cpu

At one time computers were huge bulky machines which weighed many tons, and operated using old time "vacuum tubes." The invention of the silicon transistor in the early 1940's revolutionized the electronics industry. During the 1970s U.S. companies pioneered new manufacturing techniques called Very Large Scale Integration [VLSI]. It permitted the production of very compact electronic devices. Instead of one transistor, many (in fact, millions on a modern microprocessor) were integrated into a single …

…time" clock that most microcomputers have to maintain the time and date. The microprocessor's clock is independent of the real-time clock, and does not run continuously under battery power as does the real-time clock, but only runs when the computer is turned on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** · Intel Architecture Labs: http://developer.intel.com/ial/ · CPU Guide: http://www.sysdoc.pair.com/cpu.html · CPU and Memory Speed http://pclt.cis.yale.edu/pclt/PCHW/CPUMEM.HTM