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 The motherboard is like a big city with many streets and highways that connect all of the buildings together. Instead of streets and highways, the motherboard uses tiny electrical paths to connect each component of the computer together. These paths are called "buses." The more buses that connect to a component, the faster it can operate. Larger buses are able to operate faster than smaller buses. Buses work just like highways. Wider highways and highways with more lanes are able to carry more traffic than smaller highways and highways with less lanes. Many cities have a freeway. A freeway is designed so that large amounts of traffic can move quickly from one place to another. The motherboard also has a "freeway." It is called the "front side bus," (or FSB). It is the most important bus on the motherboard, because it connects the processor to the main memory and the Northbridge chipset. The faster the FSB is, the faster the computer can operate, since the processor is constantly using the main memory to store and retrieve information. Sometimes the FSB is also called the "system bus." Below is a diagram showing the front side bus in red. Keep in mind that on an actual motherboard, each line representing the buses would actually consist of many electrical paths instead of just one.
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