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CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide

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NOTE The industry describes how much heat a busy CPU generates with a

figure (measured in watts) called its thermal design power (TDP). The TDP

can give you a rough idea of how much energy a CPU draws and what kind

of cooling it will need. It can also help you select more efficient CPUs.

TDP has been trending down over time (especially in recent years), but it

may help to have a sense of what these values look like in the real world. The

CPUs in a smartphone or tablet typically have a TDP from 2 to 15 watts,

laptop CPUs range from 7 to 65 watts, and desktop CPUs tend to range from

50 to 140 watts.

Many of the technologies developed for mobile processors migrate back

into their more power-hungry desktop siblings. That’s a bonus for the planet

(and maybe your power bill).

Technology

Although microprocessors today still serve the same function as the

venerable 8088—crunching numbers—they do so far more efficiently.

Engineers have altered, enhanced, and improved CPUs in a number of ways.

This section looks at eight features:

• Clock multipliers

• 64-bit processing

• Virtualization support

• Parallel execution

• Multicore processing

• Integrated memory controller (IMC)

• Integrated graphics processing unit (GPU)

• Security

Clock Multipliers

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