Clock Speed - definition

The pace at which a processor or other digital circuitry executes its operations is known as clock speed, often referred to as clock rate or clock frequency. It is expressed in hertz (Hz), which stands for the number of clock cycles per second that the CPU is capable of handling.
How quickly a processor can carry out computations and carry out commands depends on its clock speed. Faster processing speeds are achieved by increasing the processor's clock speed, which enables it to carry out more operations per second. Higher power and heat production are typically associated with higher clock speeds, which can be problematic in some applications.
The clock speed of CPUs is frequently considered as a major performance metric, and it has been gradually rising over time as technology has developed. For instance, whereas current processors can have clock rates in the gigahertz (GHz) range, early personal computers from the 1980s had clock speeds measured in kilohertz (kHz).
It's crucial to remember that processor performance is influenced by a variety of factors, including processor architecture and design, which can change performance even at the same clock speed. The performance of the entire processor can also be influenced by additional elements including cache size, instruction set architecture, and core count.