Subtitles of the Movie

It's not enough just to have a fast Processor and lots of cache. We got to be able to get the information out of Cache and to the Processor in a very fast and efficient manner. The helper can only be as good as the link between the helper and the Processor itself. So the Memory Buses are extremely important. A Frontside Bus is a Bus that connects a Processor to its L2 Cache which is on the system board, not contained in the Processor itself and not even contained in the same module as the Processor. A Backside Bus, also called a Cache Bus, is a Bus that connects the L2 Cache which is in the same module to the Processor. In Pentium Processors, many of the Pentium Processors have a single component called an SEC module or Single Edge Connect Module, which is about the same size as a whiteboard eraser. And this module contains the Processor as well as the L2 Cache connected with the Backside Bus. If there is additional L2 Cache, then that would be handled a Frontside Bus. The wider a System Bus or the wider a Memory Bus is, the more information it can transfer. So the wider Buses are more desirable and can be faster. It's like having a 64-lane highway versus a 32-lane highway. If the cars are going the same speed on a 32-lane highway as on a 64-lane highway, and all of the lanes are full all of the time, then twice as much information or twice as many cars are going over the 64-lane highway as the 32-lane highway. So we need our Buses, especially our Memory Buses to be fast and to be wide. And Memory Buses can tremendously improve the capability of a Server. Because even if we only improve each piece of the process by a small amount, the combined improvement can be tremendous. In other words if it takes 60 nanoseconds to process a piece of the process and we can reduce that to say 45 nanoseconds, then we have cut this time it takes to process that piece by a quarter. In other words, it only takes three-quarters of the amount of time. So if you multiply that out, then something that would have taken 20 seconds to do on the computer while a person is waiting, now only takes 15. Or something that would have taken 4 seconds, now will only take 3. So those nanoseconds add up. And [we] need to improve or to purchase the correct Processors and L2 Cache and Frontside or Backside Buses, so that we have the most efficient type of network available. And these are constantly increasing, and I would highly recommend that when you decide to buy a new board or a new Server, that you enquire about the speed of the Frontside Bus or the Backside Bus. In our next section, we will discuss other types of Buses called System Buses. And System Buses are important because they allow us to connect peripheral components to the box and expand the computer outside of itself - that's next.