Short for binary digit, the smallest unit. Of information on a machine. Meaningful information is obtained by combining. Consecutive bits into larger units. A byte is composed of 8 consecutive bits. Computers are sometimes classified by the. Number of bits they can process at one time. Or by the number of bits they use to represent. These two values are not always the. Same, which leads to confusion.

A kind of computer architecture that has a large number. Of instructions hard coded into the CPU chip. A processor where each instruction can perform several. Low-level operations such as memory access, arithmetic. Most personal computers, use a. CISC architecture, in which the CPU supports as many as.

Is a small electronic device made out of a semiconductor. Integrated circuits are used for a variety of. Devices, including microprocessors, audio and video. Often classified by the number of transistors and.

One MHz represents one million cycles per second. The speed of microprocessors, called the clock speed,. For example, a microprocessor. That runs at 200 MHz executes 200 million cycles per second. A measure of microprocessing speed; 1 MHz equals. 1 million electrical cycles per second. A unit of frequency, equal to one million cycles. One million cycles per second. One million periods per second.

That recognizes a relatively limited number of instructions. One advantage of reduced instruction set computers. Is that they can execute their instructions very fast. Because the instructions are so simple. Perhaps more important advantage, is that RISC chips. Require fewer transistors, which makes them cheaper. A computer whose central processing unit recognizes.