The central processing unit(CPU) also known as the Processor is the most important component of the computer. It is actually regarded as the brain of the computer. This is so because all data processing and control operations are coordinated here. In microcomputers,the CPU is housed inside the system unit. It is mounted on a circuit board known as, the motherboard or the system board. The figure below shows the location where a processor called Cyrix is mounted on the motherboard.
The CPU has three different functional units called arithmetic and logic unit, control unit and the main memory.
