Let's understand CPU as simple as possible...

The CPU or processor is the warehouse of billions of transistors, which control the flow of current within them. They communicate to the computer as –

Hey machine, I am allowing Ampere through the gates right now. Hey machine, I am not allowing Ampere through the gates right now.

The Ampere discussed here is the current, and based on the state of current within the processor, the computer has naturally adopted to work on the binary logic so far.

The Central Processing Unit decides how quickly your computer can understand certain instructions and allocate other resources to achieve a particular task by communicating with different components of your motherboard.

Key points to observe while choosing your processor:

THE CORE WAR: A simple logic to remember here, the more number of physical cores within a processor, the better multi-core operations. By default, the number of cores on the computer is set to one, this is done in order to extend the life of the processor even if one core fails, the tasks automatically switch to the other cores. With technological advancements in chip design and fabrication, it's often recommended to activate all the cores for greater performance.

HYPER-THREADING OR SIMULTANEOUS MULTITHREADING:

Intel advertised the hyper-threading technology on all its 10th generation processors and AMD has its proprietary SMT technology. Although, the operation of both these techniques constantly keeps the CPU busy by scheduling processes given to the CPU ahead of its completion. Let me explain with a simple example – Person A eats with one hand at a time. Person B (hyperman) eats with two hands at the same time thereby making sure his mouth is always churning. Although both have the same churning area, Person B has a better advantage in managing the time taken to complete the palate soon.

THERMAL DESIGN POWER (TDP):

The TDP of the processor is the maximum amount of power a processor can draw upon full load. Higher, the TDP better-sustained turbo performance. Typical notebook processors have 15W of TDP which can go plus or minus 10W upon load and idle. It is recommended to choose a processor with a higher TDP of around 35W-45W if you want a powerful beast. In short, TDP is directly proportional to performance and inversely proportional to battery life.

CACHE SIZE:

The cache memory is the most expensive memory available on the market. Typically, a processor equips three different levels of cache memories. L1 cache is the highest closely linked to the CPU followed by L2 and L3 cache. More the L3 cache, the faster the allocation of resources such as RAM and VRAM to resource-hungry applications.

You can imagine the cache memory size as the bulk arms of Arnold or the Rock. The more muscle heavy the arms the more the performance.

THE LAST LETTER OF THE PROCESSOR:

Have you ever observed the letter at the end of the processor nomenclature? The letter at the end defines a lot about the capability and capacity of the processor. The H series can suitably run all heavy applications, at a slightly higher power consumption compared to the U series running mostly on portable notebooks. If you want to fiddle with the frequency of the processor and explore a lot of hidden potential of the processor, then I would suggest you go with the X series processor which doesn’t void your warranty when overclocked.

That's all for today, hope this blog clarifies the technical jargon in simple layman's terms.

Happy Reading ..!