I want to know what is means by 'fsb' (Core 2 Quad- 2.66GHz Box - Q9450 1333FSB / 12MB Cache)?

Question

I want to know what is means by 'fsb' (Core 2 Quad- 2.66GHz Box - Q9450 1333FSB / 12MB Cache)?

Answer 1

FSB is short for Front Side Bus, which is the recognized frequency that the motherboard actually pulses at. I think the Core 2s are "quad pumped", so the motherboard is actually pulsing at 1333 / 4 = 333MHz. The 1333FSB is also 1/2 of the processor speed (2666GHz) because the processor will complete two cycles of information before retuning the information to the RAM or other parts of the comptuer.

Answer 2

fsb means front side bus

Answer 3

In personal computers, the Front Side Bus (FSB) is the data transfer bus that carries information between the CPU and the northbridge of the Motherboard.

Some computers also have a back side bus which connects the CPU to a memory cache. This bus and the cache memory connected to it are faster than accessing the system RAM via the front side bus.

The bandwidth or maximum theoretical throughput of the front side bus is determined by the product of the width of its data path, its clock frequency (cycles per second) and the number of data transfers it performs per clock cycle. For example, a 32-bit (4-byte) wide FSB operating at a frequency of 100 MHz that performs 4 transfers per cycle has a bandwidth of 1600 megabytes per second (MB/s).

The number of transfers per clock cycle is dependent on the technology used. For example, GTL+ performs 1 transfer/cycle, EV6 2 transfers/cycle, and AGTL+ 4 transfers/cycle. Intel calls the technique of 4 transfers per cycle Quad Pumping.

Notice that many manufacturers today publish the speed of the FSB in megatransfers per second (MT/s), not the FSB clock frequency in megahertz (MHz). This is because the actual speed is determined by how many transfers can be performed each clock cycle as well as by the clock frequency. For example, if a motherboard (or processor) has a FSB clocked at 200 MHz and performs 4 transfers per clock cycle, the FSB is rated at 800 MT/s.