Clock+speed,+what+exactly+is+that?

Clock speed, what exactly is that?

Clock speed is a measure of how quickly a computer completes basic computations and operations. It is measured as a frequency in hertz, and most commonly refers to the speed of the computer's CPU, or Central Processing Unit.

Since the frequency most clock speed measures is very high, the terms megahertz and gigahertz are used. A megahertz is one-million cycles per second, while a gigahertz is one-billion cycles per second. So a computer with a clock speed of 800MHz is running 800,000,000 cycles per second, while a 2.4GHz computer is running 2,400,000,000 cycles per second.

How clock speed should be used as a benchmark of a computer's speed is causing some contention, albeit most chip makers appear to be heading towards the conclusion that clock speed should be abandoned as the primary value given. The problem comes from the fact that, although clock speed works as a fairly reliable indicator but when compared against another companies chips, it is a poor indicator One reason clock speed of the CPU isn't such a reliable test of overall computer speed is that many other factors come into play.

The amount of RAM a computer has, the clock speed of that RAM, the clock speed of the front-side bus, and the cache size all play significant roles in determining overall performance.

When comparing one Intel Pentium chip to another Pentium chip, for example, the clock speed is a fairly good indicator of an improvement in speed. An 800Mhz Pentium computer will perform most processor-based tasks roughly twice as quickly as a 400MHz Pentium computer.

When comparing a different company's processors, this is a different story.

If we look at both a Pentium chip and an AMD chip, for example, we find that the AMD tends to perform most tasks more quickly than a comparable Pentium. 