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Edexcel ·Computer Science·Cambridge IGCSE Computer Science

Hardware: the CPU & the Fetch–Decode–Execute Cycle

15 min read

The role and components of the CPU, the von Neumann architecture, registers, buses and the fetch–decode–execute cycle.

The role of the CPU

The Central Processing Unit (CPU) processes instructions and data. It fetches, decodes and executes instructions stored in memory, controls the other components, and performs arithmetic and logical operations. The CPU performance depends on factors including clock speed (cycles per second, measured in GHz), the number of cores and the cache size.

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