CPU (Central Processing Unit)

Print-out for Study from CLick and Learn

Description: The CPU is the circuitry that performs the arithmetic and logic operations and executes instruction. The
CPU dictates the configuration and class to which a PC belongs. It contains
• a microprocessor which is a single integrated circuit that contains the circuit for both the arithmatic logic unit
and the control unit
• an arithmetic logic unit (ALU) which performs arithmatic operations such as addition and subtraction
• registers which hold the data that is being processed.
• a control unit that directs and co-ordinates processing.
The CPU is fed long streams of data via the system bus. The CPU receives at least two types of data:
• Instructions on how to handle the other data.
• Data, which must be handled according to the instructions.

This CPU has a heat sink on it to dissipate heat away from the CPU. It is made of aluminum
with fins that supply more surface air for cooling. The CPU may also have a fan mounted on
the top of it to keep it cool. The fan blows cool air over the heat sink. These are called CPU
coolers.
In current PC models, the CPU fits into a ZIF socket (zero-insertion force) which uses a lever to tighten or loosen
the hold on the chip or into a Slot 1 socket for Pentium II and III's. In older PC's there was a pressure contact socket.
It required force to place the pin in the socket.

ASIC (AT-Bus Support Integrated Unit): Some computers may have one or more ASIC chips. This is another chip
that helps the CPU operate the motherboard.

CLOCK DOUBLERS AND TRIPLERS: Developed by Intel, these computers use two clock speeds, one for internal
operations and for external operations.
• The internal clock frequency (the bus frequency) is the speed between the CPU and RAM. In the Pentium CPUs
it is actually the speed between L1 and L2 cache. In the Pentium II it is the speed between L2 cache and RAM.
Also the internal clock frequency is the speed inside the CPU, that is between L1 cache and the various CPU
registers.
The clock frequency is controlled by jumpers on the motherboard. In this way you can set your CPU to run faster than
is is designed to run. Often it works. This is called over clocking.

CACHE

PIPELINES and FPU

MULTIMEDIA, MMX and KATMAI (SSE)

VOLTAGE: After the 8088 5 volt CPU was intoduced, the voltage was reduced to 3.3 with the Pentium Processor. This
reduced the amount of heat generated by the PC. Voltage was reduced further in later CPU's.

SPEED: The CPU has a clock speed measured in Megahertz (MHz). The clock speed tells you how many operations
the CPU will make in one second.
(...quoted from PC Mechanic): "Clock speed is basically how many times the CPU ticks per second. Every time it
ticks(you don't hear the tick) an instruction gets performed. The clock speed is determined in MegaHertz(MHz), which
is a million cycles per second. Therefore, a 200MHz Pentium ticks 200 million times per second.
Although clock speed isn't the only determining factor for performance and speed, it means an awful lot. The faster
the clock speed, the faster the computer."
 P-RATING SYSTEM
(...quoted from PC Mechanic)
"Since Intel chips are the standard, it's chips are named by their clock speed. For example,
the Pentium-200 is a Pentium chip that operates at 200 MHz. Intel's competitors use a P-
RATING(PR) SYSTEM. The P-RATING system basically compares the chip with the
equivalent Intel chip."

