Additional Information About the CPU

The Computer's CPU

There are two basic types of processors, each made by a different company, Intel and AMD. Each one requires a different motherboard to run, so your choice of motherboard and choice of CPU should be done simultaneously if you are buying parts to build your own computer. However, within these two basic brands are numerous choices.

Here is a typical description of a modern Intel CPU. By breaking down the description, you can get a good idea of what each letter and number means, which you can then compare to other descriptions of other processors in order to find one that fits your needs and price.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 Conroe 3.0GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Brand – Intel: There are two brands of CPUs, Intel and AMD. Each have slight differences, but the general specifications describe each processor's capabilities better than the name does, so the brand is really just a matter of choice, and of matching the right brand of chip to the type of motherboard that you have.

Processors Type - Desktop: CPUs for desktops and laptops have very different configurations. Laptop processors are designed to pull less power and run more efficiently, but as a result can be smaller and less powerful than desktop CPUs.

Series - Core 2 Duo: The series name or number is simply the company's designation for a specific type of CPU. Looking at the difference between series names can give you an idea of where they fall relative to their performance specifications – in Intel's case, their latest common market chips are the Core 2 Duo and the Core 2 Extreme. Which one do you think is the more powerful processor?

Model - BX80557E6850: The specific model number of the processor. Just another company designation.

CPU Socket Type - LGA 775: This is the number you need to know when matching a CPU to a motherboard. Not only do you have to have a motherboard that supports specifically Intel or AMD processors, but the type of Socket A connector on the motherboard has to match the CPU socket type shown here.

Core – Conroe: This is the code name for the type of core processor inside this CPU

Multi-Core – Dual-Core: This designation specifies that this CPU contains two core processors within it, each with its own dedicated cache memory. If you run programs that are able to take advantage of multi-core CPUs (specifically programs designed for 64-bit processors) or if you do a lot of high-level multitasking (running several high-level programs simultaneously such as video editing and graphics programs) then having a dual-core processor will make a big difference in the speed at which your computer runs.

Name - Core 2 Duo E6850: Another naming designation for the CPU

Operating Frequency – 3.0GHz: This is the rate at which the CPU performs its most basic tasks, such as numerical addition or register value transfer, measured in cycles per second, or hertz. A 3.0 gigahertz (Ghz) processor can perform up to 3,000,000,000 (three billion) basic tasks a second. This number used to be the primary indicator of a CPU's performance, but now companies are focused more on the efficiency and order of the instructions being processed, so the speed at which the computer processes the instructions is just a part of the decision-making process when buying a CPU, not the most important part.

FSB – 1333MHz: The FSB, or front side bus, is the connection point between the CPU and the motherboard's chipset. It is a combination of this speed rating and the CPU's operating frequency that determines the final speed of your CPU, so if you want a good guage of the speed differences between processors, you have to compare these numbers as well as the operating frequency numbers.

L2 Cache - 4M shared: The L2 Cache is the second level of CPU memory dedicated to helping speed up the transfer rate of instructions between the processor and all external devices. There can be up to three levels of cache in the CPU, each one getting progressively larger and slower. L1 cache is the smallest and fastest (Core 2 Duos have 64Kb of L1 cache), then L2 cache, and some high-end, high-performance CPUs will have L3 cache as well. Looking at the amount of L2 cache on a CPU is another way to determine how fast it will send and retrieve information.

Manufacturing Tech - 65 nm: This measurement is a way of determining the complexity of the CPU by describing the size of each transistor in nanometers. The size of each transistor in the CPU determines how many of them can fit into the CPU itself, so two CPU chips of the same physical size may have more or fewer transistors in them based on this technical specification.

64 bit Support – Yes: This specification designates whether this CPU can support 64-bit architecture in the programs installed on your computer. All modern computers built today have 64-bit processors installed in them, up from the 32-bit processors that were used until several years ago. 64-bit processors greatly increase the amount of data that can be addressed by the CPU. 32-bit processors could only address a max of 4 gigabytes of data at a time, but a 64-bit processor can address up to 16 billion gigabyes (16 exabytes) of data at once, greatly increasing the potential of computer programs. A 64-bit processor also doubles the amount of data that can be fetched at any given time, which increases the throughput speed of data from one device to another.

Hyper-Threading Support – No: Hyper-threading was a precursor to multi-processor technology in Intel's CPUs. It was a technology that allowed a single CPU to process multiple threads of data simultaneously, but it could only be effective when used by programs that supported the processing of data in a very specific way. Most hyperthreaded CPUs have been replaced by multi-core CPUs, which actually have multiple processors instead of just giving the illusion of multiple processors the way that hyperthreaded CPUs do.



Now that you know everything you need to know about the CPU: