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Today's featured article

A central processing unit is the component in a digital computer that interprets instructions and processes data contained in software. CPUs provide the fundamental digital computer trait of programmability, and are one of the core components found in almost all modern microcomputers, along with primary storage and input/output facilities. A CPU that is manufactured using integrated circuits, often just one, is known as a microprocessor. Since the mid-1970s, single-chip microprocessors have almost totally replaced all other types of CPUs, and today the term "CPU" almost always applies to some type of microprocessor. Early CPUs were custom-designed as a part of a larger, usually one-of-a-kind, computer. However, this costly methodology of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of inexpensive and standardized classes of processors that are suited for one or many purposes. This standardization trend generally began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit. Modern microprocessors appear in everything from automobiles to cell phones to children's toys. (more...)

Recently featured: Triumph of the Will – Zion National Park – Paul Kane

Selected anniversaries

March 4: Saint Casimir's Day in Lithuania

• 1461 - Wars of the Roses in England: Lancastrian King Henry VI was deposed by his Yorkist cousin, who then became King Edward IV.
• 1681 - King Charles II of England granted William Penn a charter for the Pennsylvania Colony.
• 1825 - Despite having lost in both the electoral and popular votes in the 1824 presidential election, John Quincy Adams was inaugurated as the sixth President of the United States.
• 1877 - Emile Berliner invented the microphone.
• 1980 - Robert Mugabe (pictured) of the Zimbabwe African National Union was elected to head the first government in Zimbabwe.

Recent days: March 3 – March 2 – March 1

In the news

• The United States releases the names of several hundred prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay after four years of requests.
• Sir Menzies Campbell is elected the new leader of the Liberal Democrats in the United Kingdom.
• Masked gunmen, revealed afterwards to be Kenyan police, attack the offices of leading newspaper The Standard, and its television station KTN, following their reports that President Mwai Kibaki held secret meetings with key opposition figure Kalonzo Musyoka.
• The International Court of Justice launches its first hearings in a landmark case in which one state, Bosnia and Herzegovina, is accusing another state, Serbia and Montenegro, of genocide.

Today's featured picture

Cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals and shaped like hairlike filaments. They are formed at altitudes of above 5000 metres (16,500 feet). The streaks are made of snowflakes that are falling from the cloud and being caught by the high level winds. The streaks point in the direction of the wind and may appear straight, giving the clouds the appearance of a comma (cirrus uncinus), or may by seem tangled, an indication of high level turbulence.

Photo credit: Piccolo Namek
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