CPU performance

What is clock speed and how is it measured?

-Clock speed is the measure of how quickly a CPU can process instructions

-Some CPUS can be overclocked to make them run a higher clock speed causing crashes or overheating

-It’s measured in Gigahertz(GHz)

-Typical Computer has a clock speed of 3.5 GHZ meaning it can perform 3.5 billion cycles a second

How does clock speed improve performance?

-The Faster the clock speed, the faster the computer can perform the FDE cycle resulting in better performance because more instructions can be processed each second

What is Cache Memory?

Cache Memory is temporary storage for frequently accessed data and instructions being read to and written from RAM

-Stores copies of recent data and instructions being read

-Much quicker getting items from the cache than from main memory(RAM)

-Trying to avoid going and getting instructions and data from memory if we don’t need to as it cost time

How does Cache memory improve performance

-Cache memory is closer to the CPU than RAM, meaning that it can provide data and instructions to the CPU at a faster rate

-A computer with more cache memory should have higher performance because repeatedly used instructions can be stored and access faster.

What is the limitation of Cache memory

-Cache memory is costly so computers only have a small amount

-It also has a very low capacity

What is cores and how does it affect CPU performance

• A core works like it is its own CPU

• Multiple core processors mean they have multiple separate processing units that can fetch, decode and execute instructions at the same time

• For example, a dual-core processor would have 2 processing units

• Multi-core processors can run more powerful programs with greater ease

• Multiple cores increase the performance of the CPU by working with the clock speed