Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The first fully mechanical digital computer, the Z1, operated at 1 Hz (cycle per second) clock frequency and the first electromechanical general purpose computer, the Z3, operated at a frequency of about 5–10 Hz. The first electronic general purpose computer, the ENIAC, used a 100 kHz clock in its cycling unit. As each instruction took 20 ...
Instructions per second (IPS) is a measure of a computer's processor speed. For complex instruction set computers (CISCs), different instructions take different amounts of time, so the value measured depends on the instruction mix; even for comparing processors in the same family the IPS measurement can be problematic.
The clock generator in a motherboard is often changed by computer enthusiasts to control the speed of a CPU, FSB, GPU or RAM. Typically the programmable clock generator is set by the BIOS at boot time to the selected value; although some systems have dynamic frequency scaling, which frequently re-programs the clock generator.
For calculation, the CPU uses actual bus frequency, and not effective bus frequency. To determine the actual bus frequency for processors that use dual-data rate (DDR) buses (AMD Athlon and Duron) and quad-data rate buses (all Intel microprocessors starting from Pentium 4) the effective bus speed should be divided by 2 for AMD or 4 for Intel.
The useful work that can be done with any computer depends on many factors besides the processor speed. These factors include the instruction set architecture, the processor's microarchitecture, and the computer system organization (such as the design of the disk storage system and the capabilities and performance of other attached devices), the efficiency of the operating system, and the high ...
Most RTCs use a crystal oscillator, [7] [8] but some have the option of using the power line frequency. [9] The crystal frequency is usually 32.768 kHz, [7] the same frequency used in quartz clocks and watches. Being exactly 2 15 cycles per second, it is a convenient rate to use with simple binary counter circuits.
The Time Stamp Counter was once a high-resolution, low-overhead way for a program to get CPU timing information. With the advent of multi-core/hyper-threaded CPUs, systems with multiple CPUs, and hibernating operating systems, the TSC cannot be relied upon to provide accurate results — unless great care is taken to correct the possible flaws: rate of tick and whether all cores (processors ...
Crystal oscillators can be manufactured for oscillation over a wide range of frequencies, from a few kilohertz up to several hundred megahertz.Many applications call for a crystal oscillator frequency conveniently related to some other desired frequency, so hundreds of standard crystal frequencies are made in large quantities and stocked by electronics distributors.