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GCSE Computer Science · key term
A command in a program that tells the CPU which operation to carry out.
Used by OCR
Paper 1
Revise: Purpose of the CPUThe Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the processor that carries out program instructions, processes data and controls the computer’s operations. A program is a set of instructions telling the computer what to do. Instructions are commands; data is the information those commands act on.
When explaining the CPU’s purpose, say that it processes data and executes program instructions; calling it the computer’s ‘brain’ is not enough.
Distinguish decoding an instruction—working out what it requires—from executing it—carrying it out.
Do not imply that every instruction performs a calculation or writes a result to RAM: the action depends on the instruction.
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