CPUs & GPUs: The Processors Behind Computing and AI
How processors work, who makes them, and why architecture and software decide who wins, as of October 2026: what a processor does and why free speed-ups ended around 2005; making one core fast; memory, the wall every processor hits, and the 2026 shortage that made phones, PCs, and consoles dearer; x86, Arm, and RISC-V, and why the instruction set now decides who may build a chip; how the GPU went from pixels to AI; the chips in phones, PCs, consoles, and cars; server CPUs; Nvidia's accelerators, their challengers, and the clouds' own chips; the networks that join hundreds of thousands of GPUs, racks heading toward 600 kilowatts, and CUDA's hold on the software; how computing is measured and priced; and the companies and the money. Where the field argues, each side's case comes before the course's reading. Worked examples include why a chatbot's speed is set by memory, what Arm earns from a chip, the cost of a GPU-hour, and where a gigawatt's dollars go. Opens with a dated table of the state of the art, a Who's Who, and a list of terms.