address bus
An internal channel from the CPU to memory across which the addresses of data (not the data) are transmitted. The number of lines (wires) in the address bus determines the amount of memory that can be directly addressed as each line carries one bit of the address. For example, a 20-line address bus represents the binary number 1,048,576 and reaches that number of memory bytes (the size of the address bus in the IBM PC in 1981). A computer with a 32-bit address bus can directly address 4GB of physical memory, while one with 36 bits can address 64GB.
 |
address bus [′ad·res ‚bəs]
(computer science)
An internal computer communications channel that carries addresses from the central processing unit to components under the unit's control.
| (processor) | address bus - The connections between the CPU and memory which
carry the address from/to which the CPU wishes to read or
write. The number of bits of address bus determines the
maximum size of memory which the processor can access. See also data bus. |
How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content.
| ?Page tools | ||
|---|---|---|
|