What is the CU?

• A. Central Unit
• B. Control Unit - Overall control of the CPU. It controls the FDE cycle and the flow of data inside and outside the CPU
• C. Cache Unit
• D. Compute Unit

Answer: (B)

The Control Unit is the part of the CPU that coordinates operations by issuing timing and control signals to the rest of the processor. It orchestrates the fetch-decode-execute cycle, pulling an instruction from memory, interpreting it, and directing the ALU, registers, and data paths to carry out the required steps. It also manages the flow of data between the CPU and memory or I/O, ensuring the right data moves to the right place at the right time. That’s why this option describes it as the overall control of the CPU and the controller of the FDE cycle. Other terms like cache unit or compute unit refer to different concepts and don’t provide this coordinating role.