Need Help with Class Homework

[DeAtHWiSh]

Alright guys, I am currently taking my "Computer Structure and Logic's" class and I'm a little lost about a few things and since you all have the answers to everything why not try asking here.

I am working on a graph for Intel CPU's and some of there specs, and came accross "i" series CPU not have a FSB. Something about it being DMI now (Direct Medial Interface).

Now I realized they are not running bandwidth in hertz anymore, rather they are using Giga Transfers per second or better know as GT/s.

So my questions is, do they have such thing as Bus speeds or I/O speeds anymore?

If they do, how may I find it?

Anything will help.

 

[N-Gen]

Prior to the i series cpus communication was done via the northbridge, hence you needed to know the FSB frequency to determine the speed to and from the cpu and northbridge. In the i series the cpu can communicate through some devices using its own channels or via the DMI. Therefore the frequency would now not be relevant as its not in use. Speeds will depend and what channels the cpu is using and to where the data is going.

Here's a little explanation with diagrams.
http://www.basitali.com/2010/05/difference-between-fsb-and-dmi.html

 

[CDdude55]

Intel now uses QPI and AMD uses HyperTransport. So they've both replaced the FSB.

I believe bus speed still plays a part in QPI and HT though and you must do some sort of calculation to find the bit rates for MT/s and GT/s i think.

 

[DeAtHWiSh]

So the chip has instructions to communicate with specific I/O's not all, therefore the north bridge had to stay regardless?

As far as I know, the north bridge is in charge of communication between PCI-e, Memory, and CPU.

So basically, they decided to add a more direct set of instructions to the CPU so the CPU and specific I/O's could communicate at faster bandwidth's between each other directly rather than passing through the north bridge, and the north bridge sending instructions to the CPU?

Funny how ignorant we are until we being to study what a true work of art the CPU's really are.

 

[N-Gen]

Yes, they basically took the more demanding ones and set them to communicate directly (RAM and PCI-E) hence removing any bottleneck and giving them dedicated channels. As for the QPI it replaced the FSB because it was at the point of bottlenecking some components and therefore a newer standard with better throughput and efficiency had to be implemented.

 

[DeAtHWiSh]

Yes, they basically took the more demanding ones and set them to communicate directly (RAM and PCI-E) hence removing any bottleneck and giving them dedicated channels. As for the QPI it replaced the FSB because it was at the point of bottlenecking some components and therefore a newer standard with better throughput and efficiency had to be implemented.

Sir....you are freaking Amazing!


Thank you all for the help!

 

[N-Gen]

No problem and good luck with your studies. Don't let the names confuse you as every now and then some manufacturers get hit on the head and release something under a completely different name while doing basically the same thing in an improved way.

 

[DeAtHWiSh]

No problem and good luck with your studies. Don't let the names confuse you as every now and then some manufacturers get hit on the head and release something under a completely different name while doing basically the same thing in an improved way.

Excellent advise. I will keep that in mind.