I've been writing on CPU technology here at Ars for almost five years now, and during that time I've done my best to communicate computing concepts in as plain and accessible a manner as possible ...

ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit) is the fundamental unit of a microprocessor which performs all the basic operations based on the control input selection. There are separate units which work independent of ...

In my previous article, Understanding the Microprocessor, I gave a high-level overview of what a microprocessor is and how it functions. I talked about the kinds of tasks it performs and the different ...

The microprocessor (or 'processor', or 'CPU') is often called the brain of the computer, and for good reason. It's the backbone of any PC, smartphone, laptop, or tablet, performing billions of ...

Increment and decrement. They sound like simple functions. But even the simplest functions can get quite complex in a microprocessor design. Ken Shirriff has written up a great blog post about his ...

The central processing unit (CPU) is either a dedicated integrated circuit (IC) or intellectual property (IP) core on an IC that processes logic and math. A CPU can handle high-level provisioning of ...

Businesses should expect to upgrade computer equipment on a regular basis; as companies expand, so do their processing and data needs, and hardware continues to evolve at a breakneck pace.