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# 1 Processor statistics

In this section you are going to find out a little more about one of the key components of a personal computer and so many other devices: the processor. It is the processor that manipulates data according to a list of instructions in a program.

Here is a mini-quiz which explores some facts about processors.

## Activity 1

#### Question 1

Which of the numbers given below is closest to the number of processors sold worldwide in 2000?

20 million
1 billion
40 million
125 million

### Discussion

The processor market is vast; it is estimated that around 1 billion processors were sold in 2000.

#### Question 2

Which of the numbers given below is closest to the number of processors sold worldwide in 2020?

12 billion
123 million
25 billion
1 billion

### Discussion

If the processor market was vast in 2000, consider how it has grown in the twenty years since then.

#### Question 3

Which of the numbers given below is closest to the number of Personal Computers sold worldwide in 2020?

250 million
25 million
1 million
1 billion

### Discussion

In 2020, the same year that about 25 billion processors were sold, about 250 million Personal Computers were sold.

In other words, only one in a hundred processors were used in a Personal Computer. The other processors found their way in other devices.

Perhaps you got all the answers to the quiz correct; perhaps all your answers were wrong. It doesn’t matter. What is important is that you now appreciate:

- the huge number of applications that can use processors and hence how vast the processor market is
- that the market for processors is not limited to personal computers
- and that the market for processors used in personal computers is very much smaller than that for processors used in other applications.

◄Contents►Next: 2 What does a processor look like?

OpenLearn - An introduction to computers and computer systems
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