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Y10!30!04-2024-Components of The Central Processing Unit

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
7 views

Y10!30!04-2024-Components of The Central Processing Unit

Uploaded by

mike.saunders
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Computer

Science
With: Mr Mike
Components of the central processing unit (CPU)

Date: 30 April 2024

LO: What are the main components of the CPU

Success criteria: Students understand what


components are used in a CPU.
Components of the central processing unit (CPU)

The main components of the CPU are the Control Unit (CU), Arithmetic & Logic
Unit (ALU) and system clock.

Arithmetic & Logic Unit (ALU)


The Arithmetic & Logic Unit (ALU) allows the required arithmetic (e.g. +, - and
shifting) or logic (e.g. AND, OR) operations to be carried out while a program is
being run; it is possible for a computer to have more than one ALU to carry out
specific functions. Multiplication and division are carried out by a sequence of
addition, subtraction and left or right logical shift operations.
Control Unit (CU)

The main components of the CPU are the Control Unit (CU), Arithmetic & Logic
Unit (ALU) and system clock.

The control unit reads an instruction from memory.

The address of the location where the instruction can be found is stored in the
Program Counter (PC).

This instruction is then interpreted using the Fetch–Decode–Execute cycle (see later

in this section).
Control Unit (CU)

The main components of the CPU are the Control Unit (CU), Arithmetic & Logic
Unit (ALU) and system clock.

During that process, signals are generated along the control bus to tell the other
components in the computer what to do.

The control unit ensures synchronisation of data flow and program instructions
throughout the computer.

A system clock is used to produce timing signals on the control bus to ensure this vital

synchronisation takes place – without the clock the computer would simply crash!
The RAM

The RAM holds all the data and programs needed to be accessed by the CPU.

The RAM is often referred to as the Immediate Access Store (IAS).

The CPU takes data and programs held in backing store (e.g. a hard disk drive) and
puts them into RAM temporarily.

This is done because read/write operations carried out using the RAM are considerably
faster than read/write operations to backing store; consequently,

any key data needed by an application will be stored temporarily in RAM to

considerably speed up operations.


Registers

One of the most fundamental components of the von Neumann system are the

registers.

Registers can be general or special purpose.

We will only consider the special purpose registers.

A full list of the registers used in this textbook are summarised in Table 3.1. The use of
these registers is explained more fully in the Fetch–Decode–Execute cycle (see later
in this section).
Registers
Pop Quiz
1. What does CPU stand for?
Central Processing Unit
2. What does ALU stand for?

» Arithmetic & Logic Unit


3. What are registers used for?
» Store instructions
» Store data
4. What does the ALU do?
» Carry out calculations using addition and subtraction
» and left or right logical shifts
5. What does CU stand for?
» Control Unit
Thank you.

In our next session, I will discuss:


System buses and memory.

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