CPU, which is frequently called just "processor", is an abbreviation for Central Processing Unit. This is the core of any laptop or computer or server, due to the fact that it carries out all the calculations and logical input/output operations. Despite the fact that that the performance of a website or an application relies upon other things also, including the amount of physical memory or the connectivity of the hosting server, the rate at which a certain processor runs determines how quick an application will be executed. Later-generation processors have a number of cores which can drastically improve their overall power and efficiency, since each core can control a variety of processes separately or a number of cores can take care of one process which requires a significant processing power. Because every core operates at a particular speed, this architecture can be looked at as several individual processors working together.