They know very well the basic components of a computer, but few people understand what the processor consists of. Meanwhile, this is the main device of the system, which performs arithmetic and logical operations. The main function of the processor is to receive information, process it and deliver the final result. It sounds simple, but in reality this process is complex.

What does the processor consist of?

The CPU is a miniature rectangular wafer of silicon that contains millions of transistors (semiconductors). They implement all the functions that the processor performs.

Almost all modern processors consist of the following components:

1. Several cores (rarely 2, usually 4 or 8) that perform all functions. Essentially, the core is a separate miniature processor. Several cores integrated into the main chip work on tasks in parallel, which speeds up the data processing process. However, more cores does not always mean faster chip performance.
2. Several levels of cache memory (2 or 3), due to which the interaction time between RAM and processor is reduced. If the information is in the cache, then access time is minimized. Consequently, the larger the cache size, the more information it will fit in and the faster the processor itself will be.
3. RAM and system bus controller.
4. Registers are memory cells where processed data is stored. They always have a limited size (8, 16 or 32 bits).
5. Coprocessor. A separate core that is dedicated to performing operations certain type. Most often, the graphics core (video card) acts as a coprocessor.
6. Address bus that connects the chip with all devices connected to the motherboard.
7. Data bus - for connecting the processor with RAM. Essentially, a bus is a set of conductors through which an electrical signal is transmitted or received. And the more conductors there are, the better.
8. Synchronization bus - allows you to control the clock cycles and frequency of the processor.
9. Restart bus - resets the chip state.

All these elements take part in the work. However, the most important among them, of course, is the core. All other specified components only help it perform its main task. Now that you understand what a processor is made of, you can take a closer look at its main component.

Cores

When talking about what a central processor consists of, first of all we need to mention the cores, since they are its main parts. Cores include function blocks that perform arithmetic or logical operations. In particular, we can highlight:

1. Block for fetching, decoding and executing instructions.
2. Block for saving results.
3. Program counter block, etc.

As you understand, each of them performs a specific task. For example, the instruction fetch unit reads them at the address specified in the program counter. In turn, the decoding blocks determine what exactly the processor needs to do. Together, the work of all these blocks makes it possible to achieve the task specified by the user.

Core task

Note that the cores can only perform mathematical calculations and comparison operations, as well as move data between RAM cells. However, this is enough for users to play games on the computer, watch movies, and browse the web.

Essentially any computer program consists of simple commands: add, multiply, move, divide, go to instructions when the condition is met. Of course, these are just primitive commands, but combining them together allows you to create a complex function.

Registers

What else does a processor consist of, besides cores? Registers are its second important component. As you already know, these are fast memory cells where the data being processed is located. They are different:

1. A, B, C - used to store information during processing. There are only three of them, but that's enough.
2. EIP - this register stores the address of the next instruction in the queue.
3. ESP is the data address in RAM.
4. Z - here is the result of the last comparison operation.

The processor is not limited to these registers. There are others, but those mentioned above are the most important - they are the ones most often used by the chip to process data during the execution of a particular program.

Conclusion

Now you know what the processor consists of and what its main modules are. This composition of chips is not constant, as they are gradually improved, new modules are added, and old ones are improved. However, today what the processor consists of, its purpose and functionality are exactly as described above.

The composition and approximate operating principle of processor systems described above have been simplified to a minimum. In fact, the whole process is more complex, but to understand it you need to receive appropriate education.

Modern processors have the shape of a small rectangle, which is presented in the form of a silicon wafer. The plate itself is protected by a special housing made of plastic or ceramic. All the main schemes are protected, thanks to them the full-time job CPU. If with appearance everything is extremely simple, what about the circuit itself and how the processor is designed? Let's look at this in more detail.

The CPU consists of a small number of different elements. Each of them performs its own action, data and control are transferred. Ordinary users are accustomed to distinguishing processors by their clock speed, amount of cache memory, and cores. But this is not all that ensures reliable and fast operation. It is worth paying special attention to each component.

Architecture

The internal design of CPUs often differs from each other; each family has its own set of properties and functions - this is called its architecture. An example of the processor design can be seen in the image below.

But many are accustomed to meaning a slightly different meaning by processor architecture. If we consider it from a programming point of view, then it is defined by its ability to execute a certain set of codes. If you buy a modern CPU, then most likely it is x86 architecture.

Cores

The main part of the CPU is called the core, it contains all the necessary blocks, and also carries out logical and arithmetic tasks. If you look at the figure below, you can see what each kernel functional block looks like:

1. Instruction fetch module. Here, instructions are recognized by the address, which is indicated in the program counter. The number of simultaneous reading of commands directly depends on the number of installed decryption units, which helps to load each work cycle the largest number instructions.
2. Transition predictor is responsible for the optimal operation of the instruction fetch unit. It determines the sequence of instructions to be executed, loading the kernel pipeline.
3. Decoding module. This part of the kernel is responsible for defining certain processes to perform tasks. The decoding task itself is very difficult due to the variable instruction size. In the newest processors there are several such blocks in one core.
4. Data sampling modules. They take information from RAM or cache memory. They carry out exactly the sampling of data that is necessary at this moment to execute the instruction.
5. Control block. The name itself speaks volumes about the importance of this component. In the core, it is the most important element, since it distributes energy between all blocks, helping to perform every action on time.
6. Module for saving results. Designed for recording after completion of instruction processing in RAM. The storage address is specified in the running task.
7. Element of working with interruptions. The CPU is capable of multitasking thanks to the interrupt function, which allows it to stop the progress of one program by switching to another instruction.
8. Registers. Temporary results of instructions are stored here; this component can be called a small fast RAM. Often its size does not exceed several hundred bytes.
9. Command counter. It stores the address of the instruction that will be used at the next processor cycle.

System bus

The CPU system bus connects the devices included in the PC. Only he is directly connected to it; the remaining elements are connected through various controllers. The bus itself contains many signal lines through which information is transmitted. Each line has its own protocol, which provides communication via controllers with other connected computer components. The bus has its own frequency; accordingly, the higher it is, the faster the exchange of information occurs between the connecting elements of the system.

Cache memory

The performance of a CPU depends on its ability to fetch instructions and data from memory as quickly as possible. Due to the cache memory, the execution time of operations is reduced due to the fact that it acts as a temporary buffer, ensuring instant transfer of data from the CPU to RAM or vice versa.

The main characteristic of cache memory is its difference in levels. If it is high, it means the memory is slower and more voluminous. The fastest and smallest memory is the first level. The principle of operation of this element is very simple - the CPU reads data from RAM and enters it into a cache of any level, while deleting the information that was accessed a long time ago. If the processor needs this information again, it will receive it faster thanks to the temporary buffer.

Socket (connector)

Due to the fact that the processor has its own connector (female or slot), you can easily replace it if it breaks or upgrade your computer. Without a socket, the CPU would simply be soldered into the motherboard, making subsequent repairs or replacement more difficult. It is worth paying attention - each slot is intended exclusively for installing certain processors.

Often, users inadvertently buy an incompatible processor and motherboard, which causes additional problems.

- This is the main computing component on which the speed of the entire computer greatly depends. Therefore, usually, when selecting a computer configuration, first select the processor, and then everything else.

For simple tasks

If the computer will be used for working with documents and the Internet, then an inexpensive processor with a built-in video core Pentium G5400/5500/5600 (2 cores / 4 threads), which differ only slightly in frequency, will suit you.

For video editing

For video editing, it is better to take a modern multi-threaded AMD Ryzen 5/7 processor (6-8 cores / 12-16 threads), which, in tandem with a good video card, will also cope well with games.
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor

For average gaming computer

For a purely mid-class gaming computer, it is better to take the Core i3-8100/8300; they have honest 4 cores and perform well in games with mid-class video cards (GTX 1050/1060/1070).
CPU Intel Core i3 8100

For a powerful gaming computer

For a powerful gaming computer, it is better to take a 6-core Core i5-8400/8500/8600, and for a PC with a top-end graphics card i7-8700 (6 cores / 12 threads). These processors show the best results in games and are capable of fully unleashing powerful video cards (GTX 1080/2080).
Intel Core i5 8400 processor

In any case, the more cores and the higher the processor frequency, the better. Focus on your financial capabilities.

