Fsb

[Edify]

what is a front side bus and what does it do?
and
why is it slower than the processor speed by a lot?

[scumbag]

what is a front side bus and what does it do?
and
why is it slower than the processor speed by a lot?

i have no idea, but Mr.Peanuts is the tech guy, he might know

[Kolar]

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/f/fsb.htm

I'm Not entirely sure on 2 but if I had to guess, since the FSB is the means by which the processor comunicates with the memory(RAM), which isn't all that fast.. then there isn't much need for it. I think it still is a bottle neck but intel has chipsets supporting 800 Mhz FSB now.

[Arikel]

Front side bus is the bus that the cpu uses to comunicate with other devices from the system such as RAM, PCI cards, hard disks, AGP sockets etc etc...
It is similar to a information highway that transfers data from the cpu to those devices and from those devices to the cpu, in fact it connects all devices most of the time... If you have a server that has the need to control lots of devices such as hard drives "at least more than a "normal" pc" you will need to have a nice FSB. The FSB is described by its frequency "MHz" and width "bits". Your CPU runs at a multiple of the FSB's speed so when you want to "overclock" your cpu you increase the multyplier in order to make the processing faster although your comunication will remain at the same speed, unless you increase your FSB speed to although it's more dangerous...
Your fsb speed is directly connected to the speed grade of the mamory that your system must use, having this into account both your memory bus wich connects the northbridge and RAM and your FSB wich connects your northbridge and CPU must be set to the same speed most times...

So if you need a fast audio or scientific computer or something that requires a fast memory use you will also need a faster fsb so that's the reason why audio and video and scientific computers employ a big fsb because it becomes a major issue in performance.

[Edify]

http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/f/fsb.htm

I'm Not entirely sure on 2 but if I had to guess, since the FSB is the means by which the processor comunicates with the memory(RAM), which isn't all that fast.. then there isn't much need for it. I think it still is a bottle neck but intel has chipsets supporting 800 Mhz FSB now.

lol informative site. i was reading the definition and got distracted by OVERCLOCK, heh.

u know so much arikel. o_o

[Mr. Peanuts]

I asked what it was at my work exp and then I forgot.

[Fallen Angel]

When referring to AMD's K8 architecture the term FSB no longer applies, because those CPU's have an integrated memory controller and use a HyperTransport Bus to communicate with the northbridge.