Internal Data Bus v External

Banana Rama

Hello, i'm a little bit confused about the distinction between an Internal and External Data Bus. Does an Internal data bus have to be inside the CPU (one of the registers) to be considered ''Internal'', and any data bus outside the CPU is therefore External? Are the registers inside the CPU the only IDB's in a computer? The A+ book gave me the impression that the EDB was the set of pins on the underside of the CPU, now I suspect I am wrong and that its actually the wires embedded in the MB, some clarification would be appreciated, thanks...

paul78

Someone that knows the A+ definitions should chime in but I'll mention the way that people generally use the term. The internal bus is commonly thought as the "wires" that move data between components in a computer. Ie. between the CPU and graphics card. Example standards would be PCI-e. The external bus is typically for connecting external devices to the computer. I.e. keyboard, mouse. Example standards would be USB (universal serial bus).

Banana Rama

Thanks for the reply, there is conflicting information out there about this, Webopedia defines it this way:

An internal data bus (also called internal bus) is a bus that operates only within the internal circuitry of the CPU, communicating among the internal caches of memory that are part of the CPU chip's design. This bus is typically rather quick and is independent of the rest of the computer's operations.

As you say hopefully someone who knows the definitions can give their take on this...