The CPU

1.       What is the function of the CPU?  A Central Processing Unit is the component of the computer that carries out the instructions from a program, and is the primary element of carrying out the functions of the computer or other processing device.

2.       What was the name of the first CPU? The first CPU created was called 'Intel 4004' however it was not very powerful and could only add and subtract information. However the first CPU that was used in a home computer was called the 'Intel 8080'.

3.       Referring to the graph on page 2 of the article, describe how the speed of CPU’s has changed. The speed of CPU's change is expanential. This means it varies throughout the years, but it's always rising.

4.       What does MIPS measure? MPS stands for "millions of instructions per second" and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU. Modern CPUs can do so many different things that MIPS ratings lose a lot of their meaning, but you can get a general sense of the relative power of the CPUs from this column.                                                                                                                                   

5.       Research (Google it) what is a dual core processor, what is multitasking and how do the two work together. Dual core processors have two separate cores on the same physical machine. This means they can do two tasks at the same time without interfering one with the other or using up the others memory or processing speed. These can be located on the same mother board or separate mother boards.  These types of processors are used when several different tasks or operations need to be done simultaneously. Multitasking is when the two chips in the dual core are working on different things.