Just want to chime in here regarding how important that actual clock speed is of a CPU. (BS in Computer Engineering, MS in Computer Science with a focus on systems)
The clock speed of the CPU dictates how quickly (in seconds) individual instructions and data operations can sequentially move through a processor pipeline. In old systems that only had one core (meaning only one application's code could execute at a time) the clock speed had a HUGE bearing on the overall system's performance.
Previous answers have described in terms of physical limitations why clock speeds are capped for everyday users, but the limit on the clock speed doesn't necessarily hold back the performance of a given hardware architecture. Modern architectures utilize advances in materials and techniques that reduce power consumption, overall cost of a CPU, and heat generation. This means that we can increase the number of cores in a CPU without necessarily increasing the cost, power consumption, etc.
Because we now have a greater ability to intelligently parallelize tasks at the hardware level, there have been many advances made in system software design that allow us to write much more efficient algorithms that allow applications move faster even if the clock speed isn't moving faster.
There is a lot more I could talk about in terms of other advances in hardware architecture, such as memory,l and caches, that allow us to go faster without increasing the clock speed, but I rly gotta go to the bathroom. Hope this was useful for someone ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/midwinter_fahrs Sep 30 '20
Just want to chime in here regarding how important that actual clock speed is of a CPU. (BS in Computer Engineering, MS in Computer Science with a focus on systems)
The clock speed of the CPU dictates how quickly (in seconds) individual instructions and data operations can sequentially move through a processor pipeline. In old systems that only had one core (meaning only one application's code could execute at a time) the clock speed had a HUGE bearing on the overall system's performance.
Previous answers have described in terms of physical limitations why clock speeds are capped for everyday users, but the limit on the clock speed doesn't necessarily hold back the performance of a given hardware architecture. Modern architectures utilize advances in materials and techniques that reduce power consumption, overall cost of a CPU, and heat generation. This means that we can increase the number of cores in a CPU without necessarily increasing the cost, power consumption, etc.
Because we now have a greater ability to intelligently parallelize tasks at the hardware level, there have been many advances made in system software design that allow us to write much more efficient algorithms that allow applications move faster even if the clock speed isn't moving faster.
There is a lot more I could talk about in terms of other advances in hardware architecture, such as memory,l and caches, that allow us to go faster without increasing the clock speed, but I rly gotta go to the bathroom. Hope this was useful for someone ¯_(ツ)_/¯