Processors

(Also “CPU” or “microprocessor”).

All CPUs (Central Processing Unit) fall into this category.  There are currently only two major manufacturers of x86 CPUs, AMD and Intel, both with headquarters in the USA.  (A number of other big names make ARM-based processors only. These are probably of less significance to most mainstream IT applications).

Proc’s may be 4-bit (early examples from the 1970s), 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or 64-bit, where the number of bits refers to the size of integer the CPU can process in a single operation.

AMD’s range includes these proc’s:  K5, K6, K7 (i386 architecture), K8, K10 (AMD64 architecture).  These architectures are split into the following CPU families: Athlon, Duron, Sempron, Opteron, Turion, Epyc, Phenom, FX and Ryzen along with mobile versions of some families.

From Intel, the following families of processors: Celeron, Pentium, i3, i5, i7, i9, Xeon.  Subdivided by the number of cores (Single-core, dual-core, quad-core, hex-core, octa-core, dodeca-core, hexadeca-core right up to 64-core and beyond) and by generation.  For example, the 12th genearation “Core” proc’s include examples from the Celeron, Pentium, core-i3, core- i5, core-i7 and core-i9 families.

We’ve also included these related lines in this section: coprocessors, proc upgrade kits, 2nd processor kits.