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Article Description A modern microprocessor-based computing system is comprised of a collection of sophisticated high performance components. Processors, memory devices, and input/output controllers are the building blocks from which the computer is constructed. These devices are very tangible evidence of the rapid ongoing advances in silicon technology and manufacturing methods. What is less easily discerned is the underlying fabric that ties together these elements. As the demands placed upon computing systems have continued to go up, the demands upon this fabric, or system interconnect, have also increased, especially in systems composed of multiple processors which requires architectural advances to allow the system to reach its full potential. As we shall see in this article, the Intel® QuickPath Interconnect (Intel® QPI) is one of those architectural advances. (PDF, 18 pages, 1.3 MB)
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