Central Processing Unit (CPU) is an integral part of the computer system. The core responsibility of a CPU is to handle all the instructions from hardware as well as software. It is beyond the scope of this book to explore the CPU in detail; however, we will study the basic architecture and underline functioning of a CPU in very high level. This will help us to understand the areas where we need to focus on utilizing a CPU optimally. Not every part of your code will be CPU-dependent, so it is important to find these areas and use a proper coding strategy to make sure we use CPU time more efficiently.
Let's first look at the high-level architecture of CPU. If you dissect the processing of a CPU, you will notice there are two main components, one is Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), which is responsible for performing logical, mathematical, and comparison operations...