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Guide to the latest desktop processors

Basic anatomy of a computer

Before we move on to performance benchmarks, you should be aware of the processor's role within the computer architecture. Here are a few basic things to keep in mind about how they work together.

A simple chip diagram adapted from Intel.

All computers have processor chips inside that do the actual computing. Both the processor and memory reside on the motherboard--if the processor is the brain, the motherboard would be the heart of your computer.

All these parts are connected by a bus or data pathway between your processor, screen, disk, and everything else. PCI, or peripheral component interconnection, is the bus most used on modern PCs and even Macintoshes as well. Physically, the bus is what you plug your controller cards into, such as the video card, the disk controller, sound card.

The processor, sometimes called the CPU or Central Processing Unit, "talks" to the other components over the bus. The only subsystem that the processor has really fast, direct access to is the memory. In order for programs to run, they have to be in the memory.

So when your computer reads a program or data off a disk, what happens is the processor uses the bus to send a disk read request to your disk controller. After the request is carried out, the disk controller uses the bus to signal the processor that it has read the data and put it in a certain location in memory. The processor can read that data directly off the memory.

Your keyboard and screen also communicate with the processor via the bus, but in simpler ways.

Other terms to know:

Chipset: Refers to a group of integrated circuits or chips designed to work together.

Front side bus: This is the bus that carries data between the CPU and the nearest of the chipset.

I/O Controller Hub: ICH is used to connect and control peripheral devices.

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