Cores, Cache and Internal Clock

• Overclocking can result to:

  • Frequent crashes and computer becoming unstable because clock can be out of synch.
  • CPU overheating leading to unreliable performance.
• Cache memory: a special memory within the CPU to store frequently used instructions
• Factors to increase CPU performance:

  • Increase (data and address) bus width
  • Increase clock speed
  • Increase cores
  • Increase cache memory size.
• Opcode: informs the CPU what operations need to be done
• Operand: data which need to be acted on / it can refer to a register in the memory
• The number of cores, size of the cache and speed of the clock can affect the performance of a CPU