COMPUTER BUSES
Inside computers, there are many internal components. In order for these components to
communicate with each other, they make use of wires that are known as a ‘bus’.
A bus is a common pathway through which information flows from one computer component to
another. This pathway is used for communication purposes and it is established between two or
more computer components. We are going to check different computer bus architectures that
are found in computers.
Different Types of Computer Buses
Functions of Buses in Computers
Data bus:
A data bus transfers data bits from processor to memory and from memory to other internal
components of the computer e.g. cache and registers.
Address bus:
The address bus is used to transfer address bits to the memory. In memory or RAM, every memory
location has some address. The processor assigns addresses to the memory and these addresses are
transferred through the address bus.
Control bus:
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The control bus is used to transfer control bits from control units to other components of the
computer. Control means for example if whether we want to write or read data in memory, clear
any value from memory or increment value or read data from the input device. These decision
making bits are transferred through the control bus.
Summary of functions of buses in computers
1. Data sharing - All types of buses found in a computer transfer data between the computer
peripherals connected to it. The buses transfer or send data either in the serial or parallel method
of data transfer. This allows for the exchange of 1, 2, 4 or even 8 bytes of data at a time. (A byte
is a group of 8 bits). Buses are classified depending on how many bits they can move at the same
time, which means that we have 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit or even 64-bit buses.
2. Addressing - A bus has address lines, which match those of the processor. This allows data to be
sent to or from specific memory locations.
3. Power - A bus supplies power to various peripherals connected to it.
4. Timing - The bus provides a system clock signal to synchronize the peripherals attached to it with
the rest of the system.
The expansion bus facilitates the easy connection of additional components and devices on a
computer such as a TV card or sound card.
Computers have two major types of buses:
1. System bus:- This is the bus that connects the CPU to the main memory on the motherboard. The
system bus is also called the front-side bus, memory bus, local bus, or host bus.
2. A number of I/O Buses, (I/O is an acronym for input/output), connecting various peripheral
devices to the CPU. These devices connect to the system bus via a ‘bridge’ implemented in the
processors' chipset. Other names for the I/O bus include “expansion bus", "external bus” or “host
bus”.
Bus Terminologies
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Expansion Bus Types
These are some of the common expansion bus types that have been used in computers:
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
EISA - Extended Industry Standard Architecture
MCA - Micro Channel Architecture
VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCI Express (PCI-X)
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (Also called PC bus)
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface
The 8 Bit and 16 Bit ISA Buses
ISA Bus
This is the most common type of early expansion bus, which was designed for use in the original
IBM PC. The IBM PC-XT used an 8-bit bus design. This means that the data transfers take place
in 8-bit chunks (i.e., one byte at a time) across the bus. The ISA bus ran at a clock speed of 4.77
MHz.
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For the 80286-based IBM PC-AT, an improved bus design, which could transfer 16-bits of data at
a time, was announced. The 16-bit version of the ISA bus is sometimes known as the AT bus (AT-
Advanced Technology).
The improved AT bus also provided a total of 24 address lines, which allowed 16MB of memory
to be addressed. The AT bus was backward compatible with its 8-bit predecessor and allowed 8-
bit cards to be used in 16-bit expansion slots.
When it first appeared, the 8-bit ISA bus ran at a speed of 4.77MHZ – the same speed as the
processor. Improvements done over the years eventually made the AT bus ran at a clock speed of
8MHz.
Comparison Between 8 and 16 Bit ISA Bus
MCA (Micro Channel Architecture)
IBM developed this bus as a replacement for ISA when they designed the PS/2 PC in 1987.
The bus offered a number of technical improvements over the ISA bus. For instance, the MCA ran
at a faster speed of 10MHz and supported either 16-bit or 32-bit data. It also supported bus
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mastering - a technology that placed a mini-processor on each expansion card. These mini-
processors controlled much of the data transfer allowing the CPU to do other tasks.
One advantage of MCA was that the plug-in cards were software configurable; this means that
they required minimal intervention by the user when configuring.
The MCA expansion bus did not support ISA cards and IBM decided to charge other
manufacturers royalties for use of the technology. This made it unpopular and it is now obsolete
technology.
The EISA Bus
EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture)
This is a bus technology developed by a group of manufactures as an alternative to MCA. The bus
architecture was designed to use a 32-bit data path and provided 32 address lines, giving access to
4GB of memory.
Like the MCA, EISA offered a disk-based setup for the cards, but it still ran at 8MHz in order for
it to be compatible with ISA.
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The EISA expansion slots are twice as deep as an ISA slot. If an ISA card is placed in an EISA
slot, it will use only the top row of connectors. However, a full EISA card uses both rows. It offered
bus mastering.
EISA cards were relatively expensive and were normally found on high-end workstations and
network servers.
VESA Bus
It was also known as the Local bus or the VESA-Local bus. VESA (Video Electronics Standards
Association) was invented to help standardize PCs video specifications, thus solving the problem
of proprietary technology where different manufacturers were attempting to develop their own
buses.
