In: Categories » Computers and technology » Memory Processor Motherboards and buses » The Memory Bus
|
The memory bus is used to transfer information between the CPU and main memorythe RAM in your system. This bus is usually connected to the motherboard chipset North Bridge or Memory Controller Hub chip. Depending on the type of memory your chipset (and therefore motherboard) is designed to handle, the North Bridge runs the memory bus at various speeds. The best solution is if the memory bus runs at the same speed as the processor bus. Systems that use PC133 SDRAM have a memory bandwidth of 1066MBps, which is the same as the 133MHz CPU bus. In another example, Athlon systems running a 266MHz processor bus also run PC2100 DDR-SDRAM, which has a bandwidth of 2133MBpsexactly the same as the processor bus in those systems. Systems running a Pentium 4 with its 400MHz processor bus also use dual-channel RDRAM memory, which runs 1600MBps for each channel, or a combined bandwidth (both memory channels run simultaneously) of 3200MBps, which is exactly the same as the Pentium 4 CPU bus. Pentium 4 systems with the 533MHz bus run dual-channel DDR PC2100 or PC2700 modules, which match or exceed the throughput of the 4266MBps processor bus. Running memory at the same speed as the processor bus negates the need for having cache memory on the motherboard. That is why when the L2 cache moved into the processor, nobody added an L3 cache to the motherboard. Some very high-end processors, such as the Itanium and Itanium 2 and the Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, have integrated 2MB4MB of full-core speed L3 cache into the CPU. However, the most recent high-performance chips, such as the new Pentium Extreme Edition, use only L1 and L2 cache. Thus, it appears that L2 cache will continue to be the most common type of secondary cache for the foreseeable future. The Need for Expansion SlotsThe I/O bus or expansion slots enable your CPU to communicate with peripheral devices. The bus and its associated expansion slots are needed because basic systems can't possibly satisfy all the needs of all the people who buy them. The I/O bus enables you to add devices to your computer to expand its capabilities. The most basic computer components, such as sound cards and video cards, can be plugged into expansion slots; you also can plug in more specialized devices, such as network interface cards, SCSI host adapters, and others. Note In most modern PC systems, a variety of basic peripheral devices are built in to the motherboard. Most systems today have at least dual (primary and secondary) IDE interfaces, four USB ports, a floppy controller, two serial ports, a parallel port, keyboard, and mouse controller built directly into the motherboard. These devices are usually distributed between the motherboard chipset South Bridge and the Super I/O chip. Many add even more items, such as a built-in sound card, video adapter, SCSI host adapter, network interface or IEEE 1394a port, that also are built in to the motherboard. Those items, however, might not be built in to the motherboard chipset or Super I/O chip; they are sometimes configured as additional chips installed on the board. Nevertheless, these built-in controllers and ports still use the I/O bus to communicate with the CPU. In essence, even though they are built in, they act as if they were cards plugged into the system's bus slots, including using system resources in the same manner.
|
legal disclaimer
1) Our website is not responsible for the information contained by this article as well for any and all copyright infringements by authors and writers. E-articles is a free information resource. If you suspect this article for any copyright infringements, please read the Terms of service and contact us to investigate the problem.
2) The E-articles directory team is not responsible for inaccuracies, falsehoods, or any other types of misinformation this tutorial may contain and will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by a user through the user's reliance on the information gained here. Please read the Terms of service
Useful tools and features
If you like this article (tutorial), please link to it from your web page using the information above. Linking to this page, this is the only way to help us improve our service, the same time providing your visitors with a way to improve their online experience.
related articles
Originally, systems had memory installed via individual chips. They are often referred to as dual inline package (DIP) chips because of their designs. The original IBM XT and AT had 36 sockets on the motherboard for these individual chips; then more of them were installed on the memory cards plugged into the bus slots. I remember spending hours populating boards with these chips, which was a tedious job. Besides being a time-consuming and labor-intensive way to deal with memory, DIP chips had one notorious problemthey crept out of th...
2. The evolution of Microprocessors from 1971 to the Present
It is interesting to note that the microprocessor had existed for only 10 years prior to the creation of the PC! Intel invented the microprocessor in 1971; the PC was created by IBM in 1981. Now more than 20 years later, we are still using systems based more or less on the design of that first PC. The processors powering our PCs today are still backward compatible in many ways with the 8088 that IBM selected for the first PC in 1981. November 15, 2001 marked the 30th anniversary of the microprocessor, and in those 30 years processor ...
3. RDRAM
Rambus DRAM (RDRAM) is a fairly radical memory design found in high-end PC systems from late 1999 through 2002. Intel signed a contract with Rambus in 1996 ensuring it would support RDRAM into 2001. After 2001, Intel continued to support RDRAM in existing systems, but new chipsets and motherboards primarily shifted to DDR SDRAM, and all future Intel chipsets and motherboards are being designed for either conventional DDR or the newer DDR2 standard. RDRAM standards had been proposed that will support faster processors through 2006; however, w...
4. Processor Codenames
Intel, AMD, and Cyrix have always used codenames when talking about future processors. The codenames usually are not supposed to become public, but they typically do. They can often be found in online and print news and magazine articles talking about future-generation processors. Sometimes, they even appear in motherboard manuals because the manuals are written before the processors are officially introduced. Processor Coden...
5. What is UMA ~ Upper Memory Area
The term Upper Memory Area (UMA) describes the reserved 384KB at the top of the first megabyte of system memory on a PC/XT and the first megabyte on an AT-type system. This memory has the addresses from A0000 through FFFFF. The way the 384KB of upper memory is used breaks down as follows: The first 128KB after conventional memory is called video RAM. It is reserved for use by video adapters. When text and graphics are displayed onscreen, the data bits that make up those images reside in this space. Video RAM is allotted t...
6. Memory Basics ~ ROM DRAM SRAM Cache Memory
Memory is the workspace for the computer's processor. It is a temporary storage area where the programs and data being operated on by the processor must reside. Memory storage is considered temporary because the data and programs remain there only as long as the computer has electrical power or is not reset. Before being shut down or reset, any data that has been changed should be saved to a more permanent storage device (usually a hard disk) so it can be reloaded into memory in the future. Memory often is called RAM, for random acce...
7. What are Dual Core Processors. Advantages of Dual Core Processor
No matter how fast a conventional single-core processor operates or how much RAM is installed in a system, it must ensure that each program and process that is running is properly serviced. As more and more programs are opened, the amount of time the processor can devote to each program is reduced. The result is that system performance declines. Workstations and servers have long enjoyed the benefits of multiple processors, including better responsiveness when multitasking, faster performance in single multithreaded applications, and better ...