Chip 101

Free · No sign-up · 36 picture lessons

How chips work, explained with pictures

New to the chip industry? Learn the basics one question at a time, in plain English. Each lesson is four pictures and a few short sentences, and takes about three minutes.

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Lesson 4 of 36

What is a CPU?

laptopCPU
A small chip inside every computer. Open a laptop or a phone and you find a flat square chip, a few centimeters across. That chip is the CPU.
  • About 3 minutes a lesson
  • No account needed
  • Plain English

The path

Six sections, one path

The lessons build on each other, from what a chip is to how a test team works. Start at the top, or jump to the question you have today.

  1. Chips from zero

    7 lessons
    • Chip
    • Transistor
    • Chipmaking
    • CPU
    • CPU inside
    • GPU
    • TPU and NPU

  2. Inside a modern processor

    6 lessons
    • SoC
    • Clocks
    • Voltage
    • BIOS and firmware
    • Power controller
    • SKUs and binning

  3. How chips save power

    6 lessons
    • Why save power
    • Power types
    • DVFS
    • P-states
    • Gating
    • C-states

  4. Sleep and safety limits

    4 lessons
    • Sleep states
    • Power limits
    • Throttling
    • Which limit wins

  5. The test lab

    6 lessons
    • Validation
    • Test setup
    • Installing an OS
    • BIOS settings
    • Telemetry
    • JTAG debug

  6. Working in chip validation

    7 lessons
    • Chip lifecycle
    • Enabling features
    • Test plans
    • Quick check
    • Debugging
    • Triage
    • What the team does
Open the full path
Picture 2 of 4What is a CPU?
1. Take 22. Add 33. Show it5ProgramCPUResult
It follows a recipe, one step at a time. A program is a list of tiny steps, called instructions, like a recipe. The CPU reads a step, does it, then reads the next one.

Inside a lesson

One question, four pictures, three minutes

Every lesson answers one question. The pictures do most of the work, and every new word is explained in everyday words.

  1. The short answer One sentence you could repeat to a colleague.
  2. Four pictures Each one comes with a sentence or two.
  3. Words to know New terms, in everyday words.
  4. Where you meet it at work Why the idea matters in your job.
  5. Check yourself One quick question to see if it stuck.

Try one

A CPU runs at 4 GHz. About how many ticks is that each second?

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About 4 billion. Giga means billion.

Who it is for

Made for your first weeks at a chip company

Maybe you work in planning, finance, hiring, sales or support. Maybe you are an engineer from another field. People around you talk about cores, clocks and power limits, and you want to follow along.

Chip 101 uses short sentences and everyday comparisons, like cooks in a kitchen. It is written for people who read English as a second language.

Lessons
36
Sections
6
Minutes a lesson
3
Sign-ups needed
0

Free for everyone

Ready for your first lesson?

Four pictures, a few short sentences, about three minutes. No account and nothing to install.

Start learning See all 36 lessons