why Hertz?

[chrisalviola]

I was just wondering why the processor speed is measured in Hz, Hertz is cycles/sec and used in alternating currents or AC power source because they change polarities from negative to positive like a wave form.

And is a computer a digital device and uses binary data like 1’s and 0’s and the processor is made of millions of transistors to switch these 1 as on and 0 as off, so if processors use 1 and 0 to compute data’s why is it measured in HZ?

 

[The_Other_One]

Well, I'm not really good at this stuff, so I guess I shouldn't even answer ;P However, I beleive it's done so because the processor works with 1's(on) or 0's(off) So 1 is up on the wave, 0 is level(on 0) Realize it's not a sin curve or anything, just on and off. Then the frequency is how many times the chart goes up and down, correct? So the more times the processor can switch between 1 and 0, the more Hz you'll have.

 

[chrisalviola]

this picture shown here is 1 complete cycle or 1hz

so if you say 1 and 0 is needed for a complete cycle?
what if you have 101110111?

 

[Archangel]

A processor functions on a sixed clock frequentie.. only the inputs and outputs are variable.. the intern clock however is always 10101010101 etc.


also, herz defines the ammount of cycles per second.. this doesnt nececairely mean the cycle has to be a sine

 

[Cromewell]

It's self explanitory. CPUs can do x cycles per second as determined by the clock generator. One and zero are relative terms, it's just the high and low of the signal.