A+ Question

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Hi everybody

I'm studying at the moment for my A+ and I've just been thrown by a paragraph used by Michael Myers on page 86. He says

"So, even though the external data bus still exists, we rarely use that term anymore. Note that the external data bus and address bus are there, but the chipset provides separate address buses and external data buses - one set just for the CPU and another set for the rest of the devices in the PC."

It's the first time he's used the word "chipset" (as far as I can tell), and it confuses me as to what the whole sentence means. Can anybody help?

Thanks

billy

 

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I think once you understand what a chipset is and what it does, the sentence will seem clearer. You also need to understand what an electrical bus is in general and that in many ways, a motherboard is nothing more than a large circuit board designed to handle different electrical transfers from the devices attached to it.

Here are the definitions:

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/c/chipset.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipset

 

The chipset is a bunch of suppplementary electronics designed to augment the functionality of the CPU, and the system as a whole. The buses are the routes by which the data travels in order to do this. By providing separate circuitry and routing just for the CPU, it maximises the efficiency of the system as a whole, and allows the rest of the mobo to function without compromising the "main brain"

This is probably a crap analogy, but I think it helps sum up the answer to what your asking

 

oh i see, that does make sense. thanks a lot, nice clear answers. so, it's basically saying that there are separate buses used just for the CPU, and other buses used for other functions on the motherboard?

 

The CPU will use the buses on the motherboard to address things like the Northbridge, Southbridge etc.

 

And not to be a stick in the mud, but is that a direct quote from the book? If so, did you get permission to quote it?

Better read the fine print.

 

yeah it's a direct quote, sorry is that not allowed?

 

Sorry, Billy. We can't post copyrighted material on the forum. News stories and such are ok as long as we credit the source, but we cannot post matter from text books or other training materials word for word since the content belongs to the publisher.

The way around this is to reword the question so that it no longer significantly resembles what the text says. In fact, one way to learn a concept is to take what you read and rework it into your own words...and still have the statement be accurate.

No worries.

 

I have to say in Billy's defence, that he clearly quoted the author, and page number of text he was quoting from - the only omission was the actual title of the text.

I personally have no problems with this, and am fairly sure the publishers or author would take Billy's post in context. This is clearly different from past situations where blatant quotation of material has occurred with no acknowledgment of source.

Let's not get too heavy on a new Member for this, but it might be best just to have a scan over the finer points of our Rules & Guidleines Billy - even thought I know ALL Members have read these already, right ?

 

No answer to that so far Gav!

 

yeah sure, cool. sorry.

 

No worries, billy. Word to the wise...that's all.