Reference
x86
The “x86” processors are a series of
CPUs developed by Intel. The 8086
processor was followed in succession
by the release of the 8088, 80186,
80286, i386, and i486 processors.
●Types of CPUs
Several types of CPUs are summarized below.
Brand
Pentium
Developer
Description
Intel
Successor to the x86 family of processors. The original Pentium was followed by the release of the Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium 4, and
Pentium D.
Celeron
Athlon
CPU aimed at lower cost computers. The brand
name does not change with version upgrades as is
customary with the Pentium series, but the processor
itself has improved with each successive generation.
AMD
Includes Athlon MP for servers, Athlon and Athlon XP
for general computers, and Mobile Athlon and Mobile
Athlon 4 for laptops.
Duron
PowerPC
Reference
Clock generator
A “clock generator” is a circuit that generates a clock signal.
CPU aimed at lower cost computers. Designed to
compete with Celeron processors from Intel.
Motorola, IBM,
Apple (alliance)
Includes the PowerPC 601, 603, 604, 740, 750, G4,
and G5. PowerPC processors are equipped on Mac
(Macintosh) computers from Apple.
(2)Clock frequency
A “clock” signal is a cyclical signal that is used to coordinate the timing of
operations, either within the CPU or with outside devices. The “clock frequency” indicates the number of signals per second.
CPUs with the same bits can differ in throughput, depending on the clock
frequency. The higher the clock frequency, the greater the cap acity to process data and the faster the processing speed.
The clock frequency is indicated in “Hz (Hertz)” measurements. The CPU
name is followed by a “MHz (Megahertz)” or “GHz (Gigahertz)” designation, as in “Pentium 4 2.80GHz.” An 800MHz CPU performs eight
hundred million operations per second.
800MHz
<
1GHz
<
3.20GHz
Processing speed
Slow
Fast
Example calculation of CPU instruction execution count
If a computer has a CPU that operates at 200MHz, the CPU is
capable of executing one machine language instruction at an average of 0.5 clocks.
Can this CPU execute several tens of thousands of instructions
per second?
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