Deep-fried Brain

This week I spend Monday through Thursday in all-day class 8:30am-5:00pm on IA32 architecture, which for you non-techies is the architecture of about 80% of computers in the world, including (unless you own a PowerPC Mac or still fuel your computing needs with your Commodore 64) your own. Some statistics for you:

Number of chapters in the class textbook: 61
Number of chapters in the class textbook CD-ROM addition: 16
Total number of chapters in the class textbook: 77
Number of pages in the class textbook: 1744
Number of pages in the class textbook CD-ROM addition: 342
Total number of pages in the class textbook: 2086
Retail price of the class textbook, including CD-ROM: $74.99 (paperback)

That's right, 2086 pages in four days. Fortunately, there is no test. Today was entirely spent talking about the Front Side Bus (FSB), which is what connects the processor to the Memory Controller Hub (MCH, sometimes called the Northbridge), as well as to other processors.

Yum. Tastes like deep-fried brain.