The VL Bus provided 32-bit data path and ran at 25 or 33 MHZ. It ran at the same clock frequency
as the host CPU. But this became a problem as processor speeds increased because, the faster the
peripherals are required to run, the more expensive they are to manufacture.
It was difficult to implement the VL-Bus on newer chips such as the 486s and the new Pentiums.
Eventually, the VL-Bus was superseded by PCI.
VESA slots had an extra set of connectors; this made the cards larger. The VESA design was
backward compatible with the older ISA cards.
Features of the VESA local bus card:-
32-bit interface
62/36-pin connector
90+20 pin VESA local bus extension
Peripheral Component Interconnect
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Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) is one of the latest developments in bus architecture
and is the current standard for PC expansion cards. Intel developed and launched it as the
expansion bus for the Pentium processor in 1993. It is a local bus like VESA, that is, it connects
the CPU, memory, and peripherals to a wider, faster data pathway.
PCI supports both 32-bit and 64-bit data width; it is compatible with 486s and Pentiums. The bus
data width is equal to the processor, such as a 32-bit processor would have a 32 bit PCI bus, and
operates at 33MHz.
PCI was used in developing Plug and Play (PnP) and all PCI cards support PnP. This means a user
can plug a new card into the computer, power it on and it will “self-identify” and “self-specify”
and start working without manual configuration using jumpers.
Unlike VESA, PCI supports bus mastering. That means the bus has some processing capability
and thus the CPU spends less time processing data. Most PCI cards are designed for 5v, but there
are also 3v and dual-voltage cards. Keying slots used help to differentiate 3v and 5v cards and also
to make sure that a 3v card is not slotted into a 5v socket and vice versa.
The PCI Slots
The PCI Bus Architecture
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Accelerated Graphics Port
The need for high quality and very fast performance of video on computers led to the development
of the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP). The AGP port connects to the CPU and operates at the
speed of the processor bus. This means that video information is sent more quickly to the card for
processing.
The AGP uses the main PC memory to hold 3D images. In effect, this gives the AGP video card
an unlimited amount of video memory. To speed up the data transfer, Intel designed the port as a
direct path to the PC’s main memory.
Data transfer rate ranges from 264 Mbps to 528mbps, 800 Mbps up to 1.5 Gbps. AGP connector
is identified by its brown colour.
Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (PC Card)
The Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association was founded to give a standard bus
for laptop computers. So it is basically used in the small computers.
Small Computer System Interface
Short for Small Computer System Interface, a parallel interface standard used by Apple Macintosh
computers, PCs and Unix systems for attaching peripheral devices to a computer.
The SCSI Port
Mac LC SCSI Port
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Universal Serial Bus (USB)
This is an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A single USB port
connects up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards. The USB also
supports hot plugging or insertion (ability to connect a device without turning the PC off) and plug
and play (You connect a device and start using it without configuration).
We have two versions of USB.
USB 1x
First released in 1996, the original USB 1.0 standard offered data rates of 1.5 Mbps. The USB 1.1
standard followed with two data rates: 12 Mbps for devices such as disk drives that need high-
speed throughput and 1.5 Mbps for devices such as joysticks that need much less bandwidth.
USB 2x
In 2002, a newer specification USB 2.0, also called Hi-Speed USB 2.0, was introduced. It
increased the data transfer rate for PC to a USB device to 480 Mbps, which is 40 times faster than
the USB 1.1 specification. With the increased bandwidth, high throughput peripherals such as
digital cameras, CD burners, and video equipment could now be connected with USB.
IEEE 1394
The IEEE 1394 is a very fast external serial bus interface standard that supports data transfer rates
of up to 400Mbps (in 1394a) and 800Mbps (in 1394b). This makes it ideal for devices that need to
transfer high levels of data in real-time, such as video devices. It was developed by Apple with the
name firewire.
A single 1394 port can connect up 63 external devices.
It supports plug and play.
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Supports hot plugging.
Provides power to peripheral devices.
The IEEE 1394 Expansion Card
Firewire Ports
Questions & Answers
Question 1
What are the characteristics of a bus?
Answer: In computers, a bus is defined as a set of physical connections that is wires or cables that
are used to transmit data. They can be shared by multiple hardware components in order to
communicate with one another. A computer bus is thus characterized by the amount of data or
information that it can transmit at once. This amount is expressed in bits and it corresponds to the
number of physical lines over which data is sent simultaneously. For instance, a 32-bit bus can
transmit 32 bits in parallel.
Question 2
What is the address bus?
Answer: The address bus is the series of wires used to transfer data between devices that are
identified by the hardware address of the physical memory (the physical address), which is stored
in the form of binary numbers to enable the data bus to access memory storage.
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Question 3
How can a single USB Port Support 127 device?
Answer: A single USB port connects up to 127 peripheral devices. This can be achieved by
making use of a USB hub. The hub connects to a single USB port on your computer, but it provides
multiple USB connections for your other devices. If you link a number of these USB ports, you
will be able to connect the number of USB devices you want. That is how you end up with as many
as 127 devices.
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