What is the function of a CPU?

A Central Processing Unit (CPU for short) is the often referred to as the brains of a computer system, and is built using the RISC architecture (Reduced Instruction Set Computing).

The CPU carries out the instructions of a computer program such as, Microsoft Office, Word Powerpoint, Dreamweaver and Photoshop (amongst many other software programs that run on your computer); at the heart of the CPU is an Arithmetic Logic Unit (otherwise known as ALU for short), which works through a sequence of instructions using a Fetch Execute Decode Cycle (abbreviated to FEDC).

The overall design and technology within the CPU has changed dramatically over the last decade with now many technology organisations enhancing the processors with multiple cores; both logical and virtual. The logical cores use a process of hyper-threading, which is the number of physical cores, multiplied by the number of threads per core. A Virtual core is the separation between areas of a processor, designed to reduce losses in the queue during multitasking.

This paradigm shift has resulted in a much faster processing rate of binary data, which in turn has produced a faster and more reliable computer system, capable of handling vast and complex computer programs & powerful web based applications.