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What is a processor (CPU)?
In one sentence: The chip that does a computer's thinking, also called the CPU. It is made of billions of tiny switches, and all that switching makes heat.
A little more
A processor, or CPU (central processing unit), is the chip that follows a program's instructions: adding numbers, comparing them, moving them about. Phones, laptops, game consoles and servers all have one, and most have several 'cores' that can each work on something at the same time.
Inside are billions of microscopic switches called transistors. Every flip uses a tiny bit of electricity, which ends up as heat. Speed is measured in gigahertz (GHz): 3 GHz means about three billion steps a second. Running faster needs a little more voltage, and heat grows with the voltage squared, so a fast chip gets hot quickly.