Is processor speed measured in GHz?

Answer 1

yes it is,

the term hertz represents repetitions per second, ie, a 3000 hertz processor makes 3000 calculations per second. the term hertz also refers to anything that follows a cycle a computer screen refreshes at about 70 hertz, or updates what you see 70 times a second

Absolutely false on both accounts!To answer the above question, "Is speed of CPU is measured in hertz?" - the answer is NO! The performance of a CPU is approximated by a multitude of different criteria including specific testing programs depending on what functionality of the CPU specifically needs to be tested and measured. This overall performance can widely vary depending on the testing program, all supporting hardware and the preconditions of the testing environment.

Regarding the original answer, these are all too common misconceptions these days! Unfortunately, you'll see ill advised reference to this throughout the periodicals, both on-line and off and even the marketing departments that desire to make the technical "jargon" more palatable - but not necessarily accurate.

The metric of "speed," which involves physical movement, has absolutely NOTHING to do with frequency measured in hertz. The two are NOT the same thing and are not interchangeable. A high school or college physics class will also prove this. You certainly don't get in your vehicle look at the speedometer and read 750 MHz or 3 GHz. Conversely, I've yet to see an actual laptop or desktop personal computer get up and physically move around the room or the house! It even seems silly!

How about some on-line proof? Check out the definitions on Wikipedia and elsewhere as cited below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed

(Notice that nothing is stated about computing)

vs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertz

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock_rate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency

Also reference the following:

Megahertz, for example, is defined as MHz, kilohertz as kHz and hertz as Hz. It is, in fact, ALWAYS a capital "H" to pay homage to the German Physicist Mr. Heinrich Hertz. Consider:

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/hertz.htm

or,

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci214263,00.HTML

(Scroll down and notice the table) or,

http://tf.nist.gov/timefreq/general/glossary.htm

(Click on "M" or "J-K" - these folks should know the difference)

Want further proof? Take a look at, www.fcc.gov and note their frequency references. In addition, simply take a look at a stereo dial, clock radio or even your transistor radio and notice how the manufacturers abbreviate frequency. Notice that this has NOTHING to do with "speed." You don't tune your radio to a different "speed" nor do you head down the highway at 2 kHz or 3.2 GHz.Obviously, they're not interchangeable! The point is they're entirely different metrics.

In addition, the above claim that "a 3000 hertz processor makes 3000 calculations per second" is also false. Different processor manufacturers such as AMD, Cyrix(former), NEC, TI, Intel and others manipulate various calculations and instruction throughput differently. Depending on what specific instruction is being executed in the processor, it may take from a few cycles to several processor cycles to finish the execution of any particular instruction. Meaning, it is NOT a one-to-one ratio in relation to the clock rate! In other words, a 3 GHz microprocessor does NOT execute 3 Billion instructions (or calculations) per second!

Answer 2

No. Its clock rate is measured in hertz (or one of its multiples such as GHz). The circuit's clock rate has little to do with "speed", meaning by speed performance. A microprocessor's performance is influenced by a huge amount of factors including its architecture, instruction set, buffer, pipeline, caching mechanisms, and so on. The clock rate can indicate performance differences only between microprocessors of the exact type and model.

Answer 3

yes, for normal personal computers the speed is meassured in Ghz , cpu in mobile phones was measured in MHz but now now even they have processors clocked at Ghz.

Answer 4

why computer speed expresses in hertz

Answer 5

Yes and sometimes MegaHertz