The speed of the processor depends on many different factors, some of which are related to the architecture of the processor itself that controls the internal timing requirements which limits the maximum speed a processor can handle. Manufacturing factors relate to the process technology used, circuit size, die size and process quality.
A computer system's clock speed is measured as a frequency, usually expressed as a number of cycles per second. A typical computer system runs millions of these cycles per second, so speed is measured in megahertz (MHz). (One hertz is equal to one cycle per second.) Modern systems use a variable frequency synthesizer circuit usually found in the main motherboard chipset to control the motherboard speed and CPU speed.
The leading manufactures of computer processors for all the architectures of Servers and Workstations are Intel and AMD; there are a few others like Cyrix, IBM, Texas Instruments, and Rise Technology. The processors designed by any of the smaller players are generally competitive with equivalents manufactured by Intel or AMD.
