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https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/sum2003/cmsc311/Notes/Overall/clock.html
What's a Clock?
2003 by Charles C. Lin. All rights reserved.
Background
When you buy a computer, one of the first things you probably look for is the speed of the computer.
These days, it's not unusual to here rates as fast as 3 GHz.
But what is 3 Ghz referring to? This is referring to the clock rate.
The clock on a computer is not the same as the clock on the wall, which is used to tell time. A
computer clock is more like a metronome, which keeps the beat for musicians to play music.
A Plot of a Clock
One way to understand a clock is to look at a plot of its behavior.
A clock changes its value from 0 to 1 every period. We use the letter T to designate the period. This
signal repeats over and over again. Perhaps you remember, from a course in calculus, about sine waves.
This wave repeats once per period. The difference between a sine wave and a clock is that a sine wave
is curved. It gradually increases than decreases.
A clock's signal is squarish in shape.
Related to the period of the clock is the frequency. Frequency is defined as 1/T, and has units of s-1.
When you hear clock rates, it's usually given by its frequencies. Thus, 2 Ghz means 2 x 109 cycles per
second. A cycle is a signal for a single period. The period for this clock is 1/2 x 109 which is 5 x 10-10
seconds, which is half a nanosecond, which is a really, really short period of time.
To give you an idea of how short this time is. Imagine that everyone in the world sang exactly one note,
and exactly one person sings at a time. Suppose each note lasts one nanosecond. It would take 6
seconds to complete (assuming 6 billion people in the world).
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What's a Clock?
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https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/sum2003/cmsc311/Notes/Overall/clock.html
As you can see the clock signal has a positive slope from 0 to 1 and a negative slope from 1 to 0. This
slope has been exaggerated so you can see it better. Normally, it wouldn't be quite so angled.
Features of a Clock
Is It Always 50-50?
In the clock diagrams above, the amount of time the clock is at 1 appears to be T/2 (i.e., half the
period). The amount of time the clock is at 0 also appears to be T/2. (There is a little time when it
transitions from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0, but let's assume this is a fairly small fraction of T).
Must a clock always do this? The answer is no. We could have a clock where it stays 1 for 3T/4 (three
quarters of a period) and 0 for T/4 (one quarter of a period), or any fraction x and T - x where x < T.
If you're only using the positive edge, then it doesn't matter how long the signal stays at 1 or 0, since
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What's a Clock?
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https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/sum2003/cmsc311/Notes/Overall/clock.html
you only use the edge. However, if you want to use both positive and negative edges, then you're going
to have to consider when you want the edges to occur.
A Simple Exercise
In order to get a feel for how a clock signal behaves, put your finger at the beginning of the clock signal
in the diagram above. At this point, the signal should have a value of 0.
Begin to move your finger to the right, but trace out the signal. Your finger should move from 0 to 1,
and back again.
If you happen to trace over the positive edge once a second, and you're steadily moving to the right
(not going faster or slower) then the period is 1 second, and the frequency is 1 Hz.
Tracing the signal with your hand gives you a better "feel" for how a continuous signal behaves.
Usually, computer science majors have a more difficult time with this (unless you really like calculus or
are in engineering) because we deal with quantities that are discrete, rather than continuous.
At any point in time, someone can ask you the current value of the signal.
If we use the "pipe" analogy, we can think of this signal alternating between pumping red soda (for 0)
and green soda (for 1).
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