The part of the CPU that actually does the work of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing, including OR, AND, and NOT operations. The ALU is an execution unit, like the FPU, that is fed with data from the CPU registers
A step-by-step method of accomplishing a task. For instance, a sorting algorithm may be like this: 1) Progress down your list from the top; 2) When you encounter something that is less than the last items swap the two; 3) Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you reach the end of your list. This is commonly known as a Bubble Sort, as it seems to bubble items to the top of the list.
Think of this as the brains of the computer. When most people think of processors, they think of Intel, AMD , Motorola, or IBM .. The CPU is designed to run a group of instructions, or instruction set. CPU instructions can consist of adding together numbers, subtracting, fetching information from memory, and numerous other simple functions.
A group of bits of data regarded as a whole while programming or transferring data. Often a word is 8 bits in length, also referred to as a byte. This is also the name of Microsoft’s word processor.