• IBM Compatible:The vast majority of all CPUs mounted on PC motherboards from the early eighties are
manufactured by Intel. Other companies that have tried competing include NEC, AMD (American Micro
Devices), Texas Instruments, Cyrix, and Motorola, which makes the CPUs for Apple Computers.
GENERATIONS OF INTEL PC PROCESSORS:
FIRST GENERATION:
○ 8086/8088
• 8-bit addressed 64K of RAM; 16-bit addressed 1 MB of RAM
SECOND GENERATION:
○ 80826
Protected Mode: addressed up to 16 MB RAM and could switch between multiple programs.
Real Mode: running just DOS.
THIRD GENERATION:
• 80386DX
○ addressing bus and external data bus at 32 bits.
○ Addressed up to 4 GIG of RAM.
○ 386 Protected Mode: ability to open more than one program at a time.
• Had Virtual Memory (pretend RAM)in the hard drive called a swap file.
• Virtual 8086 to run DOS.
• 80836 SX:
○ external data bus reduced to 16 bits.
○ Address bus 24 bits.
○ Addressed up to 4 GIG of RAM.
○ 386 Protected Mode: ability to open more than one program at a time.
• Had Virtual Memory (pretend RAM)in the hard drive called a swap file.
• Virtual 8086 to run DOS.
FOURTH GENERATION:
• 486 (486SX, 486DX, 486DX2, 486DX4)
486 DX
○ Added 8 K level 1 on-board cache. Cache is memory stored for the CPU to use when the DRAM gets
refreshed.
• DRAM has to be refreshed because the capacitors that are charging (1) or (0) discharging had
down states. The Memory Controller then shuts down when the RAM gets refreshed. SRAM is
faster and does not need to be refreshed by the capacitors.
○ DX contains a math coprocessor for difficult math calculations over adding, multiplying, substracting,
and dividing.
• FIFTH GENERATION:
1. PENTIUM - EARLY
• Pentium P54C and P55C chip
○ 64 bit external data bus
○ 32 bit internal bus
○ 60 - 66 Mhz
○ First Pentiums were 5 Volts chip, large CPU chip
○ PGA
○ No multiplier
○ 2 8k Level 1 cache - one for data, one for programs
2. PENTIUM - EARLY PART II
• Same bus
• 75 - 200 MHz
• Multiplier not fixed, could be fractional
○ X1, X1.5, X2.5, X3
○ A 75 MHz Pentium is really a 50Mhz Pentium X 1.5
○ This is done by moving jumpers on the motherboard.
• External data bus speeds 50 - 66 MHz
• 3.3 Volts
• Smaller CPU package - PGA
• Computer Names: Pentium, 586, 686 lines.
430LX (Mercury), 430NX (Neptune), 430 FX (Triton), 430HX (Triton II), 430VX (Triton II & III), 430TX
Pentium MMX series

• SIXTH GENERATION:
1. PENTIUM PRO
○ Intel 450GX/KX ("Orion"), Intel 440FX ("Natoma")
Pentium Pro MMX series
• Same bus sizes as Pentium
• 100 - 200 clock speeds
• Built in L2 cache - 256K, 512K. 1 MB
• Rectangular CPU shape for CPU and Level I & 2 cache
• Handled calculations with SPECULATIVE EXECUTION: CPU runs codes in cache while waiting for
other codes.
2. LATER PENTIUM PROS
○ 166 - 333 MHz clock speeds (up to X5 clock multiplier)
○ Split voltages 2.8 to 3.3 Volts
○ Larger cache - 32K/32K
○ 66 MHz - 100 MHZ internal bus speed Socket 7
○ MMX (Multimedia Extensions): suppport for high-ended graphis
3.PENTIUM II
○ Intel 440LX
• (AGP port, DIMM - SDRAM)
• same bus as Pentium
• 233 - 400 MHz clock speed (X3.5, X4, X4.5, X5 clock multiplier)
• 66 external bus speeds
○ Pentium II (Deschutes - 333MHz)
• 100 MHz external bus speed
• X3.5, X 4......clock multipliers
• Built-in 2 512K caches
• CPU in SEC - Slot 1
○ CELERON
4. Pentium III
○ SPEEDS: -33, -66, -100, -120, -133. Pentium speeds are 75, 90, 100, 120, 133, 166, and 200, 233,
266. Pentium II speeds 233, 266, 300, and the new 333 MHz.
○ SAMPLE READING OF A CHIP: 486DX4-100 printed on the chipset.
○ Visit the Intel Museum to view and read about a simple history of Intel's Processor chips. Great site
to see the evolution of the CPU chipset!