2. How the processor works

The central processor consists of printed circuit board with silicon crystal and various electronic elements. The crystal is covered with a special metal cover, which prevents damage and serves as a heat distributor.

On the other side of the board there are legs (or contact pads) with which the processor is connected to motherboard.

3. Processor manufacturers

Computer processors are produced by two large companies - Intel and AMD at several high-tech factories in the world. Therefore, the processor, regardless of manufacturer, is the most reliable component of a computer.

Intel is a leader in developing technologies used in modern processors. AMD partially adopts their experience, adding something of its own and pursuing a more affordable pricing policy.

4. How do Intel and AMD processors differ?

Intel and AMD processors differ mainly in architecture (electronic circuitry). Some are better at some tasks, some at others.

Intel Core processors generally have higher performance per core, making them superior to AMD Ryzen processors in most modern games and better suited for building powerful gaming computers.

AMD Ryzen processors, in turn, win in multi-threaded tasks such as video editing, are, in principle, not much inferior to Intel Core in games and are perfect for a universal computer used for both professional tasks and games.

To be fair, it is worth noting that the old inexpensive AMD FX-8xxx series processors, which have 8 physical cores, do a good job of video editing and can be used as a budget option for these purposes. But they are less suitable for gaming and are installed on motherboards with outdated AM3+ socket, which will make it difficult to replace components in the future to improve or repair the computer. So it is better to purchase a more modern AMD Ryzen processor and a corresponding motherboard on the AM4 socket.

If your budget is limited, but in the future you want to have a powerful PC, then you can first purchase an inexpensive model, and after 2-3 years change the processor to a more powerful one.

5. CPU socket

Socket is a connector for connecting the processor to the motherboard. Processor sockets are marked either by the number of processor legs, or by a numerical and alphabetic designation at the discretion of the manufacturer.

Processor sockets are constantly undergoing changes and new modifications appear from year to year. The general recommendation is to purchase a processor with the most modern socket. This will provide the ability to replace both the processor and motherboard in the next few years.

Sockets Intel processors

• Completely obsolete: 478, 775, 1155, 1156, 1150, 2011
• Obsolete: 1151, 2011-3
• Modern: 1151-v2, 2066

AMD processor sockets

• Obsolete: AM1, AM2, AM3, FM1, FM2
• Obsolete: AM3+, FM2+
• Modern: AM4, TR4

The processor and motherboard must have the same sockets, otherwise the processor simply will not install. Today, the most relevant processors are those with the following sockets.

Intel 1150- they are still on sale, but in the next few years they will go out of use and replacing the processor or motherboard will become more problematic. They have a wide range of models - from the most inexpensive to quite powerful.

Intel 1151- modern processors, which are no longer much more expensive, but much more promising. They have a wide range of models - from the most inexpensive to quite powerful.

Intel 1151-v2- the second version of socket 1151, differs from the previous one by supporting the most modern 8th and 9th generation processors.

Intel 2011-3— powerful 6/8/10-core processors for professional PCs.

Intel 2066- top-end, most powerful and expensive 12/16/18-core processors for professional PCs.

AMD FM2+— processors with integrated graphics for office tasks and the simplest games. IN model range There are both very budget and mid-class processors.

AMD AM3+— aging 4/6/8-core processors (FX), older versions of which can be used for video editing.

AMD AM4— modern multi-threaded processors for professional tasks and games.

AMD TR4- top-end, most powerful and expensive 8/12/16-core processors for professional PCs.

It is not advisable to consider purchasing a computer with older sockets. In general, I would recommend limiting the choice to processors on sockets 1151 and AM4, since they are the most modern and allow you to assemble enough powerful computer for any budget.

6. Main characteristics of processors

All processors, regardless of manufacturer, differ in the number of cores, threads, frequency, cache memory size, frequency of supported RAM, the presence of a built-in video core and some other parameters.

6.1. Number of Cores

The number of cores has the greatest impact on processor performance. An office or multimedia computer requires at least a 2-core processor. If the computer is intended to be used for modern games, then it needs a processor with at least 4 cores. A processor with 6-8 cores is suitable for video editing and heavy professional applications. The most powerful processors can have 10-18 cores, but they are very expensive and are designed for complex professional tasks.

6.2. Number of threads

Hyper-threading technology allows each processor core to process 2 data streams, which significantly increases performance. Multi-threaded processors include Intel Core i7, i9, some Core i3 and Pentium (G4560, G46xx), as well as most AMD Ryzen.

A processor with 2 cores and support for Hyper-treading is close in performance to a 4-core processor, while a processor with 4 cores and Hyper-treading is close to an 8-core processor. For example, the Core i3-6100 (2 cores / 4 threads) is twice as powerful as a 2-core Pentium without Hyper-threading, but still somewhat weaker than an honest 4-core Core i5. But Core i5 processors do not support Hyper-threading, so they are significantly inferior to Core i7 processors (4 cores / 8 threads).

Ryzen 5 and 7 processors have 4/6/8 cores and, respectively, 8/12/16 threads, which makes them kings in tasks such as video editing. The new Ryzen Threadripper processor family features processors with up to 16 cores and 32 threads. But there are lower-end processors from the Ryzen 3 series that are not multi-threaded.

Modern games have also learned to use multi-threading, so for a powerful gaming PC it is advisable to take a Core i7 (8-12 threads) or Ryzen (8-12 threads). Also a good choice in terms of price/performance ratio would be the new 6-core Core-i5 processors.

6.3. CPU frequency

The performance of a processor also greatly depends on its frequency, at which all processor cores operate.

In principle, a processor with a frequency of about 2 GHz is enough for a simple computer to type text and access the Internet. But there are many processors around 3 GHz that cost about the same, so saving money here isn't worth it.

A mid-range multimedia or gaming computer will need a processor with a frequency of about 3.5 GHz.

A powerful gaming or professional computer requires a processor with a frequency closer to 4 GHz.

In any case, the higher the processor frequency, the better, but then look at your financial capabilities.

6.4. Turbo Boost and Turbo Core

Modern processors have the concept of a base frequency, which is indicated in the specifications simply as the processor frequency. We talked about this frequency above.

Intel Core i5, i7, i9 processors also have the concept of maximum frequency in Turbo Boost. This is a technology that automatically increases the frequency of processor cores under heavy load to increase performance. The fewer cores a program or game uses, the more its frequency increases.

For example, the Core i5-2500 processor has a base frequency of 3.3 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost frequency of 3.7 GHz. Under load, depending on the number of cores used, the frequency will increase to the following values:

• 4 active cores - 3.4 GHz
• 3 active cores - 3.5 GHz
• 2 active cores - 3.6 GHz
• 1 active core – 3.7 GHz

AMD A-series, FX, and Ryzen processors have a similar automatic CPU overclocking technology called Turbo Core. For example, the FX-8150 processor has a base frequency of 3.6 GHz and a maximum Turbo Core frequency of 4.2 GHz.

In order for Turbo Boost and Turbo Core technologies to work, the processor must have enough power and not overheat. Otherwise, the processor will not increase the core frequency. This means the power supply, motherboard and cooler must be powerful enough. Also, the operation of these technologies should not be interfered with BIOS settings motherboard and power settings in Windows.

Modern programs and games use all processor cores and the performance increase from Turbo Boost and Turbo Core technologies will be small. Therefore, when choosing a processor, it is better to focus on the base frequency.

6.5. Cache memory

Cache memory is called inner memory processor that it needs to perform calculations faster. Cache memory size also affects processor performance, but to a much lesser extent than the number of cores and processor frequency. IN different programs this influence can vary in the range of 5-15%. But processors with a large amount of cache memory are much more expensive (1.5-2 times). Therefore, such an acquisition is not always economically feasible.

Cache memory comes in 4 levels:

Level 1 cache is small and is usually not taken into account when choosing a processor.

