Regarding gigahertz...

[tedthebear]

I am amazed by the vast amount of cycles a processor employs in one split second. Does anyone have a link to a website that could explain how they do it? 3 billion cycles seems very fast.

Thanks.

 

[MrThermistor]

Gigahertz?

 

[Lynx516]

3 billion cycles is very fast. If I understand what you are asking correctly the way maufacturers get CPUs up to such high speeds is to make the CPU do as little work as practicle per clock. This allows signals a longer time to propergate through the chip before the next clock. Also the science of CPU manufacture is very very impressive and things are so small that the capasitance in the transistors is so small that they can switch very quickly

 

[tedthebear]

Aren't the giga cycles the same thing as light or radio waves (otherwords an electromagnetic phenonema)?
I wonder how many cycles a light wave hits per second. Or a gamma ray...

Also, DDR is where the data is on the up and down portion of the cycle or wave. Am I getting warmer?

 

[Lynx516]

Yup DDR is where data is sent on the up and down of the cycle.

 

[RossGr]

Originally posted by: tedthebear
Aren't the giga cycles the same thing as light or radio waves (otherwords an electromagnetic phenonema)?
I wonder how many cycles a light wave hits per second. Or a gamma ray...

Also, DDR is where the data is on the up and down portion of the cycle or wave. Am I getting warmer?

Light has a wave length of around 600nm (600E-9) The relationship between wavelength and frequency is

Wavelength * Frequency = c (the speed of light) so

Frequency = c/Wavelength = 3e8/6e-6 = .5e14 Hz = 5e15Hz so in terms of Giga hertz this is

5e6 Ghz or 5M Ghz,

The frequency of a computer is still a long ways from that of light.

EDIT:
Oh yeah, Gamma rays have a frequency of greater then 10e19Hz

 

[tedthebear]

:Q Is that 5 m ghz by any chance 5 million ghz??? Oh my gawd... That's a high frequency indeed. And gamma rays even higher.
But though the frequency may change, the speed is constant, correct? 186,000 mps.

 

[RossGr]

Originally posted by: tedthebear
:Q Is that 5 m ghz by any chance 5 million ghz??? Oh my gawd... That's a high frequency indeed. And gamma rays even higher.
But though the frequency may change, the speed is constant, correct? 186,000 mps.

I perfer c= 3 x 10^8 m/s

 

[tedthebear]

Yes, c= 3 x 10^8 m/s is much more elegant and straight to the point. Ha! I wish I could think like that.