Front-side bus

A computer bus that connects a processor to the northbridge chipset, which links it to memory and other system components. It was common in PC architectures before integrated memory controllers and point-to-point interconnects displaced it.

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Northbridge: A chipset component that connects a processor to memory and high-speed peripherals. It is the chipset endpoint of the front-side bus and routes traffic onward.
Computer bus: A shared communication system that carries data, addresses, or control signals among computer components. The front-side bus is a processor-to-chipset example of this broader structure.
HyperTransport: A point-to-point interconnect developed by AMD for linking processors, memory systems, and other components. It replaced the shared front-side bus in many AMD systems with direct links.
Memory bottleneck: A performance limit caused when memory cannot supply data as quickly as a processor needs it. The processor-to-chipset route could restrict how quickly requests reached memory.
Memory controller: Hardware that manages communication between a processor or chipset and main memory. In classic PC designs, it resided in the northbridge and handled memory requests arriving over the bus.
Central processing unit: The primary processor that executes instructions and performs computations in a computer. It is one endpoint of the front-side bus.
QuickPath Interconnect: Intel's point-to-point interconnect for linking processors and chipset components. It superseded the front-side bus in many Intel platforms.
Cache coherence: The coordination that keeps multiple cached copies of shared data consistent. Systems with multiple processors needed protocols that accounted for traffic across shared interconnects.
Bus arbitration: The process of deciding which device may use a shared communication bus. Shared bus transactions require coordination when multiple components request access.
Main memory: A computer's working storage, typically implemented as dynamic random-access memory. In traditional architectures, the processor reaches it through the chipset and front-side bus.