The Level 2 cache is the most important. In low-end processors, 256 kilobytes (KB) of Level 2 cache per core is typical. Processors designed for mid-range computers have 512 KB of L2 cache per core. Processors for powerful professional and gaming computers must be equipped with at least 1 megabyte (MB) of Level 2 cache per core.

Not all processors have Level 3 cache. The weakest processors for office tasks may have up to 2 MB of Level 3 cache, or none at all. Processors for modern home multimedia computers should have 3-4 MB of Level 3 cache. Powerful processors for professional and gaming computers should have 6-8 MB of Level 3 cache.

Only some processors have a level 4 cache, and if they have it, it’s good, but in principle it’s not necessary.

If the processor has a level 3 or 4 cache, then the size of the level 2 cache can be ignored.

6.6. Type and frequency of supported RAM

Different processors may support different types and RAM frequency. This must be taken into account in the future when choosing a RAM.

Legacy processors may support DDR3 RAM with a maximum frequency of 1333, 1600 or 1866 MHz.

Modern processors support DDR4 memory with a maximum frequency of 2133, 2400, 2666 MHz or more and often DDR3L memory, which is different from regular DDR3, for compatibility reduced voltage from 1.5 to 1.35 V. Such processors will be able to work with regular DDR3 memory if you already have it, but processor manufacturers do not recommend this due to the increased degradation of memory controllers designed for DDR4 with even more low voltage 1.2 V. In addition, for old memory you also need an old motherboard with DDR3 slots. So the best option is to sell the old DDR3 memory and upgrade to the new DDR4.

Today, the most optimal price/performance ratio is DDR4 memory with a frequency of 2400 MHz, which is supported by all modern processors. Sometimes you can buy memory with a frequency of 2666 MHz for not much more. Well, memory at 3000 MHz will cost much more. In addition, processors do not always work stably with high-frequency memory.

You also need to consider what maximum memory frequency the motherboard supports. But memory frequency has a relatively small impact on overall performance and it’s not really worth pursuing.

Often, users who are beginning to understand computer components have a question about the availability of memory modules with much more high frequency, than the processor officially supports (2666-3600 MHz). To operate memory at this frequency, the motherboard must have support for XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) technology. XMP automatically increases the bus frequency to allow the memory to run at a higher frequency.

6.7. Built-in video core

The processor may have a built-in video core, which allows you to save on purchasing a separate video card for an office or multimedia PC (watching videos, simple games). But for a gaming computer and video editing you need a separate (discrete) video card.

The more expensive the processor, the more powerful the built-in video core. Among Intel processors, the Core i7 has the most powerful integrated video, followed by i5, i3, Pentium G and Celeron G.

AMD A-series processors on socket FM2+ have a more powerful integrated video core than Intel processors. The most powerful is the A10, then the A8, A6 and A4.

FX processors on the AM3+ socket do not have a built-in video core and were previously used to build inexpensive gaming PCs with a discrete mid-class video card.

Also, most AMD processors of the Athlon and Phenom series do not have a built-in video core, and those that have it are on the very old AM1 socket.

Ryzen processors with the G index have a built-in Vega video core, which is twice as powerful as the video core of previous generation processors from the A8, A10 series.

If you are not going to buy a discrete graphics card, but still want to play undemanding games from time to time, then it is better to give preference to Ryzen G processors. But do not expect that the integrated graphics will handle demanding modern games. The maximum it is capable of is online games and some well-optimized games at low or medium graphics settings in HD resolution (1280x720), in some cases Full HD (1920x1080). Watch tests of the processor you need on Youtube and see if it suits you.

7. Other processor characteristics

Processors are also characterized by such parameters as manufacturing process, power consumption and heat dissipation.

7.1. Manufacturing process

The technical process is the technology by which processors are produced. The more modern the equipment and production technology, the finer the technical process. Its power consumption and heat dissipation greatly depend on the technological process by which the processor is manufactured. The thinner the technical process, the more economical and cooler the processor will be.

Modern processors are manufactured using process technologies ranging from 10 to 45 nanometers (nm). The lower this value, the better. But first of all, focus on power consumption and the associated heat dissipation of the processor, which will be discussed further.

7.2. CPU power consumption

The greater the number of cores and frequency of the processor, the greater its power consumption. Energy consumption also greatly depends on the manufacturing process. The thinner the technical process, the lower the energy consumption. The main thing to take into account is that powerful processor cannot be installed on a weak motherboard and will require more powerful block nutrition.

Modern processors consume from 25 to 220 watts. This parameter can be read on their packaging or on the manufacturer’s website. The motherboard parameters also indicate what processor power consumption it is designed for.

7.3. CPU heat dissipation

The heat dissipation of a processor is considered to be equal to its maximum power consumption. It is also measured in Watts and is called the Thermal Design Power (TDP). Modern processors have a TDP in the range of 25-220 Watts. Try to choose a processor with a lower TDP. The optimal TDP range is 45-95 W.

8. How to find out processor characteristics

All main characteristics of the processor, such as the number of cores, frequency and cache memory are usually indicated in sellers’ price lists.

All parameters of a particular processor can be clarified on the official websites of manufacturers (Intel and AMD):

By model number or serial number it is very easy to find all the characteristics of any processor on the website:

Or just enter the model number in the search engine Google system or Yandex (for example, “Ryzen 7 1800X”).

9. Processor models

Processor models change every year, so I won’t list them all here, but will only list series (lines) of processors that change less frequently and that you can easily navigate through.

I recommend purchasing processors of more modern series, as they are more productive and support new technologies. The model number that comes after the series name is higher, the higher the higher frequency processor.

9.1. Intel processor lines

Old episodes:

• Celeron – for office tasks (2 cores)
• Pentium – for entry-level multimedia and gaming PCs (2 cores)

Modern series:

• Celeron G – for office tasks (2 cores)
• Pentium G – for entry-level multimedia and gaming PCs (2 cores)
• Core i3 – for entry-level multimedia and gaming PCs (2-4 cores)
• Core i5 – for mid-range gaming PCs (4-6 cores)
• Core i7 – for powerful gaming and professional PCs (4-10 cores)
• Core i9 – for ultra-powerful professional PCs (12-18 cores)

All Core i7, i9, some Core i3 and Pentium processors support Hyper-threading technology, which significantly increases performance.

9.2. AMD processor lines

Old episodes:

• Sempron – for office tasks (2 cores)
• Athlon – for entry-level multimedia and gaming PCs (2 cores)
• Phenom – for mid-class multimedia and gaming PCs (2-4 cores)

Obsolete series:

• A4, A6 – for office tasks (2 cores)
• A8, A10 – for office tasks and simple games (4 cores)
• FX – for video editing and not very heavy games (4-8 cores)

Modern series:

• Ryzen 3 – for entry-level multimedia and gaming PCs (4 cores)
• Ryzen 5 – for video editing and mid-range gaming PCs (4-6 cores)
• Ryzen 7 – for powerful gaming and professional PCs (4-8 cores)
• Ryzen Threadripper – for powerful professional PCs (8-16 cores)

Ryzen 5, 7 and Threadripper processors are multi-threaded, which large quantities cores makes them an excellent choice for video editing. In addition, there are models with an “X” at the end of the marking, which have a higher frequency.

9.3. Restarting the series

It is also worth noting that sometimes manufacturers restart old series on new sockets. For example, Intel now has Celeron G and Pentium G with integrated graphics, AMD has updated lines of Athlon II and Phenom II processors. These processors are slightly inferior to their more modern counterparts in performance, but significantly higher in price.

9.4. Core and generation of processors

Along with the change of sockets, the generation of processors usually changes. For example, on socket 1150 there were 4th generation Core i7-4xxx processors, on socket 2011-3 there were 5th generation Core i7-5xxx. When switching to socket 1151, 6th generation Core i7-6xxx processors appeared.

It also happens that the processor generation changes without changing the socket. For example, 7th generation Core i7-7xxx processors were released on socket 1151.

The change of generations is caused by improvements in the electronic architecture of the processor, also called the core. For example, Core i7-6xxx processors are built on a core code-named Skylake, and those that replaced them, Core i7-7xxx, are built on a Kaby Lake core.