GENERATION OF CYRIX PROCESSORS:

○ Third Generation: had its 386 line
○ Fourth Generation: had its 486 line,
○ Fifth Generation:5X86 line, 6X86L (low voltage), 6X86 or M1, 6X86 PR200+ (bus speed 75 Mhz),
6X86MMX line, etc.
○ Sixth Generation: Cyrix M2
For Further Information visit:
○ CYRIX 6X86MX Chipset FAQ at CYRIX
○ another 6X86MX Chipset FAQ
○ CYRIX 6X86 Chipset FAQ
○ The 6x86MX Processor Motherboard Compatability List
 ○ CYRIX CPU Reviews

Generation of AMD Advanced Micro

Devices)PROCESSORS:
○ Third Generation: had its 386 line
○ Fourth Generation: had its 486 line, 5X86
○ Fifth Generation: AMD-K5 line, AMD-6 line,
○ Sixth Generation: AMD-K6-2 MMX, AMD-K6 3D MMX
○ Seventh Generation: AMD K7 Athlon
For further information visit:
○ AMD FAQ
○ AMD6 MMX Processors
○ K6 FAQ

...quoted from PC Mechanic

"MULTIMEDIA EXTENSION (MMX)
MMX, 3D Now, Katmai(SSE)
Technology is a new breed of instruction built in to the newest Pentiums and
virtually all later chips. MMX is an extension off the x86 instruction set that
allows bytes of data, or instructions, to be packed together into a single register
and operated on as one set of data, therefore reducing the amount of work that
the chip has to do and allowing it to do more. MMX is thought to be mainly an
improvement in multimedia performance, but this is not necessarily true. Its
just that these types of applications stand to benefit most from this type of data
handling. Such applications need to be specially designed to take advantage of
MMX, and many vendors are releasing MMX enhanced software.
How it Works: The following provided by Intel
The Pentium processor with MMX technology has three primary architectural
design enhancements.
• New Instructions: Intel engineers have added 57 powerful new
instructions specifically designed to manipulate and process video,
audio and graphical data efficiently. These instructions are oriented
to the highly parallel, repetitive sequences often found in
multimedia operations.
• SIMD Today's multimedia and communication applications often
use repetitive loops that, while occupying 10 percent or less of the
overall application code, can account for up to 90 percent of the
execution time. A process called Single Instruction Multiple Data
(SIMD) enables one instruction to perform the same function on
multiple pieces of data. It allows the chip to reduce compute-
intensive loops common with video, audio, graphics and animation.
As an analogy, consider a drill sergeant telling an entire platoon,
"About face," rather than commanding each individual soldier one
at a time.
• More Cache Intel has doubled on-chip cache size to 32K on the
Intel Pentium processor with MMX technology. Now, more
instructions and data can be stored on the chip, reducing the
number of times the processor has to access slower, off-chip
memory areas for information."
For further Information on Intel, Cyrix, and AMD processors:
○ "The CPU Guide", Tom's Hardware Guide (detailed)
○ CPU Central

MAC PROCESSORS:
 The Mac processors are made by Motorola corporation and belong to the Motorola MC68000 family. Generally
the higher the number of the CPU, the newer and faster it is. Examples of these are the 68000 (named such
because the earliest models contained 68,000 transistors), 68020, 68030 and the 68040.
The 68030 was the processor used in most Mac II and PowerBook models and contained 325,000 transistors.
The 68040 packed 1.2 million transistors into the space of less that 1 square inch, and first appeared in the
Quadras and Centrises. The CPU will receive and send information through dozens of pins. The 68040 has 145
pins, requires 1.3 clock cycles to process an instruction, and integrates a memory management unit (MMU)
and a floating-point unit (FPU), which are separate of other processor chips of CPU's.
The Power PC is the first in the line of Mac's to use the RISC (reduced instruction-set computing) architecture.
The RISC-based CPU's are faster, use smaller instructions to increase this processing speed. The Power PC
contains 2.8 million transistors in the space of 1.7 square inches.
Further Mac Information:
○ The Macintosh Guide Book is a comprehensive guide of every model of Apple Macintosh and Mac OS-
Compatible. Detailed statistics, configurations, and pricing information.

Pasted from <http://www.millbury.k12.ma.us/hs/techrepair/cpu.html>