THE BRAIN OF THE COMPUTER

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THE "BRAIN" OF THE COMPUTER

You have seen that there are quite a few ways to get information into the computer. Once the information is there what does the computer do with it? You already know the answer: The computer process it. But how?

Instructions from the keyboard and from other forms of input - such as a program-go to the central processing unit, or CPU. The CPU interprets and follows instructions, and sends the results of its work to the user, to the computer's memory, or to both. Chips, circuits and memory Since the CPU is so important, and its speed is so remarkable, you might picture it as being very large. In fact, it can be tiny. The CPU in a microcomputer may be ho larger than" a thumbnail! And since it requires so little space, it is often included in the same case as the keyboard. In a mainframe or microcomputer, the CPU is located in a separate unit. It is this unit that people in a data- processing department are talking about when they refer to "the computer". Chips and Circuits

A chip is a thin wafer, about a quarter of an inch-square, that plugs into a board in the computer. Most chips are made of silicon, which is a common, nonmetalic element found in the earth's crust, most often in sand. Because of this, they are frequently called silicon chips, г A single silicon chip can be the entire central processing unit of a microcomputer. When it is, the CPU is called a microprocessor. Even if several chips perform all the processing, the word microprocessor is often used to refer to the CPU.

Each chip has an integrated circuit. An electrical circuit, as you may know, is a path through which electricity flows. An integrated circuit fc consists of thousands upon thousands of tiny, interconnected electrical IT circuits.

You may wonder how all those circuits get on a wafer not much bigger than the head of a thumbtack. The answer is contained in a big word: miniaturization.

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