The nuclei can have various differences from quite significant to purely cosmetic. For example, Kaby Lake differs from the previous Skylake by updated integrated graphics and blocking of overclocking on the processor bus without the K index.

In a similar way, there is a change in cores and generations of AMD processors. For example, the FX-9xxx processors replaced the FX-8xxx processors. Their main difference is the significantly increased frequency and, as a consequence, heat generation. But the socket has not changed, but the old AM3+ remains.

AMD FX processors had many cores, the latest being Zambezi and Vishera, but they were replaced by new much more advanced and powerful Ryzen (Zen core) processors on the AM4 socket and Ryzen (Threadripper core) on the TR4 socket.

10. Overclocking the processor

Intel Core processors with a “K” at the end of the marking have a higher base frequency and an unlocked multiplier. They are easy to overclock (increase the frequency) to increase performance, but will require a more expensive motherboard with a Z-series chipset.

All AMD FX and Ryzen processors can be overclocked by changing the multiplier, but their overclocking potential is more modest. Overclocking of Ryzen processors is supported by motherboards based on B350, X370 chipsets.

In general, the ability to overclock makes the processor more promising, since in the future, if there is a slight lack of performance, it will not be possible to change it, but simply overclock it.

11. Packaging and cooler

Processors with the word “BOX” at the end of the marking are packaged in a high-quality box and can be sold complete with a cooler.

But some more expensive boxed processors may not have a cooler included.

If “Tray” or “OEM” is written at the end of the marking, this means that the processor is packaged in a small plastic tray and there is no cooler included.

Entry-class processors like Pentium are easier and cheaper to purchase complete with a cooler. But it is often more profitable to buy a mid- or high-end processor without a cooler and select a suitable cooler for it separately. The cost will be about the same, but the cooling and noise level will be much better.

12. Setting up filters in the online store

1. Go to the "Processors" section on the seller's website.
2. Select the manufacturer (Intel or AMD).
3. Select socket (1151, AM4).
4. Select a processor line (Pentium, i3, i5, i7, Ryzen).
5. Sort the selection by price.
6. Browse processors starting with the cheapest ones.
7. Buy a processor with the maximum possible number of threads and frequency that suits your price.

Thus, you will receive the optimal price/performance ratio processor that meets your requirements at the lowest possible cost.

13. Links

Intel Core i7 8700 processor
Intel Core i5 8600K processor
Processor Intel Pentium G4600

Classification and types of processors. CPU Specifications

CPU.

Stages of development of central processors for personal computers. Modern technology and architectural solutions. RISC and CISC technologies. Basic parameters of processors. 32 and 64 bit processors. 32-bit processors from major manufacturers: Intel, AMD, VIA. Comparative analysis characteristics of modern processors. Main trends and development prospects.

The student must know:

• main characteristics of processors;
• about the stages of processor development;
• processor types;
• main modern processor models;

The student must be able to:

• determine the main characteristics of the processor using test programs;

Lesson objectives:

• – familiarize students with the main components of a system processor.
• – study the types of processors and their characteristics.
• – nurturing students’ information culture, attentiveness, accuracy, discipline, perseverance.
• – development of cognitive interests, self-control skills, and note-taking skills.

Progress of the lesson:

Theoretical part.

The “brain” of a personal computer is a microprocessor, or central processing unit - CPU (Central Processing Unit). The microprocessor performs calculations and data processing (with the exception of some mathematical operations performed in computers that have a coprocessor) and is usually the most expensive chip in a computer. All PC-compatible computers use processors that support the Intel family of chips, but they are produced and designed not only by Intel itself, but also by AMD, Cyrix, IDT and Rise Technologies.

Intel currently dominates the processor market, but that wasn't always the case. Intel is strongly associated with the invention of the first processor and its appearance on the market. The finest hour of Intel and Microsoft came in 1981, when IBM released the first personal computer, the IBM PC, with an Intel 8088 processor (4.77 MHz) and the Microsoft Disk operating system. Operating System(DOS) version 1.0. From this moment on, almost everything personal computers Intel processors and Microsoft operating systems are installed.

• Processor parameters

When describing the parameters and design of processors, confusion often arises. Let's look at some characteristics of processors, including the width of the data bus and address bus, as well as speed.

Processors can be classified according to two main parameters: bit capacity and speed. Processor speed is a fairly simple parameter. It is measured in megahertz (MHz); 1 MHz is equal to a million ticks per second. The higher the speed, the better (the faster the processor). Processor capacity is a more complex parameter. The processor includes three important devices, the main characteristic of which is the bit depth:

• data input and output bus;
• internal registers;
• memory address bus.

Processors with clock speeds less than 16 MHz do not have built-in cache. On systems prior to the 486 processor, fast cache memory was installed on the system board. Beginning with the 486 processors, L1 cache was installed directly in the chassis and ran at processor speed. And the cache memory on the motherboard began to be called second-level cache memory. It already worked at frequencies supported by the motherboard.

In Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors, L2 cache is installed in the package and is physically a separate chip. Most often, such memory operates at half (Pentium II/III and AMD Athlon processors) or even less (two-fifths or a third) processor core frequency.

In Pentium Pro, Pentium II/III Xeon processors, modern models Pentium III, Celeron, K6-3, Athlon (model 4), Duron cache memory operates at core frequency. The reason that L2 cache ran at a lower frequency than the processor core was quite simple: existing cache chips did not meet market conditions. Intel created a high-speed cache memory chip for the Xeon processor, the cost of which turned out to be extremely high. However, the emergence of new processor technologies has made it possible to use cache memory operating at core speed in cheap second-generation Celeron processors. This design was borrowed by the second generation Intel Pentium III, as well as AMD K6-3, Athlon and Duron processors. This architecture, currently used in almost all Intel and AMD designs, is the only more or less cost-effective way to use high-speed L2 cache memory.

Processor speed

Speed ​​is one of the processor characteristics that is often interpreted in different ways. In this section, you will learn about the speed of processors in general and Intel processors in particular.

The speed of a computer depends largely on its clock speed, usually measured in megahertz (MHz). It is determined by the parameters quartz resonator, which is a quartz crystal enclosed in a small tin container. Under the influence of electrical voltage, oscillations of electric current occur in a quartz crystal with a frequency determined by the shape and size of the crystal. Frequency of this alternating current and is called clock frequency. A typical computer's chips operate at a frequency of several million hertz. (Hertz is one oscillation per second.) Speed ​​is measured in megahertz, i.e. in millions of cycles per second. In Fig. Figure 1 shows a graph of a sinusoidal signal.

Rice. 1. Graphical representation of the concept of clock frequency

The smallest unit of time (quantum) for a processor as a logical device is the clock period, or simply clock. Each operation requires at least one cycle. For example, the Pentium II processor performs data exchange with memory in three clock cycles plus several wait cycles. (A wait cycle is a clock cycle in which nothing happens; it is only necessary to prevent the processor from “running away” from slower computer nodes.)

The time it takes to execute commands also varies.

8086 And 8088 . In these processors, it takes approximately 12 clock cycles to execute one instruction.

286 And 386 . These processors reduced instruction execution time to approximately 4.5 clock cycles.

The 486 and most fourth-generation Intel-compatible processors, such as AMD's 5x86, have reduced this to 2 clock cycles.

Pentium series, K6. The architecture of the Pentium and other fifth-generation Intel-compatible processors from AMD and Cyrix, which includes dual instruction pipelines and other improvements, allows one or two instructions to be executed per clock cycle.

Pentium Pro, Pentium II/III/Celeron and Athlon/Duron. P6-class processors, as well as other sixth-generation processors created by AMD and Cyrix, allow you to execute a minimum of three instructions per clock cycle.

The varying number of clock cycles required to execute commands makes it difficult to compare the performance of computers based solely on their clock speed (i.e., the number of clock cycles per second). Why does one processor run faster than another at the same clock speed? The reason lies in performance.

