clock speed

[rickx34]

in modern computers, the cpu is labeled to run at some clock speed, ex 3.2 Ghz or 1.2Mhz. Are these the the same clock that sequential chips depend on(tick tock cycle)?

[cadet1620]

rickx34 wrote

in modern computers, the cpu is labeled to run at some clock speed, ex 3.2 Ghz or 1.2Mhz. Are these the the same clock that sequential chips depend on(tick tock cycle)?

Yes, but different parts of the computer can be running at different speeds.  For instance, the CPU is usually faster than the cache RAM which is faster then the main RAM. The clocks for these circuits are usually derived from a master clock so that everything is synchronized.

There can be other independent clocks for external interface circuits like video, USB, network, etc.

--Mark

[rickx34]

Thanks for the response, a follow up question, where does the master clock reside?(in a computer motherboard?).

[ybakos]

The motherboard has a clock generator, responsible for generating the clock signal.