A microprocessor
bus that connects the
CPU to a
Level 2 cache. Typically, a backside bus runs at a faster
clock speed than the
frontside bus that connects the CPU to
main memory. For example, the
Pentium Pro microprocessor actually consists of two
chips -- one contains the CPU and the primary cache, and the second contains the secondary cache. A backside bus connects the two chips at the same clock rate as the CPU itself (at least 200
MHz). In contrast, the
frontside bus runs at only a fraction of the CPU clock speed.