The 486 processor is faster than the 386 because it requires on average half as many clock cycles as the 386 to execute a command. And the Pentium processor has two times fewer clock cycles than the 486. Thus, a 486 processor clocked at 133 MHz (type AMD 5x86-133) is even slower than a Pentium clocked at 75 MHz! This is because at the same frequency the Pentium executes twice as many instructions as the 486 processor. The Pentium II and Pentium III are approximately 50% faster than a Pentium processor running at the same frequency because they can execute significantly more instructions per for the same number of cycles.

By comparing the relative efficiencies of the processors, one can see that the performance of a Pentium III running at 1000 MHz is theoretically equal to the performance of a Pentium running at 1500 MHz, which in turn is theoretically equal to the performance of a 486 running at 3,000 MHz, and it, in turn, is theoretically equal to the performance of the 386 or 286 processors operating at a clock frequency of 6,000 MHz, or the 8088, operating at a clock frequency of 12,000 MHz. Considering that the original 8088 PC clocked at just 4.77 MHz, today's computers are more than 1,500 times faster than that. Therefore, you can't compare computer performance based on clock speed alone; It must be taken into account that other factors also influence the effectiveness of the system.

Assessing the efficiency of a central processor is quite difficult. Central processors with different internal architectures execute instructions differently: the same instructions in different processors can be executed either faster or slower. To find a satisfactory measure for comparing CPUs of different architectures running at different clock speeds, Intel invented a specific set of benchmarks that can be run on Intel chips to measure the relative efficiency of the processors. This benchmark system has recently been modified to measure the performance of 32-bit processors; it is called the iCOMP 2.0 index (or indicator) (intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance - comparative efficiency of the Intel microprocessor). The third version of this index is currently in use - iCOMP 3.0.

CPU clock speed

Almost all modern processors, starting with the 486DX2, operate at a clock frequency that is equal to the product of a certain multiplier and the clock frequency of the motherboard. For example, the Celeron 600 processor runs at nine times the motherboard clock speed (66 MHz), and the Pentium III 1000 runs at seven and a half times the motherboard clock speed (133 MHz). Most motherboards ran at 66 MHz; This is the frequency that all Intel processors supported until early 1998, and only recently did the company develop processors and chipsets that can run on motherboards rated at 100 MHz. Some Cyrix processors are designed for motherboards rated at 75 MHz, and many motherboards designed for Pentium can run at this speed as well. Typically, the system board clock speed and multiplier can be set using jumpers or other system board configuration procedures (for example, by selecting appropriate values ​​in the BIOS setup program).

At the end of 1999, chipsets and motherboards with a clock speed of 133 MHz appeared, supporting all modern versions of the Pentium III processor. At the same time, AMD released Athlon motherboards and 100 MHz chipsets using dual data transfer technology. This allowed the data transfer rate between the Athlon processor and the main chipset to increase to 200 MHz.

By 2001, the speed of the AMD Athlon and Intel Itanium processor buses increased to 266 MHz, and the Pentium 4 processor bus speed increased to 400 MHz.

Sometimes the question arises as to why the powerful Itanium processor uses a slower CPU bus than the Pentium 4. This question is extremely relevant! The answer most likely lies in the fact that these components were created by completely different teams of developers with different goals and objectives. The Itanium processor, developed jointly with HP (Hewlett Packard), was designed to use Double Data Rate (DDR) memory, which in turn runs at a more server-family-friendly 266 MHz. Matching the speed of the CPU bus to the memory bus allows for the highest performance, so a system using DDR SDRAM performs best if the CPU (central processing unit) bus clock speed is also 266 MHz.

On the other hand, the Pentium 4 was designed to use RDRAM, so the system bus speed matches that of RDRAM. Please note that bus performance, like any processor released by Intel, may change in the future.

Modern computers use a variable frequency generator, usually located on the system board; it generates the reference frequency for the motherboard and processor. Most Pentium processor motherboards can be set to one of three or four clock speeds. Today, there are many versions of processors available, operating at different frequencies, depending on the clock speed of a particular motherboard. For example, the speed of most Pentium processors is several times higher than the speed of the motherboard.

All other things being equal (types of processors, number of wait cycles when accessing memory and width of data buses), two computers can be compared by their clock speeds. However, this should be done with caution: computer performance also depends on other factors (in particular, those influenced by the design features of the memory). For example, a computer with a lower clock speed may run faster than you expect, but a system with a higher rated clock speed will perform slower than it should. The determining factor in this case is the architecture, design and elemental base of the system's RAM.

During the manufacturing of processors, testing is carried out at various clock speeds, temperatures and pressures. After this, they are marked, indicating the maximum operating frequency over the entire usable range of temperatures and pressures that can be encountered under normal conditions. The notation system is quite simple, so you can figure it out on your own.

• Efficiency of Cyrix processors

The marking of Cyrix/IBM 6×86 processors uses the PR (Performance Rating) scale, the values ​​​​of which are not equal to the true clock frequency in megahertz. For example, the Cyrix 6x86MX/MII-PR366 processor actually runs at a clock speed of 250 MHz (2.5×100 MHz). The clock speed of the motherboard of the specified processor should be set as if installing a processor with a clock frequency of 250, and not 366 MHz (as can be assumed by the number 366 on the marking).

Please note that the Cyrix 6x86MX-PR200 processor can run at 150, 165, 166, or 180 MHz, but not 200 MHz. This performance evaluation is intended for comparison with original Intel Pentium processors (Celeron, Pentium II, or Pentium III are not included in this evaluation).

It is assumed that the performance rating (P-Rating) determines the performance of the processor in relation to the Intel Pentium. But it should be noted that the compared Cyrix processor does not contain MMX technology, its L1 cache is smaller, and the motherboard platform and chipset used are quite old version, not to mention slower memory. For these reasons, the P-Rating scale is not very effective when comparing Cyrix processors to a Celeron, Pentium II or Pentium III, which means they are better rated by actual performance. In other words, the Cyrix 6x86MX/MII-PR366 processor only runs at 250 MHz and can be compared to Intel processors with similar clock speeds. I believe that the MII-366 labeling for a processor that actually runs at 250 MHz is a bit misleading to say the least.

• Efficiency of AMD processors

The efficiency of AMD K5 series processors is compared in a similar way. The efficiency rating of the K6 and Athlon series indicates the actual operating frequency. In processors of the Athlon family, the bus operates at double the motherboard frequency (200 MHz).

Data bus

One of the most common characteristics of a processor is the width of its data bus and address bus. A bus is a set of connections over which various signals are transmitted. Imagine a pair of wires running from one end of a building to the other. If you connect a 220-volt voltage generator to these wires, and place sockets along the line, you will get a bus. Regardless of which socket the plug is inserted into, you will always receive the same signal, in this case 220 Volts AC. Any transmission line (or signal transmission medium) that has more than one terminal can be called a bus. A typical computer has several internal and external buses, and each processor has two main buses for transferring data and memory addresses: the data bus and the address bus.

When people talk about a processor bus, they most often mean a data bus, represented as a set of connections (or pins) for transmitting or receiving data. The more signals that enter the bus at the same time, the more data is transferred over it in a certain period of time and the faster it operates. The width of a data bus is similar to the number of lanes on an expressway; Just as increasing the number of lanes allows for more traffic on the highway, increasing the number of lanes allows for increased productivity.

Data in a computer is transmitted in the form of numbers at regular intervals. To transmit a single bit of data in a certain time interval, a high-level voltage signal (about 5 V) is sent, and to transmit a zero bit of data, a voltage signal is sent low level(about 0 V). The more lines, the more bits can be transmitted in the same time. The 286 and 386SX processors use 16 connections to send and receive binary data, so they have a 16-bit data bus. A 32-bit processor, such as the 486 or 386DX, has twice as many of these connections, so it transfers twice as much data per unit of time as a 16-bit processor. Modern Pentium processors have 64-bit external data buses. This means that Pentium processors, including the original Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II, can push 64 bits of data into (or out of) system memory at a time.

