Who cares what the clock speed is if modern CPUs can execute instructions 2-4x faster per clock than they did 30 years ago.
I think we're more concerned with 3 years ago; if clock doesn't increase and IPC increases very slowly, that means new processors aren't faster enough to be worth buying.
Go look at the Bulldozer design
Indeed; look at the fact that it's not faster than its predecessor for many workloads.
But the workloads when it is faster? I'm very impressed with AMD's offering.
Have code thats largely complex branch and loop conditions that bust the branch predictor's balls and isn't cache friendly and is largely integers? Bulldozer eats it for breakfast and asks for more.
I think we're more concerned with 3 years ago; if clock doesn't increase and IPC increases very slowly, that means new processors aren't faster enough to be worth buying.
Go look at the Bulldozer design
Indeed; look at the fact that it's not faster than its predecessor for many workloads.