Clock speed is the internal frequency at which a central processing unit or microcontroller runs, typically expressed in megahertz or gigahertz. It is often derived by multiplying an external base clock. While it indicates how many cycles happen per second, actual performance also depends on how much work the architecture accomplishes per cycle.
Heard on the job
The microcontroller has a maximum clock speed of 72 megahertz before it requires a wait state for flash memory.
Related terms
Clock rate
The frequency at which a clock signal oscillates, measured in hertz.
Central processing unit
The primary silicon processor responsible for fetching, decoding, and executing instructions in a computer system.
Microprocessor
An integrated circuit that contains all the functions of a central processing unit.