what are "pipes"?

[BuddhaRage]

I know more pipes = better.

But what exactly are they, and what do they do?

Can someone give me the gist of it?

 

[swinchen]

Do you mean in terms of cooling (heat pipes) or in terms of processing?

Heat pipes cool using a phase change (much like a gas refrigerator works) The heat source warms up a liquid that turns into a gas. The gas is condensed (in the heat exchanger) which releases the heat. It then runs back down the pipe and the process starts all over again.

Now a pipeline (or pipe) is basically just an execution path that has various steps where the command gets latched in (clocked).

For example: Consider you are driving from maine to florida. Without a pipe the interstate would only allow one car to travel at a time. This single car would be able to go like a bat out of hell but it would still take a while to get multiple cars into florida. (driving_time x number_of_cars). Now lets assume that you can allow multiple cars on the interstate as long as there are manditory stops (like a toll booth) In fact you can have a single car for every toll both. So the first car leaves.... and stops at the first toll booth, after he has left the toll booth the second car is allowed to depart.... and so on and so on. What this means is that multiple cars can arrive in florida in a very short amount of time (increased bandwidth)

You can also use the panama canal (series of locks) to think of a pipeline.

Long story short: Pipes are good either way you go.

P.S. Pardon any spelling mistakes.

 

[Brent_Justice]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,9722,00.asp

 

[DemonDiablo]

pipes are these like long hollow sticks that you can either put tobacco or "weed" or someother type of "herb" into and smoke it up and have a "partay"

Hope that clears things up for you, if it doesnt im pretty sure you'll understand when you go to college in 4-6yrs