9. Summary

The performance of a CPU is affected by a number of things which include

Clock speed determines the fundamental rate at which a CPU can process data. The fastest practical clock speed has settled at around 3.5GHz due to heat and reliability issues. The clock may be designed to slow down and speed up on-the-fly to balance performance and power consumption.

To improve performance, memory caches are used so there is a better match between CPU speed and the rate of data and instruction flow.

To improve performance further, multiple cores are used within a single CPU chip

Compromises have to be made in the specification of a CPU so as to target the needs of different markets, such as high end desktop, mobile and economy components.