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It's all in the timing...Mar 06 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Megahertz is a measure of how fast the processors internal clock runs, but not how good the processor is at getting things done.
The easy answer is that MHz is a measure of how fast a processor is. The problem is that it's not entirely accurate. There are a very large number of factors that determine how fast a processor will operate, and the clock speed is only one of them. Within the processor there is one component (an oscillator) whose sole task is to generate a regular signal, much like a metronome, but faster. This timer is used to synchronize the other components of the processor so that they can cooperate properly without getting tangled up and out of order. The speed of this clock signal is measured in millions of clock cycles per second, or megahertz (MHz). The faster this clock operates, the more actions the processor can take in the same time period. This means that the same processor will operate faster with a faster clock signal than it would with a slower clock signal. This does not mean that all processors with a faster clock signal will work faster than those with slower clock signals. To determine the speed of a processor, in addition to the clock signal, you must take into account how efficiently the processor handles instructions, how many clock signals are spent waiting for data instead of processing data, how much real work can be done with each instruction, and even how many instructions can be handled at once. For example, a 500 MHz Pentium III processor is actually faster than a 500 MHz Pentium II processor because of the way the processor is designed. So keep in mind that Megahertz is a measure of how fast the processor is, but not how good it is at getting things done.  |
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