The Gigahertz (GHZ) is used to describe the speed of a computer processor. Today's computer processors a measured in Gigahertz, and typically range between 1 and 4 GHz.
History
The term gigahertz is derived from the term 'hertz,' which is named after Heinreich Hertz who studied electromagnetic radiation. Hertz' study of electric cycles led to the naming of hertz, which is the measurement of cycles per second.
Do the Math
The Hertz property is based around revolutions per second. One revolution in a second is one hertz. One thousand revolutions per second is a kilohertz. One million revolutions per second is a megahertz. Finally, one billion cycles per second is called a gigahertz.
Practical Application
It wasn't uncommon 10 years ago to see processors that were measured in megahertz. A person might see an ad for a Pentium 3 500 MHz, for example. Today's computers are measured in gigahertz. It is very common now to see computers that are 2 gigahertz, which means the processor completes 2 billion revolutions per second.
The Faster the Better
The higher the clock speed on a Central Processing Unit, the faster the computer will be. A CPU that spins 2 billion times (2 GHz) a second will be faster than one spinning 500 million times a second (500 MHz). When purchasing a computer, the higher the hertz, the faster the computer will always be.
Theories/Speculation
Terahertz processors are now being designed. Terahertz computers promise not only faster computing power, but will also be more efficient in power usage.
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