An overview of the Pentium Pro processor bus

The primary goal of the Pentium Pro processor bus architecture is to commoditize multiprocessing so that extremely high processing power would be readily available to the mainstream PC user. This level of performance, heretofore unattainable at these cost levels, also permits the Pentium Pro processor to enter markets such as file and compute servers and high end workstations. Such levels of processing power also opens doors for exciting new software applications such as 3D graphics and continuous speech recognition. We present the various decisions made by the Pentium Pro processor bus architecture team to achieve these goals. We believe that we have laid the foundation for a processor bus that would still be viable for processors introduced later this decade and possibly beyond.