User`s guide

Glossary
This glossary provides definitions for terms and acronyms associated with the
EB164 and chips, specifically as applied to Alpha architecture.
ASIC
Application-specific integrated circuit.
Bcache
Backup cache. On the EB164, a board-level L3 cache with a size of between
2MB and 8MB.
BIOS
Basic input-output system. A set of programs encoded in read-only memory
(ROM). These programs facilitate the transfer of data and control instructions
between the computer and peripherals, such as, ISA devices and the keyboard.
bridge
The circuitry that connects one computer bus to another computer bus and
allows an agent on one bus to access an agent on the other bus.
bus
A group of signals that consists of many transmission lines or wires. It
interconnects computer system components to provide communications paths
for addresses, data, and control information. The buses used in the EB164
include PCI64, PCI32, and ISA.
cache memory
A small, high-speed memory placed between slower main memory and the
processor. A cache increases effective memory transfer rates and processor
speed. It contains copies of data recently used by the processor and fetches
several bytes of data from memory, anticipating that the processor will access
the next sequential series of bytes. The 21164 Alpha microprocessor contains
three onchip internal caches, one 8KB L1 cache for instructions, one 8KB L1
Glossary–1