Hardware description classes ============================ On this page the different terms used when dealing with hardware are explained. **core** A cpu can have one or more cores. A **cpu** is the central processing unit of a chip. **machine** An **architecture** can be more or less seen as a family of cpu's. Most cpus of a certain architecture have the same ISA. An **isa** is the instruction set architecture. This means basically the set of instructions that are available. A cpu is said to implement a certain ISA. PC -- A **system** is one of linux, windows, mac, helenos, minix, qnx, freebsd or another system. Embedded -------- A **chip** is a specific package which can be a microcontroller having a cpu or more then one. A **board** is a specific PCB, usually containing a cpu or more. **target**