Your computer feels a little slower than it did this time last year; is that change something you can chalk up to an aging processor?

您的计算机比去年同期的速度慢一些； 这项变化是否可以归因于老化的处理器？

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-drive grouping of Q&A web sites.

今天的问答环节由SuperUser提供，它是Stack Exchange的一个分支，它是Q＆A网站的社区推动组织。

问题 (The Question)

SuperUser reader Ben Simpson poses the following question:

超级用户读者Ben Simpson提出以下问题：

This is a hypothetical question about how a CPU operates. If I purchase two identical CPUs, and use one long term (say one year), will it be identical in speed to the unused CPU? Will the number of clock cycles, latency of requests, etc on the used CPU be less than that of the unused CPU?

这是有关CPU如何运行的假设问题。 如果我购买了两个相同的CPU，并使用了一个长期(例如一年)，它的速度是否与未使用的CPU相同？ 使用的CPU上的时钟周期数，请求等待时间等是否会少于未使用的CPU？

A supporting argument may be that mechanical devices degrade over time, While a CPU has no moving parts (other than the external fan), it does have circuits that can be damaged by heat, and voltage spikes. Lets say that after a year of intensive use, the circuits degrade and fewer electrons can pass since the pathway is narrower, etc.

一个支持的论点可能是机械设备会随着时间的推移而退化，尽管CPU没有活动部件(外部风扇除外)，但它的电路确实会因热量和电压尖峰而损坏。 可以说，经过一年的大量使用，由于路径变窄等原因，电路会退化并且电子可以通过的次数更少。

Is this the nature of how a CPU operates, or is it simply working or broken, with no speed degradation in between?

这是CPU工作方式的本质，还是只是工作或损坏而其间没有速度下降？

Do the central processing units degrade with time or are other factors at play?

中央处理单元会随着时间推移而降级吗？还是其他因素在起作用？

答案 (The Answers)

SuperUser contributor RedGrittyBrick jumps in with a detailed overview of how the CPU’s speed is controlled:

超级用户贡献者RedGrittyBrick深入介绍了如何控制CPU速度：

Is the performance of a CPU affected as it ages? after a year of intensive use, the circuits degrade and fewer electrons can pass since the pathway is narrower, etc.

随着时间的流逝，CPU的性能会受到影响吗？ 经过一年的大量使用，由于路径变窄等原因，电路性能下降，电子可以通过的电子更少。

No: Crystal Oscillator

否： 晶体振荡器

The speed of a CPU is determined by a crystal oscillator – so far as I know this is an external part for most CPUs

CPU的速度取决于晶体振荡器 -据我所知，这是大多数CPU的外部部件

Picture from TechRepublic article

图片来自TechRepublic文章

Crystals undergo slow gradual change of frequency with time, known as aging.

晶体会随时间缓慢缓慢地发生频率变化，称为老化。

However, I suspect this is not a significant factor.

但是，我怀疑这不是一个重要因素。

Drift with age is typically 4 ppm for the first year and 2 ppm per year for the life of the DT-26 crystal.

随年龄的漂移通常在DT-26晶体的使用寿命中第一年为4 ppm，每年为2 ppm。

(from TI concerning an RTC IC but I believe this rate is similar for timing crystals in general)

(来自TI关于RTC IC的信息，但我相信总体而言，该速率与定时晶体相似)

CPU Semiconductor changes

CPU半导体的变化

Breakthrough posted a link to an IEEE article that describes the myriad of ways that semiconductors are affected over time.

Breakthrough发布了一篇指向IEEE文章的链接，该文章描述了随着时间的推移半导体受到影响的多种方式。

It is possible therefore that the maximum clock speed the CPU is capable of will decrease over time. However in most cases this will not cause the CPU’s theoretical maximum possible speed to fall, within a year, below the actual operating speed set by the crystal oscillator. Therefore a CPU that has been stored for a year will run at the same speed as an originally identical CPU that has been used continuously for a year.

因此，CPU可能的最大时钟速度可能会随时间降低。 但是，在大多数情况下，这不会导致CPU的理论最大可能速度在一年内下降到晶体振荡器设置的实际运行速度以下。 因此，已存储一年的CPU将以与连续使用一年的最初相同的CPU相同的速度运行。

CPU Thermal regulation

CPU散热调节

Many CPUs reduce their speed if their temperature exceeds a pre-set threshold. The main factors that might cause a one-year-old CPU to overheat are not to do with semiconductor degradation within the CPU itself. Therefore these factors have no bearing on the question as formulated.

如果许多CPU的温度超过预设阈值，则会降低其速度。 可能导致使用了一年的CPU过热的主要因素与CPU本身内部的半导体性能下降无关。 因此，这些因素与提出的问题无关。

It is unlikely that a given pair of identical CPUs will diverge in capability within one year sufficiently to trigger thermal issues that require one of them to run itself at a reduced speed. At least, I know of no evidence that this has occurred within one year on a device that is not considered a warranty failure due to manufacturing defect.

给定的一对相同的CPU在一年之内的功能差异不太可能触发足以导致散热问题的散热，而散热问题要求其中一个以较低的速度运行。 至少，我不知道有任何证据表明这种情况在一年之内发生在不被视为由于制造缺陷而导致的保修失败的设备上。

CPU Energy efficiency

CPU能效

Many computers, especially portable ones, are similarly designed to reduce energy consumption when idle. Again this is not really relevant to the question as stated.

许多计算机，尤其是便携式计算机，都经过类似设计，以减少空闲时的能耗。 同样，这与所陈述的问题并不真正相关。

BlueRaja jumps in with an addition to Ben’s answer:

BlueRaja加入了Ben的回答中：

In theory, no, a CPU should run at basically the same speed its entire life.

从理论上讲，不，CPU的运行速度应基本相同。

In practice, yes, CPUs get slower over time because of dust build-up on the heatsink, and because the lower-quality thermal paste that prebuilt computers are often shipped with will degrade or evaporate. These effects cause the CPU to overheat, at which point it will throttle its speed to prevent damage.

是的，实际上，随着时间的流逝，CPU会变慢，这是因为散热器上积聚了灰尘，并且预装的计算机通常随附的质量较低的导热膏会降解或蒸发。 这些影响会导致CPU过热，这时它将限制其速度以防止损坏。

Cleaning the heat sink and reapplying the thermal paste should make it as good as new, though.

不过，清洁散热器并重新涂抹导热膏应使其与新的一样好。

Note: if you’re asking this due to having an old computer slow down, there are other reasons (usually dying hard-drives or popped capacitors) that old computers will slow down over time.

注意：如果您是由于旧计算机的速度变慢而问这个问题，则还有其他原因 (通常是硬盘驱动器快要死了或电容器弹出)会导致旧计算机随着时间的过去而变慢。

In other words, poor computer maintenance and cheap assembly methods are the real speed-throttling demons, not age or wear and tear on the physical chip. Routine cleaning and quality thermal paste go a long way towards your CPU operating efficiently.

换句话说，不良的计算机维护和廉价的组装方法才是真正的限制速度的恶魔，而不是物理芯片上的老化或磨损。 常规清洁和优质导热膏对您的CPU有效运行大有帮助。

Have something to add to the explanation? Sound off in the the comments. Want to read more answers from other tech-savvy Stack Exchange users? Check out the full discussion thread here.

有什么补充说明吗？ 在评论中听起来不对。 是否想从其他精通Stack Exchange的用户那里获得更多答案？ 在此处查看完整的讨论线程 。

翻译自: https://www.howtogeek.com/130355/is-cpu-performance-affected-by-age/