AI engineering glossary · Computing foundations
What is clock speed?
Clock speed: The rate at which a processor's internal timer ticks, measured in gigahertz (billions of cycles per second). Each instruction takes one or more cycles, so a higher clock usually means more work per second, but architecture, cache and core count also decide real performance.
Clock speed: an example
A 3.5 GHz CPU ticks 3.5 billion times every second.
Related terms
More Computing foundations terms
- Cloud computing
- Code point
- Compiler
- Concurrency
- Container
- Content delivery network
- Context switch
- Coordinated Universal Time
Where you learn it
Clock speed is part of the AI Engineering Program, which teaches it with notes, a hands-on lab and an exam. The first lesson is free.