Of course it's important to always keep the "Iron Law" in mind, but it's far easier to compare ideas and talk about things in terms of IPC. For example, if a sw

Of course it's important to always keep the "Iron Law" in mind, but it's far easier to compare ideas and talk about things in terms of IPC. For example, if a switch out one branch predictor for another, we're talking about an algorithmic change (implemented in hw) that will have an effect on IPC, and no effect on clock period (assuming we didn't screw something up). This is particularly useful when talking about a processor design, and not a specific processor in particular. As you said, there's a lot of good about slower clock frequencies, so you'll see the same ARM design being deployed at a variety of frequencies. Far easier to talk separately about a design's IPC from its achievable clock frequency (although both are important!).