Megahertz

Megahertz is a word used to indicate the frequency of a digital pulse. It means a million pulses per second. The timing pulse is the heartbeat of all serial microprocessors. These days this pulse is well above the gigahertz range. Truly impressive when you consider that all microprocessors implement programs written for them one step at a time. The reason that it appears otherwise is in the skill of the writer of the software. These are the instructions that make the hardware work.

From the very beginning they have been very, very fast. As humans we think at great speeds but studies have shown that this is nowhere near the fantastic speed of these massively integrated circuits. Our consciousness and all the wonders that were conceived and accomplished is based on the singular fact that we possess a massively parallel , interconnected human brain. We have on the order of one hundred billion neurons each with about ten thousand connections. So that means that we have a lot of interconnections.

We are not serial but it is hard to imagine a million steps a second. Our eyes would not be able to see this speed if it was simulated on a flashing light emitting diode. We would see a constant light source. Actually the fastest speed that the human eye can see flashing is about sixty hertz or sixty flashes a second. The speed for these  most fascinating digital marvels is only increasing. It will be interesting to see how fast they will become.