Intel Communication Streaming Architecture: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Computer motherboard communication architecture}}

Intel's '''Communication Streaming Architecture''' ('''CSA''') was a mechanism used in the [[Intel Hub Architecture]] to increase the bandwidth available between a network card and the CPU. It consists of connecting directly the network controller to the [[Memory Controller Hub]] ([[northbridge (computing)|northbridge]]), instead of to the [[I/O Controller Hub]] (southbridge) through the [[PCI]] bus, which was the common practice until that point.

{{more references needed|date=June 2025}}

{{original research|date=March 2010}}

Intel's '''Communication Streaming Architecture''' ('''CSA''') was a mechanism used in the [[Intel Hub Architecture]] to increase the bandwidth available between a network card and the CPU. It consistsdirectly of connecting directlyconnected the network controller to the [[Memory Controller Hub]] ([[northbridge (computing)|northbridge]]),<ref>{{cite web |title=Communication Streaming Architecture (CSA)|url=http://www.intel.com/design/network/events/idf/csa.htm |website=Intel |access-date=23 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111030931/http://www.intel.com/design/network/events/idf/csa.htm |archive-date=11 November 2006 |language=en |url-status=dead}}</ref> instead of to the [[I/O Controller Hub]] (southbridge) through the [[Conventional PCI|PCI]] bus, which was the common practice until that point.

The technology was only used in Intel chipsets released in 2003,. andIt was largely seen as a stop-gap measure to allow [[Gigabit Ethernet]] chips to run at full-speed until the arrival of a faster expansion bus.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Binkert |first1=Nathan |title=Integrated System Architectures for High-Performance Internet Servers |date=2006 |publisher=PhD Thesis, University of Michigan |url=https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/90845/binkert-thesis.pdf |access-date=23 June 2025 |page=4}}</ref> (itIt was also used to connect the [[Wireless networking]] chips in Intel's [[Centrino]] mobile platform). To Intel's credit though, CSA-connected Ethernet chips did showshowed consistently higher transfer rates than comparable PCI cards.

Shortly after the CSA was introduced, [[PCI Express]] was introduced and replaced the CSA stopgap.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Feng |first1=W. |last2=Balaji |first2=P. |last3=Singh |first3=A. |title=Network Interface Cards as First-Class Citizens |journal=IEEE Workshop on the Influence of I/O on Microprocessor Architecture at HPCA-15 |date=2009 |page=3 |url=https://synergy.cs.vt.edu/pubs/papers/feng-iom2009-nics.pdf |access-date=23 June 2025}}</ref> The technology was subsequently discontinued.

The following year, [[PCI Express]] replaced CSA as the method of connecting network chips in Intel's chipsets, and the technology was subsequently discontinued.

==References==

{{reflist}}

==External links==

* [http://www.intel.com/design/network/events/idf/csa.htm Intel's page on CSA] [https://web.archive.org/web/20061111030931/http://www.intel.com/design/network/events/idf/csa.htm archive]

[[Category:Intel products]]

{{Intel technology}}

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[[Category:Intel products]]