All CPUs are similar

Even if your system doesn't have a SPARC processor inside it, you'll learn something about your own processor while reading this chapter. How is that? Just as all automobile engines have similarities, so do all computer processors.

Some processors consist of dozens of large printed circuit boards , whereas other processors reside on a chip you can hold on the end of your fingertip. Yet, even the largest of processors and the tiniest have components in common, such as registers used for manipulating data and arithmetic units that perform math.

Let's take a look at the SPARC processor now.