What is Clock Speed?
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 a matter of some contention, though most chip makers appear to be drifting 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 of how one of a company’s chips stacks up against another of their chips, it is a poor ind
Clock speed is the rate at which a processor can complete processing cycles. It is typically measured in Megahertz or Gigahertz. One megahertz is 1 million cycles per second, while one gigahertz is 1 billion cycles per second. This means a 1.8 GHz processor has twice the clock speed of a 900 MHz processor.
