Components of a Computer

• CISC


  Complex Instruction Set Computer
• CISC processors


  • Have a large instruction set built into it
• CISC instruction set


  • The large instruction set allows programmers of assembly language to use fewer instructions as the instruction set built-in would deal with the additional needed steps
  • Most of the built-in instructions are made up of multiple simple instructions
  • Only about 20% of the built-in instructions were used in the average program
• RISC


  Reduced Instruction Set Computer
• RISC processors


  • Have a small number of essential instructions built-in
  • Each of these instructions can be completed in a single clock cycle
  • This reduced instruction set means assembly programmers have to code more lines of code to achieve more complex results
• CISC processors


  Have a large library of complex instructions made up of simpler instructions
• RISC processors


  Have a library of simple efficient instructions
• CISC processors


  Have many addressing modes
• RISC processors


  Have few addressing modes
• CISC processors


  Are more expensive than RISC processors
• GPU


  Graphical processing unit
• GPU


  • Designed and made for processing graphical output from your computer system
  • Can be integrated into your computer's motherboard
  • Can also be a dedicated graphics card that plugs into the motherboard
• CPU


  Processes tasks in a serial order (one after another)
• GPU


  Has lots of smaller cores that are very efficient at processing large amounts of visual data in smaller chunks simultaneously (in parallel)
• Uses of GPUs


  • Processing the graphical information for a computer to output what the user is doing
  • Mining blockchain cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin
  • Used in supercomputers as a parallel processor where a lot of data needs to be processed simultaneously
• Multicore systems


  • CPU chips that have multiple cores inside a single physical chip
  • Allow multitasking more easily as processing workload can be shared across the cores
• Individual pieces of software also need to be optimised to take full advantage of multicore systems
• Parallel CPU


  • One that has lots of CPU cores (like a multicore CPU)
  • These cores all complete the same instructions on slightly different sets of data
  • Made for processing large amounts of data very quickly
• GPU


  Is a type of parallel processor