S1:EP1 CPU Architecture and the Fetch-Execute Cycle

This Episode offers an educational overview of the Central Processing Unit (CPU), a fundamental component of computer systems. It begins by establishing the CPU's purpose as the "brains" of the computer, processing billions of instructions per second. The materials then introduce the Von Neumann architecture, explaining how both program instructions and data are stored in the same memory. Key CPU components are detailed, including the Control Unit (CU), Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), and various registers such as the Program Counter (PC), Memory Address Register (MAR), Memory Data Register (MDR), and Accumulator. Finally, the episode illustrates the fetch-decode-execute cycle, showing how these components work in concert to process instructions, exemplified by a step-by-step addition problem.