Clock cycle
The speed of a computer processor, or CPU, is determined by the clock cycle, which is the amount of time between two pulses of an oscillator. Generally speaking, the higher number of pulses per second, the faster the computer processor will be able to process information. The clock speed is measured in Hz, typically either megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). For example, a 4GHz processor performs 4,000,000,000 clock cycles per second.

1 GHz = 1,000 MHz = 1,000,000 kHz = 1,000,000,000 Hz

Computer processors can execute one or more instructions per clock cycle, depending on the type of processor. Early computer processors and slower processors can only execute one instruction per clock cycle, but faster, more advanced processors can execute multiple instructions per clock cycle, processing data more efficiently.

The steps performed by the computer processor for each machine language instruction received. The machine cycle is a 4 process cycle that includes reading and interpreting the machine language, executing the code and then storing that code.