Class 1 Components

The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the 'brain' of the computer.

It's typically a square ceramic package plugged into the motherboard, with a large heat sink on top (and often a fan on top of that heat sink).

All instructions the computer will process are processed by the CPU. There are many "CPU architectures", each of which has its own characteristics and trade-offs. The dominant CPU architectures used in personal computing are x86 and PowerPC. x86 is easily the most popular processor for this class of machine (the dominant manufacturers of x86 CPUs are Intel and AMD). The other architectures are used, for istance, in workstations, servers or embedded systems CPUs contain a small amount of static RAM (SRAM) called acache. Some processors have two or three levels of cache, containing as much as several megabytes of memory.The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the 'brain' of the computer.

It's typically a square ceramic package plugged into the motherboard, with a large heat sink on top (and often a fan on top of that heat sink).

All instructions the computer will process are processed by the CPU. There are many "CPU architectures", each of which has its own characteristics and trade-offs. The dominant CPU architectures used in personal computing are x86 and PowerPC. x86 is easily the most popular processor for this class of machine (the dominant manufacturers of x86 CPUs are Intel and AMD). The other architectures are used, for istance, in workstations, servers or embedded systems CPUs contain a small amount of static RAM (SRAM) called acache. Some processors have two or three levels of cache, containing as much as several megabytes of memory.