Nt1310 Central Processing Unit

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The central processing unit, CPU, can be referred to as the “brains of the computer.” It is one of the most important processing units due to how it can process information based on inputs. The CPU is able to manipulate, store, retrieve and even display information in binary form. It takes instructional inputs from the computer’s RAM, decodes and processes the data before having a resulting output. You are able to find this processing unit not only in computers but smart TV’s, tablets and smartphones as well. However, you are able to find CPU’s with different type of designs, architecture. Two categories that you can classify a processor under are RISC, Reduced Instruction Set Computer, and CISC, Complex Instruction Set Computer. “Instruction …show more content…

This architecture uses cache for holding both data and instructions, sharing the same path for each as well. New commands can be easily implemented without changing the structure of the sets due to the architecture using “general-purpose” hardware to execute commands (Hub). Instructions in CISC are performed by micro program, which holds sequences of microinstructions. What is thought to be an ideal CISC processor is that every complete instruction would need only one clock cycle however in reality, some instructions take more then one. The processor is able to handle this slowdown because it is designed to have complicated processes happen within each cycle. CISC based machine are designed to decrease memory cost due to the lowered amount of instructions. In a general sense, the number of instructions to each program is reduced in result of embedding a certain amount of operations to a single instruction. For this reason CISC code is more programmer friendly however tends to be more machine oriented. This architecture is also able to execute larger and more complex instructions at a time. With more complex instructions in a shorter time, this made more efficient use of slower speeds of main memory. Some instructions that require register operands may take only bytes while others that …show more content…

To pick one to be better then the other is a difficult task because each is efficient in different type of scenarios. One of the biggest differences their approaches to coding. CISC assembly language is more complicated then RISC, who is considered to be more programmer-friendly. Another major difference is that RISC emphasizes efficiency with cycles per instruction. CISC emphasizes in efficiency with instructions per program. In recent times, new technology has made it possible to create hybrid versions of both. With technological upgrades and decrease in hardware costs, consumers are able to find processors having a mix of both with variations depending on the electronic. Intel, CISC, is widely known for their presence in most computers due to the amount of research and testing they provided. RISC processors are extremely common today is many mobile electronics because of consumer demand on battery life. Due to such an abundant amount of research, it is possible to see new processors with combined

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