What is CPU ?

The CPU was first developed at Intel with the help of Ted Hoff and others in the early 1970's.

ALU (arithmetic logic unit) - performs mathematical, logical, and decision operations.
CU (control unit) - directs all of the processors operations.

Over the history of computer processors, the speed (clock speed) and capabilities of the processor have dramatically improved.

For example, the first microprocessor was the Intel 4004 that was released on November 15, 1971, and had 2,300 transistors and performed 60,000 operations per second.

computer processors used numbers to identify the processor and help identify faster processors.

For example, the Intel 80486 (486) processor is faster than the 80386 (386) processor.

After the introduction of the Intel Pentium processor (which would technically be the 80586), all computer processors started using names like Athlon, Duron, Pentium, and Celeron.

Today, in addition to the different names of computer processors, there are different architectures (32-bit and 64-bit), speeds, and capabilities.