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CPU design is the design engineering task of creating a central processing unit (CPU), a component of computer hardware. It is a subfield of electronics engineering and computer engineering.

CPU design focuses on these areas:

• Datapaths (such as ALUs and pipelines)
• Control unit: logic which controls the datapaths
• Memory components such as register files, caches
• Clock circuitry such as clock drivers, PLLs, clock distribution networks
• Pad transceiver circuitry
• Logic gate cell library which is used to implement the logic

Goals

The first CPUs were designed to do mathematical calculations faster and more reliably than human computers. Each successive generation of CPU might be designed to achieve some of these goals:

• Higher performance levels of a single program or thread
• Higher throughput levels of multiple programs/threads
• Less power consumption for the same performance level
• Lower cost for the same performance level
• Greater connectivity to build larger, more parallel systems
• More specialization to aid in specific targeted markets

Re-designing a CPU core to a smaller die-area helps achieve several of these goals 

• Shrinking everything, resulting in the same number of transistors on a smaller die, improves performance, reduces power and reduces cost
• Releasing a CPU on the same size die, but with a smaller CPU core, keeps the cost about the same but allows higher levels of integration within one VLSI chip, improving performance and reducing overall system cost

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