The microprocessor and CPU

The microprocessor is integrated circuit (IC), or chip, which forms the core of your computer’s brain. It coordinates all action and does all calculations. It is located on motherboard, or main circuit board, of main unit. This board is called as logic board somtimes.

Basic components
The microprocessor, along with various other circuits, comprises central processing unit (CPU) of the computer.  Auxiliary circuits are integrated onto the same chip as microprocessor, but they are separate often. The external chips contain both memory and programming instructions.You might think of microprocessor as computer’s conscious mind, which directs the behavior of machine by deliberate control. The CPU, dominated by microprocessor, represents PC’s entire mind, both conscious and subconscious. All ancillary circuits, in conjunction with CPU, create the computer’s central nervous system. Peripherals like printers, disk drives, mice, speech recognition or synthesis apparatus, modems, and monitors are hands, eyes, ears, and mouth of machine. In advanced computer systems there may be robots, vision systems, various home appliances, medical devices, surveillance apparatus, and other exotic equipment under the control of CPU.

Microprocessors are becoming more powerful every year. Physically, this translates to an increasing number of digital switching transistors per chip. The Intel 486, a primitive chip by today’s standards, had over 1,000,000 transistors. The number of digital switches which can be fabricated onto the semiconductor chip of a particular size can be limited only by structure of matter.

It is possible that someday an elementary logic unit, called as binary digit or bit, will be represented by presence or absence of a single electron in atom. Some researchers have even discussed the possibility that a single electron may represent more than one data bit at a time. Certainly factors that we do not yet know about will probably enter into this picture. Alternatives to digital technology, such as analog computers or neural networks, may produce new developments, creating machines with power and speed which we can only dream about today. There is considerable disagreement about this, however.