10:16 Apr 16, 2010 

Well said, you've put it much more clearly than I had!

08:42 Apr 16, 2010 

Many thanks to all of you, that was really helpful.

05:48 Apr 15, 2010 

I am afraid these are two different things.
Overclocking is what hardcore computer enthusiasts do: they tinker with frequencies and voltages to gain some 10 percent, at the risk of burning their processors which are not rated for the speed they are working at.
Clocking up is what manufacturers do (or rather did, before they moved to new 2-core, 4-core architectures and more) , mainly Intel racing AMD, adapting the design of their chips so that speeds in GHz kept going up, everything else on the chip remaining roughly the same.

22:29 Apr 14, 2010 

the issue is how to say it in French .... unfortunately, it does look like it has been made into a french word too - http://www.qchardwareoverclock.com/, autrement dit ...comment augmenter/améliorer la vitesse..

mais aussi: surcadencer, surcadençage, selon http://www.debian.org/intl/french/lexique

21:53 Apr 14, 2010 

gail, I agree entirely on the synonymy of the terms, in the first case, 'faire marcher plus vite' -- it's just that the case described in the question is the other case, 'concevoir/réaliser un processeur plus vite', for which I don't think you would ever use the term overclocking, which has such strong connotations of working beyond the designed parameters of the hardware -- indeed manufacturers and system-builders commonly state that the warranty is void if the processor is overclocked.

21:20 Apr 14, 2010 

http://www.computing.net/answers/cpus/how-to-clock-up-your-c...

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia/663874-gtx-260-wont-clock-up...

http://fineupgrades.com/articles/fu-clock-overclocking-compe...

http://hothardware.com/Articles/Overclocking-Intels-Core-i7-...

I agree that overclocking is more commonly used, but it doesn't take much to read overclocking = clocking up (you don't clock down)

21:10 Apr 14, 2010 

it's important to distinguish the two. the first case (pushing the performance above the rated speed) is more generally referred to as "overclocking".
in fact "clocking up" is a comparatively rare turn of phrase -- I wouldn't say it has achieved the same status as "overclocking" at all.

20:37 Apr 14, 2010 

I believe they both mean the same thing - running at higher speeds, or "clocking up" ...

18:50 Apr 14, 2010 

gail, strictly speaking your link is to do with individual enthusiasts taking an existing chip and running it at a higher clock speed than the manufacturer's rated ('official') speed: the asker's context is about chip manufacture/design, and the process of designing new versions with higher rated speeds than before.

18:16 Apr 14, 2010 

16:59 Apr 14, 2010 

more than just an increase in clock speed