diff --git a/bin/cpu-freq b/bin/cpu-freq
index d3be570a..ee3a5055 100755
--- a/bin/cpu-freq
+++ b/bin/cpu-freq
@@ -22,9 +22,6 @@ if [ "$1" = "--detail" ]; then
 	exit 0
 fi
 
-mhz=`egrep -i -m 1 "^cpu MHz|^clock|^bogomips" /proc/cpuinfo | awk -F"[:.]" '{print $2}'`
+speed=`egrep -i -m 1 "^cpu MHz|^clock|^bogomips" /proc/cpuinfo | awk -F"[:.]" '{ printf "%.1f", $2 / 1000 }'`
 
-speed=$(echo $mhz | awk '{ printf "%.1f", $1 / 1000 }')
-unit="GHz"
-
-[ -n "$speed" ] && printf "\005{= cW}%s$unit\005{-} " $speed
+[ -n "$speed" ] && printf "\005{= cW}%sGHz\005{-} " $speed
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index d6c08b30..4e90dd7e 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -5,8 +5,9 @@ byobu (2.9) unreleased; urgency=low
   * bin/wifi-quality, bin/network-up, bin/network-down: must use /sbin
     in iwconfig and ifconfig paths
   * bin/cpu-count: performance improvement, use getconf
+  * bin/cpu-freq: performance improvement, simplify pipes
 
- -- Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com>  Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:27:52 -0500
+ -- Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com>  Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:38:05 -0500
 
 byobu (2.8-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low