CPU Clock Frequencies

[ODY1]

When a manufacturer advertises a multicore processor's clock speed in Ghz, is that for speed for each core or all cores?

[smithy]

That is for each core, so a quad core 2.8GHz means each core runs at 2.8GHz

[Cobracon]

The manufacturer's speed rating is for the processor as a whole. It doesn't mean each core runs at the advertised speed, and it doesn't mean the cores each run at some fraction of the rated speed.

In your example's case the confusion could be illustrated by:

2.8GHz x 2 = 5.6GHz

or

1.4GHz + 1.4GHz = 2.8GHz

Neither one is correct. Though I used a dual core CPU to explain the idea, the same theme carries over to triple and quad core CPUs