Let's imagine that the tire is a highway with cars moving along it. If a freeway has only one lane in each direction, then only one car can travel along it in one direction at a time. If you want to increase throughput If the road is doubled, for example, you will have to widen it by adding one more lane in each direction. Thus, an 8-bit chip can be thought of as a single-lane highway because only one byte of data passes through it at a time (one byte equals eight bits). Likewise, a 32-bit data bus can carry four bytes of information at a time, but a 64-bit one is like an eight-lane expressway! A highway is characterized by the number of lanes, and the processor is characterized by the width of its data bus. If in the manual or technical description When talking about a 32- or 64-bit computer, we usually mean the processor data bus width. It can be used to roughly estimate the performance of the processor, and therefore the entire computer.

The width of the processor data bus also determines the width of the memory bank. This means that a 32-bit processor, such as the 486 class, reads from or writes to memory 32 bits at a time. Pentium-class processors, including the Pentium III and Celeron, read from or write to memory 64 bits at a time.

• L1 cache

All processors starting with the 486 have an integrated (level 1) cache controller with 8 KB cache in 486DX processors, and 32, 64 KB or more in modern models. A cache is a high-speed memory designed to temporarily store program code and data. Accesses to the built-in cache memory occur without waiting states, since its speed matches the capabilities of the processor, i.e. L1 cache (or on-chip cache) runs at processor speed.

Using cache memory reduces the traditional disadvantage of computers that RAM works more slowly than the central processor (the so-called “bottleneck” effect). Thanks to the cache memory, the processor does not have to wait for the next piece of code or data to arrive from the relatively slow main memory, which leads to a noticeable increase in performance.

In modern processors, the on-chip cache plays an even more important role because it is often the only type of memory in the entire system that can operate in sync with the processor. Most modern processors use a clock multiplier, meaning they operate at several times the clock speed of the motherboard they are connected to.

• L2 cache

To reduce the noticeable system slowdown that occurs with each cache miss, L2 cache is used.

The secondary cache for Pentium processors is located on the motherboard, and for Pentium Pro and Pentium II - inside the processor case. By moving the secondary cache into the processor, you can force it to run at a higher clock speed than the motherboard - the same as the processor itself. As the clock frequency increases, the cycle time decreases.

Today's standard motherboard clock speeds are 66, 100, or 133 MHz, but some processors run at 600 MHz or higher. Newer systems do not use a cache on the motherboard because the fast SDRAM or RDRAM modules used in modern Pentium II/Celeron/III systems can run at the motherboard clock speed.

Celeron processors with clock speeds of 300 MHz and above, as well as Pentium III processors with frequencies above 600 MHz, contain L2 cache memory, the speed of which is equal to the processor core frequency. The on-chip cache in Duron and latest Athlon processors also operates at processor speed. Earlier versions of the Athlon processor, as well as the Pentium II and III, use an external cache with an operating frequency equal to one-half, two-fifths, or one-third of the processor clock speed. As you can see, the current range of cache speeds, from full CPU frequency to lower main memory frequency, minimizes the length of wait states the processor can tolerate. This allows the processor to operate at a frequency that is closest to its actual speed.

• MMX technology

Depending on the context, MMX can mean multi-media extensions or matrix math extensions. MMX technology was used in older models of fifth-generation Pentium processors (Fig. 2) as an extension that accelerates video compression/decompression, image manipulation, encryption and I/O operations - almost all operations used in many modern programs.

There are two major improvements to the MMX processor architecture.

The first, fundamental one, is that all MMX chips have a larger internal cache than their counterparts that do not use this technology. This increases the efficiency of each program and everything software regardless of whether it actually uses MMX commands.

• SSE technology

In February 1999, Intel introduced the Pentium III processor to the public, containing an update to MMX technology called SSE (Streaming SIMD Extensions). Until this point, SSE instructions were called Katmai New Instructions (KNI), as they were originally included in the Pentium III processor, codenamed Katmai. Celeron 533A and higher processors based on the Pentium III core also support SSE instructions. More early versions Pentium II processors, as well as Celeron 533 and lower (based on the Pentium II core), do not support SSE.

New SSE technologies allow you to work more efficiently with 3D graphics, audio and video streams (DVD playback), as well as speech recognition applications. Overall, SSE provides the following benefits:

• higher resolution/quality when viewing and processing graphic images;
• improved playback quality of audio and video files in MPEG2 format, and
• also simultaneous encoding and decoding of MPEG2 format in multimedia applications;
• Reduced CPU load and increased accuracy/responsiveness when
• running speech recognition software.

The SSE and SSE2 instructions are especially effective when decoding MPEG2 files, which is an audio and video compression standard used in DVDs.

One of the main advantages of SSE over MMX is its support for SIMD floating point operations, which is very important when processing 3D graphics images. SIMD technology, like MMX, allows you to perform several operations at once when the processor receives one command.

• 3DNow and Enhanced 3DNow technology

3DNow technology was developed by AMD in response to the implementation of support for SSE instructions in Intel processors. For the first time (May 1998) 3DNow was implemented in AMD processors K6, and further development - Enhanced 3DNow - this technology received in Athlon processors and Duron. Similar to SSE, 3DNow and Enhanced 3DNow technologies are designed to accelerate processing of 3D graphics, multimedia and other compute-intensive applications.

Control questions

1. Which devices provide the minimum composition of a PC?
2. Give a classification of different types of memory. What is their purpose?
3. What main stages of TSI development do you know?
4. What are the main components of a PC motherboard?
5. What is the purpose of PC buses?
6. What parameters characterize processor performance?
7. What are the main characteristics of memory chips?

It is very difficult to surprise the modern consumer of electronics. We are already accustomed to the fact that our pocket is rightfully occupied by a smartphone, a laptop is in our bag, a smart watch is obediently counting steps on our hand, and headphones with an active noise reduction system are caressing our ears.

It's a funny thing, but we are used to carrying with us not one, but two, three or more computers at once. After all, this is exactly what you can call a device that has CPU. And it doesn’t matter at all what a particular device looks like. A miniature chip, which has overcome a turbulent and rapid development path, is responsible for its operation.

Why did we bring up the topic of processors? It's simple. Over the past ten years there has been a real revolution in the world mobile devices.

There is only a 10 year difference between these devices. But Nokia N95 seemed like a space device to us back then, and today we look at ARKit with a certain distrust

But everything could have turned out differently and the battered Pentium IV would have remained the ultimate dream of the average buyer.

We tried to avoid complex technical terms and tell how the processor works and find out which architecture is the future.

1. How it all started

The first processors were completely different from what you can see when you open the lid. system unit your PC.

Instead of microcircuits in the 40s of the XX century, they used electromechanical relays, supplemented with vacuum tubes. The lamps acted as a diode, the state of which could be regulated by lowering or increasing the voltage in the circuit. Such designs looked like this:

To operate one gigantic computer, hundreds, sometimes thousands of processors were needed. But, at the same time, you would not be able to run even a simple editor like NotePad or TextEdit from the standard one on such a computer Windows set and macOS. The computer would simply not have enough power.

2. The emergence of transistors

First field effect transistors appeared back in 1928. But the world changed only after the advent of the so-called bipolar transistors , opened in 1947.

In the late 1940s, experimental physicist Walter Brattain and theorist John Bardeen developed the first point-point transistor. In 1950, it was replaced by the first planar transistor, and in 1954, the well-known manufacturer Texas Instruments announced a silicon transistor.

But the real revolution came in 1959, when scientist Jean Henri developed the first silicon planar (flat) transistor, which became the basis for monolithic integrated circuits.

Yes, it's a little complicated, so let's dig a little deeper and understand the theoretical part.

3. How a transistor works

So, the task of such an electrical component as transistor is to control the current. Simply put, this little tricky switch controls the flow of electricity.

The main advantage of a transistor over a conventional switch is that it does not require human presence. Those. Such an element is capable of controlling the current independently. Plus, it works much faster than you would switching an electrical circuit on or off yourself.

You probably remember from your school computer science course that a computer “understands” human language through combinations of just two states: “on” and “off”. In the understanding of the machine, this is the state “0” or “1”.

The computer's job is to represent electricity in the form of numbers.

