User:Lonlyrn/sandbox

About CPU The central processing unit (CPU, occasionally central processor unit[1]) is the hardware within a computer system which carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s.[2] The form, design, and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation remains much the same.Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.

History

Computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers." Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.EDVAC, one of the first stored program computersOn June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949.[3] EDVAC was designed to perform a certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types.