Wire speed
In
Related terms
The wire speed should not be confused with the
Communicating "at wire speed"
The term at wire speed, or the adjective wire speed, describes any computer system or hardware device that is able to achieve a throughput equal to the maximum throughput of the communication standard. This requires that the CPU capacity, bus capacity, network switching capacity, etc., be sufficient. Network switches, routers, and similar devices are sometimes described as operating at wire speed. Data encryption and decryption and hardware emulation are software functions that might run at wire speed (or close to it) when embedded in a microchip.
The wire speed is rarely achieved in connections between computers due to CPU limitations, disk read/write overhead, or contention for resources. However, it is still a useful concept for estimating the theoretical best throughput, and how far the real-life performance falls short of the maximum.
The term wire speed (or wirespeed) is considered a non-formal language term.[clarification needed]
References
- ^ Robert Breyer, Sean Riley, Switched and fast Ethernet: how it works and how to use it, 1995
- ^ Atlantic, Encyclopaedia of Information Technology