The CPU

The CPU, also known as the Central Processing Unit, is the heart of any computer, whether it be a desktop machine, a server or a laptop.

The name given to the first CPU was the Intel 8080. It was introduced in 1974.
Over the years, there has been a steady increase on the number of transitor chips. The number of transitors also rise as the feature size of the decrease. The clock speed has increased over time and the MIPS has had a steady increase.
MPIS stands for 'millions of instructions per second' and is a rough measure of the performance of a CPU.
Most modern PC’s use what are called dual core processors. It is often stated that such processors improve multitasking.
Dual core processors have two separate cores on the same physial machine. This means they can do two tasks at the same time without interfering one with the other or using up the others memory or processing speed. The ability to multi-task means that they are capable of performing long and complicated operations at the same time without losing power or speed. They can also be combined into one operations once each processor has finished its part of the work.