The CPU, or the Central

Processing Unit, is the brain of

the computer and one of the
most important chip in the
computer. New CPUs are
small and square and contain
multiple metallic connectors
or pins on the underside. The
CPU is inserted directly into a
CPU socket, pin side down, on
the motherboard.

PROCESSOR -CPU
1. Manufacturer:
The two common
manufacturer for Desktop
and Laptop computers are
Intel and AMD
Choosing a processor
manufacturer will Depend
on which motherboards
are compatible with your
CPU.
To view Intel Processors, access www.intel.ph, click Menu, click products and choose Processors.
To view AMD Processors, access www.amd.com, click Menu, click products and choose
Processors.
Intel was founded on July 18, 1968, by semiconductor pioneers Robert Noyce and Gordon
Moore who left Fairchild Semiconductor to do so.
Originally called “NM Electronics” for Noyce and Moore, the company purchased the rights to
use the name “Intel,” short for Integrated Electronics, from a company called Intelco. The term
“intel” already being associated with “intelligence” was a bonus.

Most of what
I learned as
an
entrepreneur
was by trial
and error.
1969
Co-founder Jerry Sanders named AMD’s first
president and CEO.
AMD incorporates with $100,000; establishes
headquarters in Sunnyvale, California.

Advanced Micro Devices was formally

incorporated on May 1, 1969, by Jerry
Sanders, along with seven of his
colleagues from Fairchild
Semiconductor
2. Processor type:
Desktop Processor -
use to build a desktop
computers.
4th generation Intel® Core™ processor
family
Processor numbers for the 4th
generation Intel® Core™ processors
use an alphanumeric scheme based
on generation and product line
following the brand and its modifier.
The first digit in the four-number
sequence indicates the generation of
processor, and the next three digits
are SKU numbers. Where applicable,
an alpha suffix appears at the end of
the processor name, which represents
the processor line. Intel® High End
Desktop Processors follow a different
numbering scheme due to the
difference in their feature set.
 Brand Generation
Modifier Indicator
SKU Product
Brand Numeric Digit Line Suffix

Intel® Core™ i7-5930K Processor

(15M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz)

Quick on-board Frequency

CPU memory
The AMD FX-Series, which is only available for desktop
computers, works like this. We’ll use the FX-8350 as an
example.

The product line will always be FX, so let’s skip to core count.
This is a simple one-to-one translation. If it’s an FX-4100, it
has four cores. If it’s an FX-8350, it has eight cores. And so on.
AMD’s mainstream APUs, which include
integrated Radeon graphics, follow a different
formula. Let’s use the AMD A8-5600K as an
example.

The product line tells you if a product is an A-

Series, E-Series processor, or C-Series
processor. The A-Series is AMD’s mainstream
laptop and desktop processor line, and the E-
Series and C-Series are meant only for
inexpensive, low-power systems like netbooks
and tablets (in other words, they’re slower).
Mobile Processor - are used for notebooks and other mobile
computers.
Server Processors - used in
servers computers.

Each type have different

performance, power
consumption and price.
4. The Processor Socket Type:
The processor socket is where you
will insert the CPU. To ensure that
they are compatible, match your
motherboard socket type with your
CPU socket type and always refer to
the motherboard manual for the
list of compatible its compatible
CPU.
5. Core:
A multicore processor, as the name
implies, actually contains two or more processor cores
in a single processor package. From outward
appearances, it still looks like a single processor (and
is considered as such for Windows licensing
purposes), but inside there can be two, three, four, or
even more processor cores. A multicore processor
provides virtually all the advantages of having
multiple separate physical processors, all at a much
lower cost.

You’ll usually notice that a core is associated with a

particular series. The core is a good indicator of
performance, before considering other important
factors such as frequency (speed in GHz) and cache
(Very fast onboard CPU memory) that is.
6. Frequency:
Still the most important factor in
performance for today’s cpus, the
frequency represents the speed at
which the processor runs, in GHz
(1GHz = 1024MHz). Video games
performance is very dependent on
frequency, to the point where a
fast dual-core processor will
outperform a slower quad-core
processor in most video games
7. FSB, Hyper-Transport or QPI:
This is the speed at which your processor
communicates with other components in
your system, such as the memory for
example. A higher speed means higher
bandwidth, or in plain English, your
system will be able to move more data in
a given time, increasing performance in
specific cases.

You must make sure that it meets or is

lower than your motherboard supported
speed in order for your processor to
function with the motherboard.
Note that the processor data bus
is also called the front side bus
(FSB), processor side bus (PSB),
or
just CPU bus. All these terms
refer to the bus that is between
the CPU and the main chipset
component (North Bridge or
Memory Controller Hub). Intel
uses the FSB or PSB terminology,
whereas AMD uses only FSB.
8. L2/L3 cache:
Cache is really quick on-board cpu
memory, much faster than RAM, that
your processor use to store data that is
about to be processed and/or is used
often. The more cache you have, the
more data your processor can store for
ultra-quick access and the more
performance you’ll get out of your
processor.

Video games performance greatly

benefit from more L2 and L3 cache.
9. 64-bit support: Whether
your processor supports 64-
bit software or not. Just like
everyone switched from 16-
bit to 32-bit many years
ago, in order to be able to
use more memory in our
computers, we are now
switching to 64-bit, in order
to lift the 4GB memory limit
of 32-bit.