AGP bus speed limitation/tech book recommendations

[JDJ]

Bit of a newbie question for the group. Hope it's OT.

I read that the AGP bus is limited to 66Mhz but didnt see an explanation. Just wondering if it had to do with a Northbridge/MCH limitation or if it was more simple than that.

Also, if anyone could recommend some good books on the basics of CPU architecture and digital circuit and/or computer algorithms it would be much apprieciated. I do have an engineering background so highly technical books are not a problem.

Thanks, John.

 

[Peter]

You simply can't crank up bus frequencies infinitely - signal quality decreases dramatically if you do.

Then, AGP is a derivative of the existing 66 MHz PCI standard - and to be able to keep chips compatible with either bus, it was kept that way.

regards, Peter

 

[dszd0g]

A good book on computer archetecture is Computer Organization and Design : The Hardware/Software Interface, Second Edition by Hennessy, Indurkhya, and Patterson. Hennessy and Patterson are considered some of the authoritative source on computer archetecture.

As far as computer algorithms go a good book to learn the concepts from is Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein.

After reading that book if you really want to get into the fine details I would recommend The Art of Computer Programming (Volumes 1-3) by Knuth. Volume 4 should be comming at some point. The CLR is a good book to learn computer algorithm concepts, a lot of colleges use that as their textbook. To read Knuth you will want to know everything in the CLR first. Then refresh on your probablility theory. If you do not know an assembly language, learn a RISC one before reading Knuth. It's been a while since I've skimmed through Computer Organization and Design, but I'm pretty sure by the time you finish reading it you'll understand MIPS assembly. MIPS is easy to learn. Then sit down with a pencil and paper and have a good read. The Art of Computer Programming is not light reading, but I learned a ton reading it.