If computer clocks max out somewhere around 5GHz, how is it possible for 100Gbit internet to exist? How does the computer possibly transfer that much data per second?

Question

If computer clocks max out somewhere around 5GHz, how is it possible for 100Gbit internet to exist? How does the computer possibly transfer that much data per second?

In: 591

Answer 1

You have friends over at your house and you want to put out 100 cookies in 5 trips to your kitchen. You can do that as long as you carry 20 cookies (or more) per trip.

If a chip (processor, direct memory access engine, ASIC, potato) can do 5 billion things in a second, and one of those things it can do is move 20 bits of data into a memory (likely higher…really high speed memory like graphics card RAM moves hundreds of bits in one clock cycle), then it can support 100 billion bits a second transfers.