What does megahertz mean exactly with computing?

Armand N: What does megahertz mean exactly with computing?
I know what megabytes and gigabytes are, but how does megahertz or hertz in general mean when it comes to computing. I also notice that mhz and memory (along with a lot of other components) go hand in hand or one increases the efficiency of the other. Can someone please explain. Thanks.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Scott
Mega means “Million” and
Hertz means “cycles per second”

so megahertz literally means “million cycles per second.”

800 MHz would be 800 million cycles per second.
In this case that means that bits (or data) go through the memory or cpu at a rate of 800 million cycles per second. If it is a 32 bit computer, then 32 bits would go through per clock cycle.

Since Giga means billion, a computer at 2.4 GHz would be 2.4 billion cycles per second.

Different parts of your computer operate at different speeds though. Memory is usually slower than the CPU.

It is determined by a crystal that vibrates really fast. That is the “clock” that everything else is timed by. A “cycle” is one tick of that clock.