SPEED OF MICROPROCESSOR


The speed of the processor generally depends on the following factors:-

  • Number of transistor
  • Bandwidth
  • Clock speed
  • Cache memory
1.Number of transistor:-Transistor is a active component which receive low signal and boost it by differentiating between its base and emitter terminal.The speed of processor directly depended on the number of transistor used in their manufacturing, before days the size of transistor is large so less transistor used in CPU but due to advancement in technology reduced its size so no. of transistor used in CPU is increase which increased processing speed. Transistor boost the signal which is given for processing and alot of work done by that also in creating logic device etc. For more read Transistor blog.

2.Bandwidth:-It specifies the number of binary digits that the microprocessor can process in a single instruction.It may 8 bit,16 bit,32 bit etc. Higher the bit higher the processing instruction and speed of processor.

3.Clock speed:-It is the speed by which processor execute or process any instruction.The clock speed varies from 66 MHZ to 3.8 GHz.

4.Cache memory:-Processor retrives the information form external storage RAM which consumes more time and slow down processing so in microprocessor cache is built so it process fast.In latest processor L1,L2 cache is built which stores the data and instruction for process. processor first check the data and instruction to cache memory if it find it know as cache hit if not then cache miss. After processor find it to external storage RAM. 
                                         Pentium I has L1(level 1) cache and Pentium II & Pentium III has L2(level 2) cache.Processor retrives data and instruction form cache at full speed.Cache size varies from processor to processor like 256 KB to 8 MB of L2 cache.

Interface of the processor:-

1.FSB(front side bus):-It refers to the bus which connects the CPU to system memory. It is the speed by which processor communicates with RAM.It also connects CPU to north bridge (MCH(memory controller hub)).Its speed varies from 66 to 1333 MHz. We can also adjust the speed of FSB by adjusting the BIOS setting or jumpher setting on motherboard.

2.BSB(back side bus):-It refers to the bus which connects the CPU to the L2 cache.Its speed is totally dependent on the speed of processor.BSB transfer data directly to CPU so it is faster than FSB.