ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Instructions per cycle

Instructions per cycle (IPC) is like how many toys you can play with at the same time!

Just like how you can only play with one toy at a time, a computer processor can only execute one instruction at a time too. But some instructions are easier to execute than others, just like some toys are easier to play with than others.

So if a computer processor can execute 4 instructions in a single cycle, that means it can play with 4 toys at the same time! However, if some of the instructions are harder to execute and take more time, then the processor might only be able to execute 2 or 3 instructions in that single cycle.

So the higher the IPC, the better the processor is at executing lots of instructions quickly and efficiently, which means it can process information and complete tasks faster.