Performance of a Computer

Performance of a computer depends on many factors, some of which are related to the design of the CPU, 3 of the most important factors are the power of the instructions, the clock cycle time and the number of clock cycles per instruction. A powerful instruction performs a complex multistep task. Such instructions need several clock cycles for execution, but they accomplish more than instructions. The question is whether having such complex instructions leads to better overall performance in executing complete programming tasks. The evolution of RISC processors has demonstrated that it may be advantageous to use relatively simple instructions that are suitable for pipelined execution.

Clock speed has a major influence on performance. The clock sleep depends on the technology used to implement the electronic circuits and the complexity of functional units such as the ALU. Using densely packed, small transistors to fabricate the desired circuits leads to high operating speed. Thus, implementing the entire CPU on a single VLSI chip allows much higher clock speeds than would be possible if several chips were used. The time required to perform an arithmetic operation such as addition or multiplication, has a dominant effect on the achievable clock rate. Many clever schemes have been devised to optimize the logic circuits that perform these operations and reduce the time required for execution.

The speed of processors has improved phenomenally during the past two decades. Microprocessors have evolved from chips clocked at a frequency of one MHz present day chips that run at a several hundred MHz.

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