sends out regularelectric pulses to synchronise the components, increasing frequency(pulses per second) increases number of instructions carried out per second
- Fetch: the next instruction or data must be fetched from the computer's memory
The instruction or data is brought back to the CPU
- Decode: the control unit decodes the instruction
- Execute: the CPU will carry out the instruction that was fetched e.g. performs a calculation, stores result/data back in main memory, fetches data for next instruction