Instructions Per Second (MIPS)

Zαck West
Posted by Zαck West Terminology 1 Min Read
alpharithms fallback 1

Instructions Per Second is a metric by which a computer processor’s speed can be measured. It relates the number of instructions that a CPU can execute, counted in millions, within a given time period.

Millions of Instructions Per Second is calculated by the following formula:

mips formula1

Shortcomings

MIPS is a poor metric for performance has two notable issues:

  1. Instructions are not standardized between machines;
  2. Non CPU delays such as I/O and memory can impact overall execution time;

As reported by PC magazine in November 24, 1987; the MIPS metric has so many shortcomings that it is popularly referred to as Meaningless Indices of Performance (R).

Zαck West
Zαck West
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Seasoned engineer with a decade of specializing in Python and backend services for scalable applications, leveraging reusable patterns, OOP, and TDD. Strong background in Full-Stack development, design, and digital marketing. Talk to me about deep reinforcement learning, trading algorithms, web scraping, and meditation.
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