– What is limiting computer processors to operate beyond the current range of clock frequencies (from 3 to up 5GHz)?
In: Engineering
There are two major factors in determining clock cycle. One is how quickly we can transition our voltage from a 0 to a 1 and the other is how many transitions we need to do in a single step.
Figuring out the benefits of increasing the transition speed is really simple. If it takes half as long to switch values, then we can run our clock twice as fast. The main ways to speed up your transitions is by squishing your chip closer together (less distance for the electricity to travel) or making your CPU cooler. The warmer the chip gets, the slower its transitions will get.
To lower the number of transitions we need to do in a single step, we break our work into smaller steps. There are benefits to doing this, but it can end up making the CPU calculate slower if it’s taken too far. It’s kind of like trying to scoop water out of a boat. You can use a really large bucket, but that’ll get really heavy and takes a while to lift the bucket over the edge. A smaller bucket is a lot lighter and you can move much faster, but you’re not going to get rid of as much water with every scoop. The clock frequency is the number of buckets you dump, but the amount of work you’re actually getting done is the amount of water you’re scooping out of the boat. The goal is to find the best balance to allow you to get as much water out of the boat as quickly as possible. An example of making your step size too small would be if you end up using a spoon to scoop up the water. Yes, you’ll be moving really fast, but you’ll barely get any work done. This is why it’s not as common to compare CPU frequencies between different types of processors; each processor has a different size bucket.
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