the smaller and faster it is. The first picture below shows the front and
back of a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition socket 775 processor, which has levels 1, 2, and 3
of cache memory located inside the Central Processing Unit. The second picture below
shows the front and back of an AMD Athlon 64 FX socket 939 processor, which has
levels 1 and 2 of cache memory located inside the Central Processing Unit. The third
photo below shows the AMD processor correctly installed on a motherboard with a
heatsink and fan attached to prevent the processor from overheating and melting, since
processors get extremely hot when hey run because tons of electricity is constantly
flowing through them. Processors are often as hot as a frying pan! The heatsink and fan
prevent the processor from getting any hotter than this, because, if the processor gets too
hot, it will start to melt, or “chip.” Chipping is when parts of the processor are forced
apart by extreme heat. This ruins the processor.

On the first two processors below you can see the top of the processor on the left, and the
bottom, the part which connects to the motherboard, on the right. See all those little gold
dots on the bottom of the processor? Those are pins, also known as contact points. They
are tiny wires or small strips of metal which connect the processor to the motherboard.