Installation guide

PCI-SB StarFabric PCI Interface Card Installation Guide G-3
Bus
The shared pathway in a computer used to connect multiple peripherals or
devices. Imagine it as a freeway with multiple lanes connecting various parts
of the system. There are different types of buses, including VME, EISA, and
PCI.
Bus bandwidth
The clock frequency of a bus interface. To calculate peak bus throughput,
multiply the bus frequency by the bus width. For example, if a 100MHz bus
is 64 bits wide, it transfers 8 bytes per clock cycle 100 million times per sec-
ond for a maximum throughput of 800MB per second.
Bus-mastering drivers
Software that enables a controller connected to the bus to communicate
directly with other devices on the bus without going through the CPU. Most
modern bus architectures, including PCI, support bus mastering because it
improves performance.
Byte
A byte is 8 bits of information regarded as one word. A byte can represent up
to 256 different states for numbers, processor instructions, or a combination
of letters and numbers as in the ASCII code.
Cache
Specialized RAM used to optimize data transfers between system elements
with different performance characteristics, for example disk to main memory
or main memory to CPU.
Card
Synonym for board. A printed-circuit-board that you can insert into a com-
puter to give it added capabilities. For example, the PCI-SB card enables leg-
acy PCI devices to communicate with StarFabric-enabled devices.