Please can someone confirm to me that the CPU is actually the processor that executes all the instructions and lives in the motherboard and the Main Processing Unit is actually the unit that houses all the components, e.g. motherboard, disk drives, etc. Thank you. Discovery
I've never heard of the phrase "main processing unit", I've seen the terms base unit used as the whole computer inside the case. However you're right in saying that the CPU is the chip on the motherboard that executes the instructions.
Main Processing Unit may have been used early on in computing history (50-60's), but within the past 10 years (if not longer), the processor is referred to as the Central Processing Unit/CPU/Processor. The entire package in the case is the computer. It may have at one time been referred to as an MPU, but not that I know of. If it was, it was probably discarded because of the mouthful it takes to say it.
