Intel Core i7 CPU The earliest CPUs were large circuit boards with limited functionality. Today, a CPU can perform a large variety of functions. There are two primary manufacturers of CPUs for personal computers: Intel and
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The speed (“clock time”) of a CPU is measured in hertz. A hertz is defined as one cycle per second. A kilohertz (abbreviated kHz) is one thousand cycles per second, a megahertz (mHz) is one million cycles per second, and a gigahertz (gHz) is one billion cycles per second. The CPU’s processing power is increasing at an amazing rate (see the sidebar about Moore’s Law). Besides a faster clock time, today’s CPU chips contain multiple processors. These chips, known as dual-core (two processors) or quad-core (four processors), increase the processing power of a computer by providing the capability of multiple CPUs all sharing the processing load. Intel’s Core i7 processors contain 6 cores and their Core i9 processors contain 16 cores. This video shows how a CPU works.
Sidebar: Moore’s Law and Huang’s Law
As you know computers get faster every year. Many times, we are not sure if we want to buy today’s model because next week it won’t be the most advanced any more. Gordon Moore, one of the founders of Intel, recognized this phenomenon in 1965, noting that microprocessor transistor counts had been Information Systems for Business and Beyond (2019) pg. 27
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