Shear zone. A shear zone is a very important structural discontinuity surface in the Earth's crust and upper mantle. It forms as a response to inhomogeneous deformation partitioning strain into planar or curviplanar high-strain zones. Intervening (crustal) blocks stay relatively unaffected by the deformation.
A computer-on-a-chip combines the microprocessor core (CPU), memory, and I/O (input/output) lines onto one chip. The computer-on-a-chip patent, called the microcomputer patent at the time, U.S. Patent 4,074,351, was awarded to Gary Boone and Michael J. Cochran of TI.
Components. A typical CPU has a number of components. The first is the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs simple arithmetic and logical operations. Second is the control unit (CU), which manages the various components of the computer.