CPU @ full clock speed?

[AMD4ever]

I heard an interesting comment the other day on TV...
One person was advertising how never before had there been a CPU that actually operated at it's full clock speed until the cache chips ran at 1:1 with the processor.
from what this person was saying...no CPU has ever been able to achieve it's specified rate? If My 900 Athlon Classic came with 2.8ns cache chips set to 1/2 by the hardware on the PCB, then I can only presume that it is performing at a "TRUE" 450Mhz???

I know this must sound simple to some of you, but these claims really got my to thinking about it!

Any Ideas?

 

[Fingers]

no, it's running at a full 900 mhz, but it is getting better performance if the cache runs at full speed. Its kinda the same performance increase as upping the ram speed. sorta like releaving a bottle neck.

 

[AMD4ever]

OK, then if there is a bottle neck...then the through put is not at 100% right?
Maybe I am looking for a mathematical answer?
I would love to email the show host and say "AHEM! excuse me, but you cannot say that."

Is there a relationship between instructions "accessed" and those actually carried out? Waiting for the applications to utilize the data?

 

[Fingers]

all those cloc cycles are running, it is just a matter of whether or not they are being used, it all depends on the program running, if that program is cache intensive then maybe not all of those clock cycles are being put to "good" use. but if it is not very cache intensive then every single clock cycle is being used effectively.