Where the instruction about to be run is decoded – held in the form Operator, Operand
Back
Card 7
Front
The connection between the CPU and RAM – literally a collection of wires. Used to send data between CPU and RAM
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Card 8
Front
Used to connect the various components in the CPU and also to RAM. Used to send control signals to co-ordinate the timing/workings of the CPU and also to tell RAM whether a read/write operation is needed.
Back
Card 9
Front
Used to connect the CPU and RAM so that addresses which need to be read from or written to can be sent to the memory controller.
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Card 10
Front
Used to coordinate the actions of the CPU during the FDE cycle. Sends signals down the control bus to components.
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Card 11
Front
The purpose of the CPU – the Fetch, Decode, Execute cycle. Happens continuously whilst power is on. The
number of FDE cycles per second is called the “clock speed” and is measured in Ghz (Gigahertz)
Back
Card 12
Front
The number of FDE cycles a CPU can carry out per second. Has a direct impact on the speed at which program instructions can be executed. Measured in Ghz – billions of cycles per second.
Back
Card 13
Front
A core is a discrete processing unit inside a CPU – The more cores a CPU has, the more instructions can be executed simultaneously. Has a direct impact on the multitasking ability of a CPU
Back
Card 14
Front
Cache is a small amount of memory inside a CPU. Usually comes in different “levels” which differ in speed and size. L1 cache is the fastest and smallest, L3 is the slowest and largest. All are much, much faster than accessing RAM and therefore it is used
