The System Clock

Within the computer, events happen at a pace controlled by a tiny electronic “drummer” on the motherboard called the system clock. The system clock is an electronic circuit that generates pulses at a rapid rate and synchronizes the computer’s internal activities. These electrical pulses are measured in billions of cycles per second (gigahertz or GHz) and referred to as a processor’s clock speed. Any computer you purchase today will have a clock speed of more than 1Ghz. Thus, a 3-GHz to 4-GHz (overclocked CPU) processor is capable of processing 3 billion cycles to 4 billion cycles respectively in 1 second. In general, the higher the processor’s clock speeds, the faster the computer.