Central Processor

A central processor is the "engine" that goes into motion when you turn your computer on. A processor is designed to perform arithmetic and logic operations. By design, processors have built in instructions such as adding, subtracting, comparing two numbers, etc that enable it to do its job and perform these operations. Processors do this by breaking each operation up into steps like an assembly line. They have an internal clock that tells the processor when to move to the next step in the calculations. Different processor designs may do more or less in each step so they cannot be judged by clock speed alone.

For more information on this process, see:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/pipelining-1.ars

Processors come in a variety of designs and layouts. However many times they are grouped into families that can run the same instruction sets. Instruction sets are the languages that the processors understand. The most common instruction set is x86 and is found in all new PCs. It includes processors from Intel (Core, Pentium, and Xeon), AMD (Athlon, Duron, and Opteron) and a few smaller companies. Apple computers used to use an instruction set called PowerPC with processors from Motorola (PowerPC G4) and IBM (PowerPC G5), but they have now switched to the x86 instruction set as well. There are other instruction sets out there but they are mainly used in servers, specialized workstations and game consoles.

For more information on the latest Intel and AMD processor architectures, see:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/core.ars
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/amd-hammer-1.ars

Processors used to be advertised almost exclusively by their clock speed which is now measured in GHz (gigahertz), however as their architectures began to differ more and more, both AMD and Intel moved to using processor model numbers. You can find out about AMD's here: http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_9485_9487%5E10248,00.html and Intel's here: http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/index.htm Now in addition to clock speed, processor vendors try and sell you on varying amounts of cache (small but very fast memory) and thermal rating among other things. The thermal rating is how much heat the processor generates while it is running. This is usually the main differentiator between desktop and laptop processors. Laptops require cooler running processors. Another recent features that both have added is making some processors that are multi-core. What this means is that they have effectively put two processors inside of one. An important thing to remember is that most of the software out there has not been written to use more than one processor. So while having two may make the computer faster while working on multiple things (such as listening to music in the background while doing something else) it will not speed up a single application. In the years to come, hopefully software designers will take multiple processors into account.

The above picture is a dual core type processor, designed by Intel® for use in mobile computing. Utilizing the same technology that has revolutionized the desktop world, laptops are becoming a much more feasible option for people of all environments.

AMD® is a starch competitor of Intel®, due in no small part by their breakthrough technology with 64-bit processing. AMD® has their own flavor of dual core processors, as can be seen by this image of a AMD® Athlon 64 X2 dual core processor.

Intel's flagship processor, the Pentium® Core2 Extreme, is a powerhouse for people of all needs, whether it be video editing/rendering, or today's high end video games. Intel® is also leading the push towards quad core processors, which, utilizing the same technology as dual core processors, takes computing power to a new height.