SYS 140:Week 2 reading - WanderlustPenguin/Charles-Tech-Journal GitHub Wiki

Section 1 of the reading is an overview of what a processor is. It covers what processors do, and some of the largest producers of them. Processors, also known as CPUs, are the primary determinant of the power of a computer. They are responsible for the computer’s calculations, proper instruction execution, and coordinating the computer’s operations. The largest producers of processors today are companies like Intel, Samsung, and NVIDIA.

I don’t have any particular feelings about this section. It serves as an introduction to the concept and purpose of processors, and also mentions some of the companies that create them. Other than that, its main purpose is to serve as an introduction to the rest of the chapter.

Section 2 covers the basic information relating to processors, primarily focusing on the speed at which they perform operations, how the operations are accomplished, and ways to increase the speed at which processors perform operations. This speed is typically measured in gigahertz, with 1 hertz being equal to one cycle every second. The largest determinator in speed is the register size of the processor, or how many bits it can process at a single time(also called the word size). Two special parts of the processor are the ALU, which handles all calculations in the CPU and the control unit, which coordinates the activities of the processor.

To move these bits from one part of the processor to another, or even to another processor entirely, the processor uses buses. These buses can transport an equal number of bits as the register. Internal data bus lines connect the separate parts of the CPU, while external data buses transport the data to outside systems. Processors have multiple separate buses, which it uses to run multiple operations at the same time. 3 ways to increase the speed of an operation are; to increase the CPU clock(increases gigahertz), separating the operation into smaller spread across multiple buses so each bus needs to do less work, and making multiple buses handle the same task simultaneously. This is called pipelining.

This is interesting to learn about. I didn’t know that CPUs contained so many separate parts. I am curious about the differences between larger chips and smaller ones. Do larger ones have multiple of some parts, or are they just bigger? How would just being larger help them do more if the size of the register is limited? Is it possible to have a register with more ports, and we just stick with the ones we have for the sake of uniformity?

The third section is about computer caches. Caches are a form of fast but temporary memory, used to ensure that the processor can operate faster. It is typically used to hold things like calculations or instructions. It can hold less than most other forms of memory, but is much faster than the others. A large cache is generally better for processor speeds, but some more memory intensive programs may require RAM, or even hard drive space.

Caches have been interesting to learn about, though I am a bit confused by the different levels of it. There’s three of them, but the reason for the different ones is a bit unclear. Is it to provide some intermediate response speed between a normal cache and the RAM?

The fourth section focuses on clocking. In order to keep the flow of data smooth and uncorrupted data is only sent from the processor at specific periods of time that fall along a clock signal. Clock signals are often represented by a sine wave. Modern computers send data 4 times each clock signal.

It’s interesting to learn about how computers make sure to send data at certain times in order to prevent any problems. I figured they had some way to do it, and was peripherally aware of clocking, but was previously unaware of these details. It does raise questions about the concept of overclocking to me. Does overclocking increase the number of times data is sent each clock signal, increase the speed of the clock signals, or are the two concepts unrelated in anything but name?

The fifth section is about GPUs. GPUs, or graphics processing units, are kind of like a specialized form of processor. They have far more core processors, but they are smaller, and are primarily directed at ensuring good graphics and video performance. These specialized processors are very helpful for computer performance, as it takes a large chunk of processing related to video away from the normal processor which helps it run smoother.

GPUs are an interesting concept. Video performance and graphics can be very hard on a system to render, so it makes sense to have a specialized processor dedicated to the task, but it does raise questions. Are there other parts of the CPU’s job that would benefit from specialized processors supplanting it?

The sixth section is on processor cooling. It discusses the ways to keep a processor cool and gives several examples of processor cooling methods. The section explains that the area with the most cooling is probably the processor, but that other important areas might also get personal cooling.

This section is the one I am most familiar with. I have an apple mac laptop, and it does not have the best cooling. A large part of that is likely the strive for a thin size and the heat traveling downward instead of upward. I found the different styles of cooling and the way they can be combined to be very interesting.

The final section was on chipsets. A chipset is a collection of principle chips, which work together to control things like the maximum computer memory, how many CPUs the computer can run, and if its software is up to date. Their big job is to make sure everything runs smoothly, that everything in the computer can communicate with eachother, and the computer knows what it can and can’t do.

??? The chipsets were a bit confusing. I broadly understand their purpose of determining what the computer can do, but I’m unsure whether they are intended to serve as a limiter or a guide system. I’d appreciate it if this could be explained to me.