This role contrasts with that of external components, such as main memory and I/O circuitry, and specialized coprocessors such as graphics processing units (GPUs). Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, logic, controlling, and input/output (I/O) operations.
A central processing unit (CPU) made by Intel: An Intel Core i9-14900K Inside a central processing unit: The integrated circuit of Intel's Xeon 3060, first manufactured in 2006Ī central processing unit ( CPU)-also called a central processor or main processor-is the most important processor in a given computer. For other uses, see CPU (disambiguation).