And if previously the task of switching states was performed by clumsy, bulky and ineffective electrical relays, now the transistor has taken on this routine work.

Since the early 60s, transistors began to be made from silicon, which made it possible not only to make processors more compact, but also to significantly increase their reliability.

But first, let's deal with the diode

Silicon(aka Si - “silicium” in the periodic table) belongs to the category of semiconductors, which means, on the one hand, it passes current better than a dielectric, on the other, it does it worse than metal.

Whether we like it or not, to understand the work and further history of the development of processors we will have to plunge into the structure of one silicon atom. Don't be afraid, we'll make it brief and very clear.

The task of the transistor is to amplify a weak signal using an additional power source.

The silicon atom has four electrons, thanks to which it forms bonds (to be precise - covalent bonds) with the same nearby three atoms, forming a crystal lattice. While most electrons are in bond, a small fraction of them are able to move through the crystal lattice. It is because of this partial transition of electrons that silicon is classified as a semiconductor.

But such a weak movement of electrons would not allow the transistor to be used in practice, so scientists decided to increase the performance of transistors by doping, or simply put, the addition of the silicon crystal lattice with atoms of elements with a characteristic arrangement of electrons.

So they began to use a 5-valent phosphorus impurity, due to which they obtained n-type transistors. The presence of an additional electron made it possible to accelerate their movement, increasing the current flow.

When doping transistors p-type Boron, which contains three electrons, became such a catalyst. Due to the absence of one electron, holes appear in the crystal lattice (acting as a positive charge), but due to the fact that electrons are able to fill these holes, the conductivity of silicon increases significantly.

Let's say we took a silicon wafer and doped one part of it with a p-type dopant and the other part with an n-type dopant. So we got diode– the basic element of the transistor.

Now the electrons located in the n-part will tend to move into holes located in the p-part. In this case, the n-side will have a slight negative charge, and the p-side will have a slight positive charge. The electric field, a barrier, formed as a result of this “gravity” will prevent further movement of electrons.

If you connect a power source to the diode in such a way that “–” touches the p-side of the plate, and “+” touches the n-side, current flow will be impossible due to the fact that holes will be attracted to the negative contact of the power source, and electrons will be attracted to positive, and the connection between the p and n side electrons will be lost due to expansion of the combined layer.

But if you connect the power with sufficient voltage the other way around, i.e. "+" from the source to the p-side, and "-" - to the n-side, the electrons placed on the n-side will be repelled by the negative pole and pushed out to the p-side, occupying holes in the p-region.

But now the electrons are attracted to the positive pole of the power supply and they continue to move through the p-holes. This phenomenon was called diode forward bias.

Diode + diode = transistor

The transistor itself can be thought of as two diodes connected to each other. In this case, the p-region (the one where the holes are located) becomes common between them and is called the “base”.

U N-P-N transistor two n-regions with additional electrons - they are also the “emitter” and “collector” and one, weak region with holes - the p-region, called the “base”.

If you connect a power supply (let's call it V1) to the n-regions of the transistor (regardless of the pole), one diode will become reverse biased and the transistor will be closed.

But, as soon as we connect another power source (let’s call it V2), setting the “+” contact to the “central” p-region (base), and the “–” contact to the n-region (emitter), some electrons will flow through again formed chain (V2), and part will be attracted by the positive n-region. As a result, electrons will flow into the collector area and the weak electrical current will be amplified.

Let's exhale!

4. So how does a computer work?

And now the most important.

Depending on the applied voltage, the transistor can be either open, or closed. If the voltage is insufficient to overcome the potential barrier (the same one at the junction of p and n plates) - the transistor will be in the closed state - in the “off” state or, in other words, binary system – "0".

When there is enough voltage, the transistor opens and we get the value “on” or “1” in the binary system.

This state, 0 or 1, is called a “bit” in the computer industry.

Those. we get the main property of the very switch that opened the path to computers for humanity!

The first electronic digital computer ENIAC, or more simply put, the first computer, used about 18 thousand triode lamps. The computer was the size of a tennis court and weighed 30 tons.

To understand how a processor works, you need to understand two more key points.

Moment 1. So, we have decided what it is bit. But with its help we can only get two characteristics of something: either “yes” or “no”. In order for the computer to learn to understand us better, they came up with a combination of 8 bits (0 or 1), which they called byte.

Using a byte, you can encode a number from zero to 255. Using these 255 numbers - combinations of zeros and ones, you can encode anything.

Moment 2. Having numbers and letters without any logic would give us nothing. This is why the concept appeared logical operators.

By connecting just two transistors in a certain way, you can achieve several logical actions at once: “and”, “or”. The combination of the voltage across each transistor and the type of connection allows you to get different combinations of zeros and ones.

Through the efforts of programmers, the values ​​of zeros and ones, the binary system, began to be converted into decimal so that we could understand what exactly the computer “says”. And to enter commands, we should represent our usual actions, such as entering letters from the keyboard, as a binary chain of commands.

Simply put, imagine that there is a lookup table, say, ASCII, in which each letter corresponds to a combination of 0 and 1. You pressed a button on the keyboard, and at that moment on the processor, thanks to the program, the transistors switched so that that one appears on the screen the letter written on the key.

This is a rather primitive explanation of the principle of operation of the processor and computer, but it is understanding this that allows us to move on.

5. And the transistor race began

After British radio engineer Geoffrey Dahmer proposed in 1952 to place protozoa electronic components in monolithic semiconductor chip, the computer industry has made leaps forward.

From the integrated circuits proposed by Dahmer, engineers quickly moved to microchips, which were based on transistors. In turn, several such chips have already been formed by CPU.

Of course, the dimensions of such processors are not much similar to modern ones. In addition, up until 1964, all processors had one problem. They required an individual approach - a different programming language for each processor.

• 1964 IBM System/360. Universal Code compatible computer. The instruction set for one processor model could be used for another.
• 70s. The appearance of the first microprocessors. Single-chip processor from Intel. Intel 4004 – 10 micron TC, 2,300 transistors, 740 KHz.
• 1973 Intel 4040 and Intel 8008. 3,000 transistors, 740 kHz for the Intel 4040 and 3,500 transistors at 500 kHz for the Intel 8008.
• 1974 Intel 8080. 6 micron TC and 6000 transistors. Clock frequency is about 5,000 kHz. It was this processor that was used in the Altair-8800 computer. The domestic copy of the Intel 8080 is the KR580VM80A processor, developed by the Kyiv Research Institute of Microdevices. 8 bit.
• 1976 Intel 8080. 3 micron TC and 6500 transistors. Clock frequency 6 MHz. 8 bit.
• 1976 Zilog Z80. 3 micron TC and 8500 transistors. Clock frequency up to 8 MHz. 8 bit.
• 1978 Intel 8086. 3 micron TC and 29,000 transistors. Clock frequency is about 25 MHz. The x86 instruction system, which is still used today. 16 bit.
• 1980 Intel 80186. 3 micron TC and 134,000 transistors. Clock frequency – up to 25 MHz. 16 bit.
• 1982 Intel 80286. 1.5 micron TC and 134,000 transistors. Frequency – up to 12.5 MHz. 16 bit.
• 1982 Motorola 68000. 3 microns and 84,000 transistors. This processor has been used in Apple computer Lisa.
• 1985 Intel 80386. 1.5 micron TP and 275,000 transistors. Frequency – up to 33 MHz in the 386SX version.

It would seem that the list could be continued indefinitely, but then Intel engineers faced a serious problem.

6. Moore's Law or how chipmakers can move on

It's the end of the 80s. Back in the early 60s, one of the founders of Intel, Gordon Moore, formulated the so-called “Moore's Law”. It sounds like this:

Every 24 months, the number of transistors placed on an integrated circuit chip doubles.

It is difficult to call this law a law. It would be more accurate to call it empirical observation. Comparing the pace of technology development, Moore concluded that a similar trend could form.

But already during the development of the fourth generation of Intel i486 processors, engineers were faced with the fact that they had already reached the performance ceiling and could no longer accommodate more processors in the same area. At that time, technology did not allow this.

