I'm a lil embarressed to ask

wwpranma · December 2006

So I was reading that post about Paper MSC:

"you know you are paper MCSE when..."

And that made me realize that whatever that is referring to, I'm probably one of them. So anyways, with that said and out of the way, I feel like a complete iddiot asking this... but.....

I have studied studied studied. I should know my stuff when it comes to even simple lil terms, but just something about MHZ that I can't wrap my brain around. I understand the logic behind a bus width: The physical amount of electronic piping that a bits of data have access for to run around to the different areas of the motherboard, all good. MBPS : The speed at which those bytes can be pushed within the bus (aka the electronic pipes) within the motherboard. But MHZ, I just can not visually see that in my mind for some reason. Anyone got a retarded kindergarden representation of what mhz alludes to?

mzgavc · December 2006

MHZ is technically how fast something can cycle between on and off.

1mhz would be 1 million on and off computations.

In kindergarden terms... MHZ is technically HOW fast something can compute the data being fed to it....

I guess its along the lines of a woodchipper.

Feed it sticks and twigs and its going to be able to crunch it up easily without getting bogged down.

Feed it a 2x4, and its going to be a lot harder.

Feed it a 4x4, and its going to start to chug.

Feed it a full tree trunk and you may need to upgrade your woodchipper.

wwpranma · December 2006

Ok, so if mhz refers to how many cycles can pass as the cpu is on and then how many cycles as it's off, and that's technically the speed of the hardware, then why do we have mbps? Are those two different comparisons of the same thing or is it just me?

I mean, I guess what I'm asking is how are they applied. 1 Mhert versus 1 Mb....

I just don't see where the difference in that equation lies. I understand the whole theory behind a bus, because that's the amount of space each Mb has. And the bigger the space, the more MB of data can travel through the bus. But MBPS refers to how much data can pass through the bus, and Mhz refers to how many bytes can be processed at the end of the bus?

Sorry if I just keep pushing the point here, I just want to make sure I have a complete understanding of this whole logic.

janmike · December 2006

You talking about two different processes. Megahertz (MHZ) refers to how fast the CPU processes data--speed of the multiprocessor. It has nothing to do with mbps or MBps. It does not even determine if you have mbps of MBps. It determines how fast mbps/MBps happens inside the CPU.

Mbps, megabits per second, refers to the rate of data transfer of a single string of binary digits.
The term Mbps is generally used when talking about serial communication of binary data--one-bit-at-a-time. Think of it as all of the data traveling on one wire. Ethernet, Cat6 cable, works this way. You have 8 wires, but only one is used to transfer the actual data. USB and Firewire are also serial technologies.

MBps, megabytes per second, refers to the transfer of 8 binary digits (a byte) per second--all at the same time. This is called parallel data transmission. It generally happens when printing with an IEEE 1284 printer cable--lots of wires in there.

Now, Cat6 or IEEE1284 do this outside of the PC. But, on the motherboard are all of those parallel traces of copper. This is where a bunch of parallel (MBps) data transfer takes place. I have really lost track of how much one of these boards carry, because techs rarely trace signals on boards any more--we just send them to recycle and put a new board in. Anyway, the Mbps is translated to MBps inside the PC and generally travels as four 8-bit words(4 bytes or 32 bits). That's where all of that 8 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit stuff comes from.

Don't get your frequency(MHZ) confused with binary digit transfer rate. Remember, the more MHZ you have, the faster the Mbps travel through the PC.

Hope this helps.

bighornsheep · December 2006

wwpranma wrote:

So I was reading that post about Paper MSC:

"you know you are paper MCSE when..."

And that made me realize that whatever that is referring to, I'm probably one of them. So anyways, with that said and out of the way, I feel like a complete iddiot asking this... but.....

hey, dont be discouraged...that thread was all for fun anyway. I also meant it for some awareness, but not put down nor directed attack in any way.

your questions, in actuality has less relevance to certification, and more to education, in my opinion. They're perfectly valid questions if you havent gone through formal learning in CS/engineering/electronics/physics related courses or program.

Just because you dont know the details and terminology of certain things, doesnt NECESSARILY make you a paper "technician/professional". It's more pointing towards people that have a paper that says they can do, a, b, c, etc, but they're more likely to do nothing close.

My school's transcript says that I have 2 credits in wireless computer communication, and the fact of the matter is that I can setup WiFi with WEP, WPA and I use Bluetooth often, but dont expect me to give you a technical explanation of FHSS and CSMA/CA....

---here's my "technical explanation"

your question, should read MHz, Hz is short for Hertz, and M is the notation for Mega, 10^6. Hz is a measurement against the "rounds" per second on something (motor, sound wave, CPU, etc), the rounds is referred to as frequency above, how often something happens. Note that this is uniform frequency we're dealing with.

The bus bandwidth you're talking about, is the theoretical load on the medium of transfer. It's a measurement against a communication medium. A CPU will have bus lines inside of it as well, but we're concern with the measurement as MHz because that's the relevant value in the sense of a computer. The Mb/s is important because that is the value measured against the path between devices on the motherboard. Likely the RAM, Graphics Card, or HDD.

Graphics Card, HDD, and RAM, have speeds too, Since MHz is the speed of a CPU, Mb/s would be the "speed" between the CPU, and everything else.

wwpranma · December 2006

bighornsheep wrote:

your question, should read MHz, Hz is short for Hertz, and M is the notation for Mega, 10^6. Hz is a measurement against the "rounds" per second on something (motor, sound wave, CPU, etc), the rounds is referred to as frequency above, how often something happens. Note that this is uniform frequency we're dealing with.

The bus bandwidth you're talking about, is the theoretical load on the medium of transfer. It's a measurement against a communication medium. A CPU will have bus lines inside of it as well, but we're concern with the measurement as MHz because that's the relevant value in the sense of a computer. The Mb/s is important because that is the value measured against the path between devices on the motherboard. Likely the RAM, Graphics Card, or HDD.

Graphics Card, HDD, and RAM, have speeds too, Since MHz is the speed of a CPU, Mb/s would be the "speed" between the CPU, and everything else.

OK, so Mhz would reply to the device (the cpu) that recieves the data and process's the data into commands I take it then.

I'm a lil embarressed to ask

Comments