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CPU of a personal computer

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Discuss in detail the CPU of a personal computer's hardware, and discuss how the characteristics of that aspect affect overall computer performance.

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This solution discusses in detail the CPU of a personal computer's hardware, and how the characteristics of that aspect affect overall computer performance.

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A computer is made up of many different kinds of hardware devices each with a different purpose. The devices are generally categorized as:

- Storage devices e.g. hard disks
- Communication or human-interface devices e.g. keyboard, mouse
- Transmission devices e.g. network cards, modems

Each device needs the CPU attention at one point in time or another depending on the requests of the device (indirectly requested by the system user). The CPU accepts requests of interrupts in a methodical fashion where the previous request state and other information (data etc), are saved before jumping to attend to the new request interrupt. This is just the basic way of handling interrupts but implies that the CPU the juggles interrupt from devices whenever they are invoked on the interrupt request line.

Talking about a personal computers' CPU it's usually known as a microprocessor which is plugged into a motherboard. A motherboard has a socket (sockets) to have a CPU fit into it. On a single microchip a single integrated circuit helps coordinate all the functions of the personal computers' CPU. Common these days are the 64-bit microprocessors which support operating systems like the Windows XP, Vista, even Windows 7 and similar other OS. In addition to this advancement in technology computers today can be accommodated with multiprocessors such as the Pentium Dual Core Processors. The hardware design doesn't change much as there aren't multiple processors physically but ...

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