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Learning about the terms and technologies associated with overclocking will help you understand the techniques involved. PC performance depends not only on the technology of the processor itself, but on a number of subsystems as well.
Early processor performance was measured in terms of how many instructions per second the architecture could execute on a standard set of data. As processors evolved and increased in complexity, a new approach was required. Frequency (the ability to switch a circuit quickly) became the popular measurement of computational speed.
Frequency is best described as the rate at which an IC can change between its two states in a given period of time. Computer processor frequency is generally measured in megahertz. The term megahertz refers to millions of cycles per second, and the abbreviation is expressed as MHz. Gigahertz (expressed as GHz), or billions of cycles per second, is becoming the de facto standard due to significant speed gains in the latest generation of processors.
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