What are CPU Cores?

When it comes to CPUs, or Central Processing Units, there are quite a few terminologies and concepts, which might sound too technical and therefore, overwhelming to understand.  

One such term is cores. Technical as it may sound, we’re going to try our best and spell it out for you in terms easy to understand.

What is a CPU core?

A CPU core, in basic terms, is the basic computation unit of a CPU, which is the brain of your computer. It is responsible for executing instructions and performing calculations. The number of cores in a CPU determines how many tasks it can handle at once.  

Consider a core to be a smaller CPU or processor, built into a bigger CPU, which is the processor for your computer. These smaller cores can independently process all computational tasks.

ALSO READ: What is computer memory?

How many cores does a CPU have?

In the earlier days of the computer, all CPUs used to be single cores capable of handling a single task at a time. Today, multi-core processors are extremely common, as every user’s work involves multitasking in some way or the other.

A processor with two cores is called a dual-core processor; one with four cores, a quad-core processor; one with six cores, a hexacore processor; with eight cores- octa-core processors, and so on.  

Multiple cores work together to perform parallel operations on a shared set of data in the CPU’s memory cache. One important thing to remember, is that CPUs with more cores will not always necessarily perform better. There are other factors which can impact performance as well.