The pathway between memory or peripheral and processing unit that carries data for processing or data that has been processed.

The pathway between memory or peripheral and processing unit that carries data for processing or data that has been processed.

• A. encryption
• B. disk cache
• C. defragmentation software
• D. data bus

Answer: (D)

The data bus is the pathway that carries data between memory or peripheral devices and the processing unit, letting data move to be processed and the results return after processing. It’s the actual channel on the motherboard that transfers bits, and its width (8, 16, 32, 64 bits, etc.) determines how much data can move at once. The other terms don’t describe this transfer channel: encryption is a security operation, a disk cache is a fast memory used to speed up disk reads, and defragmentation software reorganizes storage. So the described pathway is the data bus.

The data bus is the pathway that carries data between memory or peripheral devices and the processing unit, letting data move to be processed and the results return after processing. It’s the actual channel on the motherboard that transfers bits, and its width (8, 16, 32, 64 bits, etc.) determines how much data can move at once. The other terms don’t describe this transfer channel: encryption is a security operation, a disk cache is a fast memory used to speed up disk reads, and defragmentation software reorganizes storage. So the described pathway is the data bus.