You've probably heard the acronym CPU lots of times when you went out hunting for a laptop or desktop computer to buy. Quite often, the type of CPU in the device will be mentioned as part of the specs ...

The term bottleneck in a computer is derived from the physical object it references and the phenomenon of slowness it creates.

Under normal circumstances, the CPU in your desktop PC generates modest amounts of heat; a smart fan on top of the CPU runs just fast enough to keep it cool. At this speed, you barely hear the fan.

A central processing unit, or CPU, is the heart of any computer system. But it’s definitely not the only part: you also need RAM, ROM and at least some peripherals to turn it into a complete system ...