Clock Speed and processors

[androidps]

Hi ,
Can someone tell me how overall clock speed can be calculated, for ex: i have i7-2600 CPU which has 4 cores and 8 logical processors so it means i have 32 processors in total(correct me if i am wrong here) with 3.4 GHZ clock speed as mentioned in computer properties. Does it mean that my CPU can have a clock speed of upto 32 x 3.4 = 108.8 ghz totally or it is like each processor can clock upto 3.4 ghz and it should not be summed up as i did before?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Clocks are not additive.

 

[androidps]

Am i right on the total processor part?

 

[ex_bubblehead]

No, a desktop i7 has 4 hyperthreaded cores for a total of 8 threads, not 32.

 

[androidps]

i am confused now, what do u mean by 4 cores 8 logical processors, is it 8 logical processors per core or 2 per core?

 

[Sandstorm3000]

Let me try to explain it a bit for you.

Your CPU has 4 cores, and uses hyperthreading so that means it has 8 virtual cores. So your computer divides all the work between those 8 virtual cores. Clock speed is just the speed that those 4 cores run at. So that is 3.4GHz.

 

[androidps]

does it mean that each of those 4 physical cores has 2 virtual cores in it? sorry for more questions 🙁

 

[DelroyMonjo]

A dated but still useful read about CPU architecture: http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~fedorova/Teaching/CMPT886/Spring2007/papers/hyper-threading.pdf

 

[TechyInAZ]

lol, your confused. 😀

The core itself is what STORES the threads, so think of a factory, there are 4 factories on a piece of land (represents 4 cores) then in the factories is two conveyer lines transporting lets say food (this represents threads). So with your mathematics of 4 x 8 = 32, that would mean there are 32 conveyer belts in the factories. Which doesn't make since, because there are only 8 physical conveyer lines total.

This is a very general explanation/example of what it is, to dive deeper, look at the comments above.