why does CPUs/CPU cores seem to be capped at 3 – 4 Ghz since almost a decade?

Question

why does CPUs/CPU cores seem to be capped at 3 – 4 Ghz since almost a decade?

In: 1368

Answer 1

Because electronics use what is called a square wave. Basically a signal that is a 1 or 0, on or off to make the logic happen. This has to have a sharp square edge. When a circuit starts getting around 5 GHz and higher it starts to round the edges of that square signal and at a certain point the digital signal starts to act as an analog signal which has round none strictly defined edges. When that happens all sorts of things go wrong because different parts of the circuit think the signal is on, off or not even there.