The x-axis is in CPU cycles (10^0 means 1 cycle). If you CPU runs on 1000MHz that's 10^9 cycles per second. On that CPU the right hand side of the picture corr

The x-axis is in CPU cycles (10^0 means 1 cycle). If you CPU runs on 1000MHz that's 10^9 cycles per second. On that CPU the right hand side of the picture corresponds to 1ms. You can do 1 million register-register operations in 1ms, or 1 billion in 1sec. Computers are fast.