The evolution of the central processing unit Research Paper

The evolution of the central processing unit - Research Paper Example In addition, the largest challenge with this type of central processing unit in the fact that it had to be programmed, in which case programming meant rewiring its circuitry to run designated tasks due to the lack of dynamism in automation. As such, all manners of programming done to the CPU were done manually through wiring and rewiring to suit the computational demands of each task. This took plenty of time to do thus was very challenging as was the case of the Harvard Mark 1 and EDVAC, which were amongst the earliest computers that used the custom made processors to execute programs. This can effectively be termed as the first wave of the first generation of processors as it marked a new wave in computing. Therefore, this is where the processors ran at a low clock rate of roughly 100 kHz to 4mhz. the low speeds of the clock rate were largely due to the speed of switching devices and circuitry, which were largely relays and vacuum tubes. Next in line was the transistor and integrat ed circuit CPUs, which was an upgrade to smaller electronic devices that had a higher level of reliability due to the use of transistors. It is these transistors that saw the CPUs of the 1950s and 1960s shrink in size due to the exclusion of electric relays and vacuum tubes, and instead the entire CPU was mounted on one or several printed circuit boards and each had individual components. These usually consisted of tens to a few hundred transistors and for a single to be built all these had to be soldered onto the earlier mentioned printed circuit boards. This is because of the numerous transistors required, there was need to have multiple boards and these needed to be interconnected in a chassis to create a complete central processing unit. In this case, each board consisting of soldered in transistors was known as a die or a chip, and it is only unspecialized digital circuits that were miniaturized into integrated circuits. Miniaturization into transistor integrated circuits were a large step since these did not need rewiring to conduct different due to their non-specialized nature. This phase of the evolution of central processing units was characterized by low power input due to advancement in microelectronic technology and the number of individual transistors required in making a single CPU reduced significantly. Furthermore, in the 1960s, IBM introduced a new standard of architecture and this saw the introduction of CPUs that could run similar tasks and programs at different speeds and performance levels. This marked the first processor that could show a variation in performance and speed as most processors and computers were incompatible with one another to extent that even those that were created by the same manufacturer were completely incompatible. IBM’s system/360 was the name of this architecture and it made use of micro programs that are also known as micro-code and these are still used inn modern CPUs (DejaVu Design, n.d). The reliability of these transistor-based central processing units was based on the lower switching times, which enhanced their speeds as compared to the time taken I the case of electric relays and tubes. The clock speed of these transistor based CPUs marked a new record in that they were double and triple in the dozens of first generation of specialized CPUs. It is after different companies created