CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT

The CPU is a silicon chip containing extremely complicated and sophisticated electronic circuits. It is often thought of as the "brain" of a computer and is at the base of all the tasks the PC performs. It processes all the instructions coming in from input devices and those going out to output devices. The Pentium series processors, made by Intel, and the Athlon series processors, made by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), are currently the most commonly available. Before this, Intel produced the 80286, 386, and 486 chips for DOS based systems. Many people consider the 80286 as the advent of home computing, as this was the processor that made computers available to the average person. The Power PC made by Motorola is currently the most common for Mac based systems. Before this there were 68000, 68020, 68030, 68040. The processors' clock speed gives an indication of the speed at which the PC operates. Compared to some of the first computers which operated at below 30 megahertz (MHz) today's chips begin at 75 MHz and go up to 1.5 GHz (check your local computer store for the latest speed).