All arithmetical and logical functions inside a computer/server configuration are addressed by its Central Processing Unit, or CPU. This hardware element is typically called the "brains" of the computer too. The rate at which the CPU completes system instructions is commonly referred to as its speed and it is measured in Hertz. The speedier the processing unit is, the faster scripts and web programs shall be executed, though the general performance of the latter depends upon other things also - the read/write speed of the hard disk, the amount of physical memory, the network connectivity, and many others. All newer CPUs have a number of cores, that work together. As a result, the effectiveness and the workload a CPU can manage increase, since each and every core can process a number of tasks separately and numerous cores can handle one task which can't be processed by a single core.
