This probably doesn’t seem like any big deal. Understand when one instruction ends and the next instruction begins. Processor being able to work with binary code is that it has to be able to Presence or absence of electricity at a given moment. BinaryĬode is nothing more than a series of zeros and ones that represents the I will break down the concept is simply as I possibly can.Īs I’m sure you know, computers work with binary code. Since I don’t have that kind of space to work with, Thatīeing the case, I want to begin by explaining what clock speed is and how itĬlock speed, as it relates to a microprocessor is aĬomplicated matter -so complicated in fact, that I could probably write anĮntire book on the subject. Speed is not as important as a used to be, it is still relatively important. Most important factor in determining a processor’s performance. The differences are in such processors, and how those differences ultimately affectĪs I explained earlier, for years clock speed was the single My goal in writing this article is to help you to understand what These processors may run at similar clock speeds, but often perform veryĭifferently.

Both Intel and AMD offer several different types of processors. I know this is ancient history, but the same basic thing is Although the Pentium and the 486 both ran at 100 MHz, the Pentium Eventually though, there was a 100 MHz versionĪvailable. When the Pentium chip was introduced, it was first made available inħ5 MHz and 90 MHz clock speeds. Point, the fastest PC available was the 486 DX4 100, which had a clock speed ofġ00 MHz. The earliestĮxample I can think of was when the Pentium was first released. It became possible for two processors to have the sameĬlock speed, but to have entirely different Levels of performance. With an 8 MHz processor was going to run faster than a comparable PC with aĪs time went on though, a processor’s clock speed became a For the most part though, you could be reasonably sure that a PC Were a couple of other factors that determine the processor’s speed, such as Processor was going to be by just looking at its clock speed. Years ago, it was possible to figure out how faster This article is also available as a TechRepublic download. In this article, Brien Posey looks at a couple of the factors that determine how a CPU performs - the clock cycle and cache. Things change so fast, it's hard to tell exactly what kind of CPU is inside of your system or what makes it go. SolutionBase: What makes a fast CPU fast?ĪMD and Intel are constantly improving their CPU offerings.

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