36.2 Hardware: Central processor unit (CPU)

CPU

A CPU (central processing unit) is electronic circuitry within a system which carries out instructions by performing arithmetic, logical, input and output operations by instructions. A CPU effectively handles every instruction which it receives from other components within the computer system such as the hardware as well as the software this is because of the primary components which are the ALU and CU. ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) is a circuit which is integrated within the CPU. By the name, the ALU performs arithmetic and logical operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and mathematical equations etc. CU (Control Unit) is within the CPU and has three main operations. To control and monitor the hardware which is connected to the system to ensure the commands which are received are used. Also, to control the input and output of data so that the signals are synchronised and in place. The last operation is to control the flow of data with the CPU. If everything is maintained, the CPU will operate effectively and efficiently. Together, with the ALU which performs all the mathematical equations to execute operations and the CU which directs the processing operations, that is what makes the central processing unit, and this is how it handles all the requests that the computer system asks of it. The CPU is made within a small chip which is placed on the motherboard of the computer system. Depending on what is utilising the CPU, it can overheat so many users make use of a cooling fan to allow it to function without crashing.

A single core CPU is when the CPU can only run one operation at a time, this meant that multitasking wasn’t great as it would take longer to process. Therefore, the CPU has an impact on the computer’s speed as it is linked to the processing power of the CPU. Also, due to the single core CPU, you can easily tell how good the performance is and when it lacks as e.g. if you had more than one application running the performance would decrease and be slow. A dual core CPU is two CPUs as one. This is much better than a single core as the CPU wouldn’t need to switch between data streams if more than one operation was running. Now the dual core would allow multiple operations to be running at once without degraded performance. This means that dual core can run much faster which will allow the computer system to be faster as multiple operations can be ran at once. However, if dual core is used, the system must have SMT (Simultaneous Multi-Threading Technology) which is a unique code for the dual core to run properly. Whereas, single core due to its simplicity it can run applications etc. without SMT. Quad core is a better iteration of the dual core which has much better processing power as well as faster multi-tasking. Better processing power means much better speeds for applications such as video games. This is because video games require high processing capability which the quad core is perfect for. The speed of a CPU depends on how many cores it has however there is a different perspective to how fast the CPU is. The speed of the CPU is calculated by how fast the processor is running which means how many cycles the CPU can execute per second. This is called Hz (Hertz) and this is how the speed of the CPU is measured. An example would be that 1 Hz means one cycle is executed within a second. Furthermore, if a million cycles are completed this is called MHz (Megahertz) and the standard processor speed is GHz (Gigahertz) and this means a billion cycles are completed per second. However, this doesn’t mean e.g. that a 2 GHz CPU would be better than a 1 GHz CPU as it depends on the effectiveness of the CPU and this can vary depending on the CPU’s architecture. This would be referred as clock speed. Clock speed is measuring how fast the microprocessor executes every instruction. If the clock rate is faster, then the CPU will be fast. Hyper Threading is where one CPU or microprocessor can imitate two CPUs to the computer system and the applications which make use of the CPU. Hyper threading allows the CPU to execute more than one stream of instructions to execute by the operating system. Since two streams of instructions can be executed, this means that the processor will be able to run operations much faster per clock cycle.

A CPU is needed for gaming as if the game requires execution of multiple operations, mathematical equations, calculations, AI (Artificial Intelligence), collision detection, score, progression, enemy AI etc. then it will heavily rely on the CPU and its speed. An example of this is if you’re playing offline gaming and you’re versing the CPU then this will require a lot of CPU processing power as the CPU will have to find different ways to try and beat you and execute multiple instructions as its real time. If a game relies heavily on the CPU power, then that should be of your main concern to upgrade or to have a good CPU. If you don’t have a good CPU or the CPU is outdated, then it will take much longer for the CPU to respond depending on what the specifications of the CPU are.

The CPUs which are used in modern gaming are e.g. for the Xbox One X is the 8 Core AMD Jaguar which is clocked at 1.75 GHz. Whereas, the PS4 Pro has the exact same CPU however it is clocked at 1.6 GHz. Both systems have a lot of CPU power however consoles are limited to what CPU you can have because of how expensive the components are that’s why you can get better speeds for PC. Having 8 cores allows for the consoles to have excellent multi-tasking which is important for the home, family and other uses. However, the Xbox One’s CPU is a little faster however it doesn’t make much of a difference at all for the game’s performance. However, comparing the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro’s CPU to the Nintendo Switch’s, there is a massive difference as the Nintendo Switch has the Octacore CPU which clocks at 1.02 GHz. Comparing these speeds to those of the PS4 and Xbox, the switch wasn’t on par with them and you would definitely be able to tell the difference in performance as having faster clock speeds means faster the CPU which means the quicker the executions.