Operations per second

USAGE SUMMARY

The phrase "Operations per second" is correct and usable in written English.
It is typically used in contexts related to computing, performance metrics, or data processing to describe the number of operations a system can perform in one second. Example: "The new processor can handle up to 10 million operations per second, significantly improving overall performance."

✓ Grammatically correct

News & Media

Academia

Encyclopedias

Science

Human-verified examples from authoritative sources

Exact Expressions

60 human-written examples

The original design was rated for 12 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) at 5 Watts of power.

Forbes

The Princeton chip performed 9.4 trillion binary operations per second.

Princeton University

Computers can literally perform billions of operations per second.

Stanford University

Microprocessors can perform millions of operations per second on data.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Microprocessors can perform billions of operations per second on data.

Britannica

Either way, the maximum possible number of operations per second is the same.

The New York Times - Health

For the record, it performs 2.5 times 10 to the 15th power mathematical operations per second.

The New York Times - Tech

Modern computers operate at speeds of more than one billion operations per second.

Encyclopedia Britannica

This indicates how many instructions or operations per second a processor can carry out.

The Economist

1 exaflop is 10^18 floating point operations per second, that's a thousand petaflops.

MIT Technology Review

A petaflop is a thousand trillion floating point operations per second.

The Washington Post

Expert writing Tips

Best practice

When discussing computer performance, use "operations per second" along with a prefix (kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, exa) to provide a clear sense of scale. For instance, specify 'teraflops' or 'gigaflops' instead of just "operations per second".

Common error

Avoid using "operations per second" interchangeably with "instructions per second" unless the context specifically involves simple, single-cycle operations. "Instructions" can involve multiple operations and thus represent a higher-level task.

Linguistic Context

The phrase "operations per second" functions as a noun phrase that quantifies the rate at which a computing device or system performs operations. Ludwig confirms that the phrase is grammatically correct and widely used in technical contexts.

Expression frequency: Very common

Frequent in

News & Media

32%

Academia

30%

Science

20%

Less common in

Encyclopedias

13%

Formal & Business

5%

Wiki

0%

Ludwig's WRAP-UP

In summary, "operations per second" is a noun phrase used to quantify the speed of computational processes. Ludwig AI confirms the phrase's grammatical correctness and widespread use across diverse contexts, especially in news, academia, and science. Its primary function is to provide a standardized metric for evaluating and comparing computer performance, with common measurements including gigaflops, teraflops, and petaflops. When using the phrase, specify an appropriate prefix to convey scale and differentiate between operations and instructions. For alternatives consider phrases like "calculations per second" or "processing speed" depending on the situation.

More alternative expressions

Phrases that express similar concepts, ordered by semantic similarity:

Calculations per second

Focuses specifically on mathematical calculations rather than general operations.

Instructions per second

Emphasizes the execution of instructions by a processor.

Floating point operations per second

Highlights floating-point arithmetic performance.

Processing speed

A more general term for the rate at which data is processed.

Computational throughput

Refers to the rate of processing computational tasks.

Clock speed

Indicates the frequency at which a processor operates, influencing operation speed.

Execution rate

Describes the speed at which a program or task is executed.

Throughput rate

General metric indicating the amount of data that system processes in given time.

Processing capacity

Indicates the ability of system to deal with large number of calculations.

System performance

Refers to overall efficiency of a system at executing assigned tasks.

FAQs

How is "operations per second" measured in computing?

"Operations per second" are measured using various benchmarks and performance tests that assess how many calculations or processes a computer can execute within one second. These measurements often use prefixes like kilo, mega, giga, tera, peta, and exa to denote scale, such as in teraflops (trillions of floating-point "operations per second").

What is the difference between "operations per second" and clock speed?

"Operations per second" measure the actual computational throughput of a processor, reflecting how many tasks it can complete in a second. Clock speed, measured in Hertz (Hz), indicates the frequency at which the processor executes cycles. While a higher clock speed can increase "operations per second", other factors like processor architecture and efficiency also play significant roles.

What are some alternatives to saying "operations per second"?

Depending on the context, you can use alternatives like "calculations per second", "instructions per second", or "processing speed". For mathematical computations, "floating-point operations per second" (FLOPS) is a specific and widely used term.

How do different units of "operations per second" relate to each other?

The units scale as follows: 1 kiloflops is 1,000 "operations per second", 1 megaflops is 1 million "operations per second", 1 gigaflops is 1 billion "operations per second", 1 teraflops is 1 trillion "operations per second", 1 petaflops is 1 quadrillion "operations per second", and 1 exaflops is 1 quintillion "operations per second".