What is an ALU?

The ALU, or Arithmetic Logic Unit, is a section of the CPU (Central Processing Unit) dedicated to working with Arithmetic and Logic...

It can process a variety of mini-tasks (operations) and is used in conjunction with other parts of the CPU, such as the Control Unit, within cycles of the CPU (clock-cycles). During the execute part of the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle, it takes in data / operations (usually stored in registers) and spits a result out (back into a register). In essense, it is the brain of the CPU.

TA

Related Computing A Level answers

All answers ▸

What is the denary equivalent of the hexadecimal number A7?


What the main differences between an interpreter and a compiler?


Write pseudocode for the linear search algorithm, and then explain it’s complexity using big-O notation


In Python, write a recursive function that returns the first n Fibonacci numbers.