| CPU The
CPU--a highly complex silicon chip ranging from the size of a matchbook to
the wallet-sized Intel Xeon--is your computer's brain, taking requests
from applications and then processing, or executing, actions, a.k.a.
operations. The faster your processor, the more operations it can execute
per second. The more operations you have per second, the faster things
happen in your applications; thus, games play more smoothly, and
spreadsheets calculate more quickly. Sometimes the term CPU is also used
to describe the whole box that contains the chip (along with the
motherboard, expansion cards, disk drives, power supply, and so on). Both
uses are widespread, but only the first is really accurate. |