Central Processing Unit: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:Intel@intel7(10nmESF)@RaptorLake@RPL(8P+16E)@i9-13900K@ES DSC05138-DSC05138.jpg|thumb|A CPU die]]
The Central Processing Unit (CPU, or simply “the processor”) is essentially the “brain” of a computer.
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All processors have a basic vocabulary known as an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA). Different processors sharing the same or similar architectures can run each others' software with little or no speed penalty. In contrast, running software written for a different architecture requires [[Emulation]], and imposes an enormous speed penalty. Examples of popular ISAs today are 80x86, POWER/PowerPC, ARM/XScale and MIPS.
A CPU is usually made faster by increasing its [[Clock Speed]], by increasing [[Powers of Two Minus One|the word length or "bit number"]], by designing it so that it can handle different stages of multiple instructions at one time (called “pipelining”), or by adding a small "cache" of high-speed memory to store frequently-used instructions and data. Higher clocked and more complex chips run hotter, which is typically dealt with by shrinking the manufacturing process of their components (called a “process shrink.”) The core component out of which CPU circuits are created, the [[wikipedia:MOSFET|MOSFET]]s, in CPUs of 2014 are as small as 14 nanometers<ref>That's 1.4 millionths of a centimeter</ref> across, source to drain.<ref>At least, according to this: [http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2014/08/11/intel-discloses-newest-microarchitecture-and-14-nanometer-manufacturing-process-technical-details "Intel Discloses Newest Microarchitecture and 14 Nanometer Manufacturing Process Technical Details"]</ref>
=== A brief History ===
==== Architectural ====
[[File:Intel 4004 ad.jpg|thumb|Ad for the Intel 4004: a big deal in the history of CPUs]]
The first CPUs were not very centralized at all. Instead, they were comprised of multiple chips, and even basic electronics that did some logic were done with discrete chips that did [[Binary Logic]]. These systems were also only capable of integer math at a reasonable speed. In order to do complex math faster, specialized chips such as Floating Point Units and Digital Signal processors were used. When the original Intel 4004 was released, it was called the first "Integrated Microprocessor" because it contained both the logical part and arithmetic part in the same package. During the 80s, processor manufacturers were finding more and more chips to put into the CPU in order to keep system costs down. Eventually this accumulated to the the microcontroller, which contains a CPU, memory, and plenty of configurable I/O ports. The evolution of this is the System-on-a-Chip (SoC), which, for all intents and purposes, is a self contained computer with human-friendly user interfaces (such as a GPU to drive a display).
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* Word length: 8 bits
* Address space: 16 bits
* Used in: Several hobbyist kit-computers, and the Sphere 1, the [[
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'''MOS 6502''' (1975): First cheap CPU. An improved Motorola 6800. The standard CPU for 8-bit videogame consoles and early home computers.
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* Address space: 16 bits
* Used in:
** [[
** [[Game Boy]]: Sharp LR35902, a cross between an Intel 8080 and a Z80.
** [[Game Boy Color]]
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** Tandy [[TRS-80]]
** [[ZX Spectrum]]
** [[PC
** Sharp X1
** Commodore 128: As a 2nd CPU, for running in CP/M Mode. Unlike other systems, the Commodore 128 could not run both this and the MOS 8502 simultaneously (as in multiprocessing).
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** [[Apple Macintosh]]
** [[Atari ST]]
** [[Sharp
** Many arcade boards, e.g. Sega System 16, Capcom CP System
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* Word length: 32 bits
* Address space: 32 bits
* Used in: [[
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'''Apple-IBM-Motorola PowerPC 601 & 603''' (1992): The first two major forms of the PowerPC family. The 603 addressed and corrected most of the 601's flaws, and then fixed the remainder of them in its revised incarnation, the 603e. Still lacked official support for multiprocessing, though that didn't stop some resourceful designers.
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* Used in:
** [[PlayStation 2]]
** Early [[
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'''Motorola PowerPC 7400/7410/744X/745X''' (1999): Motorola's solo venture in the PowerPC family. As IBM was falling back on designing the successor, Apple went with Motorola's design. It added multiprocessing support and a new feature that Motorola had branded AltiVec, the answer to Intel's SSE and AMD's 3DNow!. It was notably marketed by Apple, supposedly performing at 1GFLOP and being banned for export due to being a "weapons grade supercomputer". Indeed one demonstration that Apple referred to as "Debunking the Megahertz Myth," a side-by-side comparison was made of an operation on Adobe Photoshop running on an 867 MHz PowerMac G4 and on a 1.7 GHz Pentium 4 PC, with the G4 performing faster.
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* Word length: 32 or 64 bits
* Address space: 64 bits
* Used in: [[
** There is a case where the Cell was used in a media encoding add-in card that performed really well for the task.
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* Address space: 64-bits (again, limited to 48-bits)
* Used in: PCs
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'''Early RISC-V Processors''' (2014 for ISA): the mid to late 2010s saw the first RISC-V processors. While not comparable to the performance of other chips being produced at the time, the openISA offered a number of advantages making it compelling for embedded controllers.
* Clock speed: Varied by Implementation
* Module/core count: Varied by implementation
* Word length: 32-bit
* Address space: 32-bit or 64-bit
* Used in: Embedded systems
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'''AMD Zen (Summit Ridge)''' (2017): A new design by AMD that lead to rapid gains in the market against Intel, which at the time had not truly faced a serious high performance rival for about a decade.
* Clock speed: 2-3.6GHz (4.1GHz with Turbo)
* Module/core count: 2-32
* Used in: PCs, Workstations, Servers
** The follow-up Zen 2 would be used in the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and Series X, and the Steam Deck.
==2020s==
'''Apple M1''' (2020): Apple transitioned their Mac line from x86_64 to ARM by using a custom in house system on a chip, leading to large gains in device efficiency.
* Clock speed: Up to 3.2 GHz
* Module/core count: 8-20
* Used in: Macs
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:How Video Game Specs Work]]
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