Core class cleanup

[FinnWilkinson]

Cleans up the Core classes by moving common member variables into the base class and ensuring the code aligns with the rest of the project.

Closes #356
Fixes #386

[ABenC377]

Only comment relates to the units used for clock frequency. So far as I can tell, there isn't a good reason for using GHz in some places and Hz in others. In which case, it would seem better to stick to one unit throughout the code base. However, @FinnWilkinson @jj16791 @dANW34V3R @JosephMoore25, please let me know if I'm missing something

[jj16791]

Only comment relates to the units used for clock frequency. So far as I can tell, there isn't a good reason for using GHz in some places and Hz in others. In which case, it would seem better to stick to one unit throughout the code base. However, @FinnWilkinson @jj16791 @dANW34V3R @JosephMoore25, please let me know if I'm missing something

You'd be correct in the use cases primarily converting the input GHz value into Hz. A significant reason behind the input being in GHz is that that's the natural unit of measure for modern HPC CPU cores. It's very unnatural to think about the frequency in terms of Hz and we'd need to add comments and notes to ensure that the user diverts from the natural assumptions. We kept it as GHz and got the code to convert it to Hz to make it "easier"/more convenient for the user.

[FinnWilkinson]

Only comment relates to the units used for clock frequency. So far as I can tell, there isn't a good reason for using GHz in some places and Hz in others. In which case, it would seem better to stick to one unit throughout the code base. However, @FinnWilkinson @jj16791 @dANW34V3R @JosephMoore25, please let me know if I'm missing something

You'd be correct in the use cases primarily converting the input GHz value into Hz. A significant reason behind the input being in GHz is that that's the natural unit of measure for modern HPC CPU cores. It's very unnatural to think about the frequency in terms of Hz and we'd need to add comments and notes to ensure that the user diverts from the natural assumptions. We kept it as GHz and got the code to convert it to Hz to make it "easier"/more convenient for the user.

Is there a reason for using Hz in the code at all though? We could store clockFrequency_ as a float and in terms of GHz given the usage inside each core is to just divide it by 1e9 again (i.e. put it back from Hz to GHz)