This introduction covers The Restaurant Kitchen Revisited within CPU Performance for GCSE Computer Science. Revise CPU Performance in 3.4 Computer Systems for GCSE Computer Science with 15 exam-style questions and 12 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 1 of 8 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
The Restaurant Kitchen Revisited
Imagine three ways to make a restaurant serve more customers faster: 1) The chef works faster (clock speed - more cycles per second). 2) Hire more chefs working at the same time (cores - parallel processing). 3) Keep frequently-used ingredients right next to the cooking station (cache - faster data access). Modern CPUs use all three strategies to maximize performance!
Practice questions for CPU Performance
What does clock speed measure in a CPU?
Describe three factors that affect CPU performance.
Quick recall flashcards
Three CPU performance factors?
Clock speed, cores, cache
What is clock speed measured in?
GHz (gigahertz) - billions of cycles per second