As a solution, an option was found using a number of additional elements:

• cache memory;
• conveyor;
• built-in coprocessor;
• multiplier

Part of the computational load fell on the shoulders of these four nodes. As a result, the appearance of cache memory, on the one hand, complicated the design of the processor, on the other, it became much more powerful.

The Intel i486 processor already consisted of 1.2 million transistors, and its maximum operating frequency reached 50 MHz.

In 1995, AMD joined the development and released the fastest i486-compatible processor Am5x86 on a 32-bit architecture at that time. It was already manufactured using a 350 nanometer technical process, and the number of installed processors reached 1.6 million units. The clock frequency has increased to 133 MHz.

But chipmakers did not dare to pursue a further increase in the number of processors installed on a chip and the development of the already utopian CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing) architecture. Instead, American engineer David Patterson proposed optimizing the operation of processors, leaving only the most necessary computational instructions.

So processor manufacturers switched to the RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) platform. But this turned out to be not enough.

In 1991, the 64-bit R4000 processor operating at 100 MHz was released. Three years later, the R8000 processor appears, and after another two years, the R10000 with a clock frequency of up to 195 MHz. At the same time, the market for SPARC processors developed, the architectural feature of which was the absence of multiplication and division instructions.

Instead of fighting over the number of transistors, chip manufacturers began to reconsider the architecture of their work. Refusal of “unnecessary” commands, execution of instructions in one clock cycle, the presence of registers of general value and pipelining made it possible to quickly increase the clock frequency and power of processors without distorting the number of transistors.

Here are just some of the architectures that appeared between 1980 and 1995:

• SPARC;
• ARM;
• PowerPC;
• Intel P5;
• AMD K5;
• Intel P6.

They were based on the RISC platform, and in some cases, partial, combined use of the CISC platform. But the development of technology again pushed chipmakers to continue expanding processors.

In August 1999, the AMD K7 Athlon, manufactured using a 250 nanometer process technology and including 22 million transistors, entered the market. Later the bar was raised to 38 million processors. Then up to 250 million.

Increased technological processor, the clock frequency increased. But, as physics says, there is a limit to everything.

7. The end of transistor competitions is near

In 2007, Gordon Moore made a very strong statement:

Moore's Law will soon cease to apply. It is impossible to install an unlimited number of processors ad infinitum. The reason for this is the atomic nature of matter.

It is noticeable to the naked eye that the two leading chip manufacturers AMD and Intel have clearly slowed down the pace of processor development over the past few years. The precision of the technological process has increased to just a few nanometers, but it is impossible to accommodate even more processors.

And while semiconductor manufacturers are threatening to launch multilayer transistors, drawing a parallel with 3DNand memory, the x86 architecture, which had hit a wall 30 years ago, had a serious competitor.

8. What awaits “regular” processors

Moore's Law has been invalidated since 2016. This was officially announced by the largest processor manufacturer Intel. Chipmakers are no longer able to double computing power by 100% every two years.

And now processor manufacturers have several unpromising options.

The first option is quantum computers. There have already been attempts to build a computer that uses particles to represent information. There are several similar quantum devices in the world, but they can only cope with algorithms of low complexity.

In addition, the serial launch of such devices in the coming decades is out of the question. Expensive, ineffective and... slow!

Yes, quantum computers consume much less energy than their modern counterparts, but they will be slower until developers and component manufacturers switch to the new technology.

The second option is processors with layers of transistors. Both Intel and AMD are seriously thinking about this technology. Instead of one layer of transistors, they plan to use several. It seems that in the coming years there may well be processors in which not only the number of cores and clock speed, but also the number of transistor layers will be important.

The solution has a right to life, and thus the monopolists will be able to milk the consumer for another couple of decades, but, in the end, the technology will again hit the ceiling.

Today, understanding the rapid development of ARM architecture, Intel quietly announced chips from the Ice Lake family. The processors will be manufactured using a 10-nanometer process technology and will become the basis for smartphones, tablets and mobile devices. But this will happen in 2019.

9. ARM is the future

So, the x86 architecture appeared in 1978 and belongs to the CISC platform type. Those. in itself, it assumes the presence of instructions for all occasions. Versatility is the main strength of x86.

But, at the same time, versatility also played a cruel joke on these processors. x86 has several key disadvantages:

• the complexity of the commands and their outright intricacy;
• high energy consumption and heat generation.

High performance had to say goodbye to energy efficiency. Moreover, two companies are currently working on the x86 architecture, which can easily be considered monopolists. These are Intel and AMD. Only they can produce x86 processors, which means only they control the development of technology.

In the same time ARM development(Arcon Risk Machine) is carried out by several companies at once. Back in 1985, as a basis for further development architecture, the developers chose the RISC platform.

Unlike CISC, RISC involves developing a processor with the minimum required number of instructions, but maximum optimization. RISC processors are much smaller than CISC, more energy efficient and simpler.

Moreover, ARM was originally created solely as a competitor to x86. The developers set the task of building an architecture that is more efficient than x86.

Since the 40s, engineers have understood that one of the priority tasks remains to work on reducing the size of computers, and, first of all, the processors themselves. But it’s unlikely that almost 80 years ago anyone could have imagined that a full-fledged computer would be smaller than a matchbox.

The ARM architecture was once supported by Apple, which launched the production of Newton tablets based on the ARM6 family of ARM processors.

Sales of desktop computers are plummeting, while the number of mobile devices sold annually already numbers in the billions. Often, in addition to performance, when choosing an electronic gadget, the user is interested in several more criteria:

• mobility;
• autonomy.

The x86 architecture is strong in performance, but once you give up active cooling, the powerful processor will seem pathetic compared to the ARM architecture.

10. Why ARM is the undisputed leader

You will hardly be surprised that your smartphone, be it a simple Android or Apple flagship 2016 is ten times more powerful full-fledged computers era of the late 90s.

But how much more powerful is the same iPhone?

Comparing two different architectures in itself is a very difficult thing. Measurements here can only be taken approximately, but you can understand the enormous advantage that smartphone processors built on ARM architecture provide.

A universal assistant in this matter is the artificial Geekbench performance test. The utility is available both on desktop computers and on Android and iOS platforms.

Average and primary class laptops clearly lag behind the performance of the iPhone 7. In the top segment, everything is a little more complicated, but in 2017 Apple releases the iPhone X on the new A11 Bionic chip.

There, the ARM architecture is already familiar to you, but the Geekbench scores have almost doubled. Laptops from the “highest echelon” are tense.

But only one year has passed.

The development of ARM is progressing by leaps and bounds. While Intel and AMD year after year demonstrate a 5-10% increase in performance, over the same period smartphone manufacturers manage to increase the power of processors by two to two and a half times.

Skeptical users who go through the top lines of Geekbench would just like to remind: in mobile technologies Size is what matters most.

Place an all-in-one PC with a powerful 18-core processor on the table, which “tears the ARM architecture to shreds,” and then place the iPhone next to it. Do you feel the difference?

11. Instead of withdrawal

It is impossible to cover the 80-year history of computer development in one material. But after reading this article, you will be able to understand how the main element of any computer – the processor – works, and what to expect from the market in the coming years.

Of course, Intel and AMD will work to further increase the number of transistors on one chip and promote the idea of ​​multilayer elements.

But do you, as a consumer, need that kind of power?

It's unlikely that you're unhappy with the performance. iPad Pro or the flagship iPhone X. I don’t think you’re unhappy with the performance of your multicooker in your kitchen or the picture quality on your 65-inch 4K TV. But all these devices use processors based on ARM architecture.

Windows has already officially announced that it is looking towards ARM with interest. The company included support for this architecture in Windows 8.1, and is now actively working on a tandem with the leading ARM chipmaker Qualcomm.

Google also managed to look at ARM - operating system Chrome system OS supports this architecture. Several appeared at once Linux distributions, which are also compatible with this architecture. And this is just the beginning.

And just try for a moment to imagine how pleasant the combination of an energy-efficient ARM processor with a graphene battery will be. It is this architecture that will make it possible to obtain mobile ergonomic gadgets that will be able to dictate the future.

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