All arithmetical and logical operations in a computer/server configuration are handled by its Central Processing Unit, or CPU. This hardware component is sometimes called the "brains" of the computer also. The pace at which the CPU completes system instructions is also referred to as its speed and it is measured in Hertz. The quicker the processing unit is, the faster scripts and web applications will be executed, although the overall performance of the latter is dependent upon other things as well - the read/write speed of the hard drive, the amount of physical memory, the network connection, and so on. All current CPUs have numerous cores, which work together. Subsequently, the efficiency and the workload that a CPU can take care of increase, since each and every core can process a number of tasks independently and several cores can handle a single task which can't be processed by one core.