Expert Consulted: Adrian Gardiner. Years of experience buying both computers and computer parts for my own new customer builds has given me a keen eye for spotting great deals when shopping. In this article I’ll be sharing my knowledge to answer the question ‘Where does the CPU store its computations?’.
So, we all use computers on a daily, maybe even an hourly basis for some of you hardcore users out there!
Whether you’re just catching up on the latest news, reading an interesting article, checking your social media accounts, working or indulging in a bit of computer gaming, we’re almost physically connected to them it seems.
But, have you ever wondered what’s actually happening deep within the inner workings of your computer?
Or more specifically, perhaps you’ve wondered “where does the CPU store its computations?” If it’s doing so much all the time where and I guess how, does it store all of these complex instructions?
The CPU (the brain of your PC) doesn’t store computations but executes them and temporarily stores the results in its internal registers for quick access or temporarily in cache. For longer term storage, these results are transferred to the computer’s main memory (RAM). The number and size of registers depend on the CPU’s architecture.
Read on for more information on this interesting but rarely discussed topic.
Where Does the CPU Store its Computations
In the next few sections of my article I’ve gone in to lots of detail to uncover for you all the fascinating details on the heart of your computer, the CPU, and what it does with all those complex computations.
Basics of the CPU and Computation Storage
As mentioned earlier the CPU is like the brain of your computer dealing with all the complex calculations, decision making and processing of information necessary for your system to function.
In simple terms, the CPUs operational process is as follows:
- The CPU Control Unit (CU) fetches the instruction from RAM
- The fetched instruction is then decoded to understand what needs to be done
- The instruction is executed, utilising the registers for storing data and the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) for calculations.
This sequence is of repeated millions of times per second!
As to where the CPU actually stores all of these computations, this needs to be answered in several sections as follows.
Where Memory Comes into Play
If the CPU is the brain of your computer then the Random Access Memory (RAM) is the short term memory. When you open a program, it’s loaded into RAM so that the CPU can access it quickly.
It’s a bit like having your own workspace to lay out your tools and materials for a project that you need to work on – everything is there ready to access quickly. This is just part of the answer to “where does the CPU store it computations”.
CPU Architecture and its Impact on Computation Storage
The CPU has several critical parts.
Arithmetic Logic Unit
The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) is like the calculator in the CPU and performs arithmetic and logical operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.
Logical operations involve comparisons like determining if one value is equal to, less than or greater than another. The results of these operations by the ALU are crucial for most functions a computer carries out.
Control Unit
The Control Unit (CU) is like the central command point, directing traffic and making sure everything happens in the right order.
Registers
The registers are like notepads, holding the data required by the ALU for computations. They keep tabs on what the CPU is currently busy with, storing data that will be used immediately.
The Role of the Hard Drive in CPU Computations & Memory
When all physical RAM has been allocated, the system takes space from the hard drive as ‘virtual memory’, allowing the system to carry on working, although at a slower pace as the hard drive is considerably slower than RAM.
Newer NVMe M.2 SSD drives have considerably reduced the gap in terms of performance when compared to RAM but are still slower.
The speed of retrieving data can impact the overall performance of a computer and the CPU. Older style hard disk drives with their mechanical components are much slower than SSD drives so a faster drive can help the CPU process tasks much faster leading to a much better all round user experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1 Why does a computer slow down if it has too many applications open?
Running many programs at the same time simply consumes more RAM and you only have so much physical RAM installed on your PC. This means that once your RAM been used up by running applications, the system the starts to use virtual RAM from the hard drive which is much slower.
It’s like trying to run a race with a heavy backpack, you can do it but you’ll be much slower. The solution is to either close some applications or add more RAM to your system to minimise the chances of this happening again.
TIP If you’re running Windows 10 or 11 with only 4 GB of RAM (it’s not enough for Windows 10 or 11) I would double this to 8 GB – it’s not that expensive and very easy to do. If you have 8 GB and you’re constantly running short of RAM, check your running processes and applications via Task Manager and either terminate unnecessary programs or if necessary double up to 16 GB.
Q2 Does having more CPU cores always mean better performance?
Not necessarily. Having more cores can improve performance but it depends on what tasks are being performed at any given time.
For single threaded tasks, having more cores won’t always improve performance.
However, for multi-threaded tasks, having more cores can make a huge difference, like for video editing, 3D rendering and running more than one application at the same time.
Q3 What is the role of the CPU cache?
The Control Unit fetches the instruction from memory (RAM), decodes it to understand what needs to be done, and then executes the instruction using the ALU and registers.
Conclusion
The CPU is a complex piece of technology, storing its computations in several locations depending on what it’s doing.
From the Registers for immediate calculations to the CPU cache and RAM, the CPU has a system in place to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible.
So, now that you know where the CPU stores its computation, next time you’re using your PC, you can remember the intricacies and appreciate the marvels of technology that are used to make it all happen.