Jul 07 2008
Latency and bandwidth
A common discussion in computer architecture is bandwidth versus latency. Each is important, but it is critical to understand the tradeoffs for each.
Imagine a garden hose. Connected to the hose is a hot and cold water faucet. As a user, you can turn on more hot or cold water. Then, at some time later in the future, the water coming out of the end of the hose is that new temperature.
- Bandwidth is how wide the hose is.
- Latency is how long the hose is.