Computer Speed

Class-A · second grade Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 85

The speed of a computer depends on the amount of data its processor can manipulate in a given period of time and the processor's clock speed. The clock speed of a processor is measured by the number of electronic pulses it can produce in a second. Clock speed is built into the processor and is measured in gigahertz (GHz). Since giga means billion and hertz means times (cycles) per second, 1.0 GHz is 1 billion times per second. The speed of older, slower processors was measured in megahertz (MHz). Since mega means million, 500 MHz is 500 million times per second.

The electronic pulses affect the speed with which program instructions are executed because instructions are executed at predetermined intervals, which are timed by the electronic pulses. For example, if we had a computer than contained a processor that was running at 1 GHz and it executed an instruction every 100 pulses, it would process 10,000,000 instructions per second (1 billion divided by 100). If the computer had a 500 MHz processor and executed an instruction every 100 pulses, it would process 5,000,000 instructions per second (500 million divided by 100).

The amount of data that the processor can handle is called the word size and refers to the number of bits of information that can be processed at a time. An Intel Pentium processor can handle 64-bit words or 64 bits (0s and 1s) of information at a time. The older 486 computers contained 32-bit processors and could only handle 32 bits of information at a time. Before you jump to conclusions, a 64-bit processor is not necessarily twice as fast as a 32-bit processor. The 64-bit processor may be more than twice as fast in performing some tasks, but less than twice as fast in performing others. Generally speaking though, a 64-bit processor is faster than a 32-bit processor, which in turn is faster than a 16-bit processor.

guitarman · fourth grade Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 728

thanks for sharing, class-A. I have one question though>> how do we check our PC to see if it is a 64 bit PR or 32 bit PC?

Class-A · second grade Joined: 29 Dec 2006 Posts: 85

indogo · fourth grade Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 223

ps. for intel divide clock speeds by 4 to get the actual processor speed...twas an old trick used years ago to make their processors sound faster than the competition Wink

a bit like those speakers with 2w units marked 100w on the box..

Actually with such clock speeds we should now be able to cook our dinner with a pc or at least run a cellular phone network...perhaps should we all be working behind lead screens?

this post will self destruct in two days.....

mike

Singachea · fourth grade Joined: 19 Nov 2005 Posts: 258

Class A, how can you explain that 64-bits / 4 words databus is slower than 32 bits in some circumstances? Any example?

Mike, your reply will be cooked Smile

. Actually the higher speed doesn't imply the multiple heating or power consumption. The new technology could come with with low heat and less power usage in the transistor/ CMOS. e.g. normal transistor is replaced by CMOS, TTL, biCMOS...

indogo · fourth grade Joined: 03 May 2006 Posts: 223

True...I noticed heat production is being tamed in the latest releases...phew...was getting hot in here....

Older intel products get hot basically due to bad bus timing/overlap...a similar speed say motorola processor would produce a lot less heat (and the components attached to it)...

Another sideways heat reduction measure is more efficient software.....less processor usage means less heat...fanless running is possible..

On a side note I had a 266 pentium 2 klanath (extra thick..extra hot) run for a week with no fan...only noticed when I cooked my hand on the enclosure!!..gave no errors!..what a beastie..I had cleaned out the heatsink etc just before (pulled out the lead)...guess cleaning is a good idea...

regards

mike