Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
CPU time (or process time) is the amount of time that a central processing unit (CPU) was used for processing instructions of a computer program or operating system. CPU time is measured in clock ticks or seconds. Sometimes it is useful to convert CPU time into a percentage of the CPU capacity, giving the CPU usage.
For example, an IBM PC with an Intel 80486 CPU running at 50 MHz will be about twice as fast (internally only) as one with the same CPU and memory running at 25 MHz, while the same will not be true for MIPS R4000 running at the same clock rate as the two are different processors that implement different architectures and microarchitectures ...
The system clock is typically implemented as a programmable interval timer that periodically interrupts the CPU, which then starts executing a timer interrupt service routine. This routine typically adds one tick to the system clock (a simple counter) and handles other periodic housekeeping tasks ( preemption , etc.) before returning to the ...
The final result comes from dividing the number of instructions by the number of CPU clock cycles. The number of instructions per second and floating point operations per second for a processor can be derived by multiplying the number of instructions per cycle with the clock rate (cycles per second given in Hertz) of the processor in question ...
There are several similar ways clock drift can be used to build random number generators (RNGs). One way to build a hardware random number generator is to use two independent clock crystals, one that for instance ticks 100 times per second and one that ticks 1 million times per second. On average the faster crystal will then tick 10,000 times ...
However, the idle process does not use up computer resources (even when stated to be running at a high percent). Its CPU time "usage" is a measure of how much CPU time is not being used by other threads. In Windows 2000 and later the threads in the System Idle Process are also used to implement CPU power saving.
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The displayed speed can vary depending on the CPU's frequency, and the settings of the computer, however, it is not measuring the frequency of the CPU, it displays preset numbers when turbo is turned on or off, and these numbers can be changed with two (or three) banks of jumpers on the back of the display, each bank changing each digit, as ...