Improving The Performance Of Your Pc's Processor - HP Vectra XU 6/XXX Optimization Manual

1 Your PC's Performance Features

Improving the Performance of Your PC's Processor

Improving the Performance of Your PC's Processor
Your HP Vectra XU PC uses the most powerful processor currently
available in any HP Vectra PC: the Intel Pentium Pro. The advanced
capabilities of this processor are sufficient to handle any desktop
application you may use. However, it is also possible to further increase
the performance of your PC's processor by replacing it with an upgrade
processor. This section explains how and why.
The Processor's Clocks
Everything your PC's processor does is synchronized to a regular pulse
known as the processor clock. The speed of this clock defines the speed
at which your processor performs its work.
Your PC's Pentium Pro processor uses a system board clock source of
either 60 or 66 MHz. All operations on the local bus (such as data
transfers with memory) are synchronized to this clock. Other devices
in the PC also use this clock to generate their own clock signals; for
example, the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus controller
divides this clock in half to produce the 30 or 33 MHz PCI clock.
For its own internal operation, the Pentium Pro processor multiplies
the clock source to obtain a faster, internal clock. It is the frequency of
this internal clock that defines your processor's speed. For example,
the 150 MHz processor uses the 60 MHz clock source and multiplies
this by 5/2 to produce its own 150 MHz internal clock.
PCI bus - 30 MHz
Processor's local bus - 60 MHz
Pentium Pro processor - 150 MHz
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