Computer Hardware Terms, Glossary and Dictionary

A processor, also known as central processing unit (CPU), refers to the part of a computer that interprets and carries out, or processes, instructions and data contained in the software. Microprocessors are CPUs that are manufactured on integrated circuits, often as a single-chip package. Since the mid-1970s, these single-chip microprocessors have become the most common and prominent implementations of CPUs, and today the term is almost always applied to this form.

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