what is the difference between 2000MT/s and 2000MHz for the computers Front-side bus (FSB) size?

Question

ok so while checking out my computers motherboard specs i notices that they express the Front-side bus (FSB) size as 2000MT/S but i dont know what the MT/S is? please give me a formula to convert MT/S to MHZ

Answer 1

MT/s stands for MegaTransfers per second, and is another (better?) way of describing the bus, because the bus speed doesn't necessarily translate to the amount of data it can transfer. Because of that, converting from MT/s to MHz depends on the bus specifications.

For example, the current 'FSB' (HT, really) for an AMD chip can be 1000 MHz. However, since the HT is DDR, data is transferred on both the rising and falling edges of clock, for 1000 * 2 = 2000 MT/s.

It's a little different with Intel. The current FSB for an Intel chip can be 266 MHz. However, Intel quad-pumps their FSB, essentially having two clocks 90 degrees out of phase. Data is transferred on the rising and falling edges of both clocks, so for a 266 MHz bus, this would be 266 * 4 or 1066 MT/s. Unfortunately, most people refer to this as 1066 MHz. Some will try justify this as an "effective clock speed", but that still bugs me.

But I digress. I guess the bottom line is, if you have a current AMD chip, divide the HT's MT/s by 2. If you have a current Intel chip, divide the FSB's MT/s by 4. ^_^