Jimma Institute of Technology
Faculty of Informatics and
Computing
Course Title: Computer Maintenance and
Technical Support
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Chapter 7
Bus and Cards
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Objective
After completing this chapter you will be able to
• Define Bus
• Recognize Types of Buses.
• Understand expansion cards.
• Identify types of expansion cards like:
The Video Card
The Sound Card
Network card
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7.1 Buses
Bus is a pathways or set of pathways that allows data and signals to travel
between components on the motherboard.
E.g., a bus enables a computer processor to communicate with
the memory
memory
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7.1 Buses
• The purpose of buses is to reduce the number of "pathways" needed
for communication between the components, by carrying out all
communications over a single data channel. This is why the
metaphor of a "data highway" is sometimes used.
• The "first" bus is the system bus, which connects the CPU with
RAM. In older designs it was a local bus. In newer designs this bus is
called the Front Side Bus (FSB).
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• A bus connects various components of a computer using a number of different
wires, which usually appear in the form of tracks on a Printed Circuit Board
(PCB). These wires can be classified into four functional groups: power,
address, data and control.
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• Today all computers utilize two bus types, an internal bus or local bus
and an external bus, also called the expansion bus.
An internal bus enables a communication between internal
components such as a computer video card and memory
and
An external bus is capable of communicating with external
components such as a USB.
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Characteristics of Bus
• A bus is characterized by the amount of information that can be
transmitted at once. This amount, expressed in bits, corresponds to
the number of physical lines over which data is sent simultaneously.
• A 32-wire ribbon cable can transmit 32 bits in parallel. The term "width"
is used to refer to the number of bits that a bus can transmit at once.
• Additionally, the bus speed is also defined by its frequency (expressed in
Hertz), the number of data packets sent or received per second. Each
time that data is sent or received is called a cycle.
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• It is possible to find the maximum transfer speed (Throughput (bps or
MB/s)) of the bus, the amount of data which it can transport per unit of
time, by multiplying its width by its frequency. A bus with a width of 16
bits and a frequency of 133 MHz, therefore, has a transfer speed equal
to:
= 16 bits × 133*106 Hz
= 2128 × 106 bits/second
= 266 × 106 bytes/second
= 266 × 103 KB/s => 266 MB/s
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Types of bus and its architecture
Address bus (sometimes called the memory bus) - carries memory
addresses from the processor to other components such as primary
storage and input/output devices. The address bus is unidirectional.
Data bus - carries the data between the processor and other components.
The data bus is bidirectional. Data is passed in parallel or serial manner.
Control bus - carries control signals from the processor to other
components. It is a bidirectional bus, as it also transmits response signals
from the hardware.
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The primary buses
There are generally two buses within a computer:
• The internal bus (sometimes called the Front side bus, or FSB for
short). The internal bus allows the processor to communicate with
the system's central memory (the RAM).
• The expansion bus (sometimes called the input/output bus) allows
various motherboard components (USB, serial, and parallel ports, cards
inserted in PCI connectors, hard drives, CD•ROM and CD•RW drives,
etc.) to communicate with one another. However, it is mainly used to add
new devices using what are called expansion slots connected to the
input/output bus.
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FSB (Front Side Bus)
• FSB is also known as the Processor Bus or System Bus and
connects the CPU (chipset) with the main memory and L2 cache. The
FSB can range from speeds of 66 MHz, 133 MHz, 100 MHz, 266
MHz, 400 MHz, and up.
• The FSB is now another important consideration when looking at
purchasing a computer Motherboard or a new computer.
• The FSB speed can be set either using the system BIOS or with
jumpers located on the computer motherboard. While most
motherboards allow you to set the FSB to any setting, ensure that the
FSB is properly set unless you plan to overclock the computer.
• Keep in mind that improper settings may cause issues such as
hardware lockups, data corruption, or other errors may arise with older
hardware.
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Chipset
• A chipset is the component which routes data between the
computer's buses, so that all the components which make up the
computer can communicate with each other.
• The chipset originally was made up of a large number of electronic
chips, hence the name. It generally has two components:
• The Northbridge (also called the memory controller) is in charge of
controlling transfers between the processor and the RAM, which is why
it is located physically near the processor. It is sometimes called the
GMCH, for Graphic and Memory Controller Hub.
• The Southbridge (also called the input/output controller or expansion
controller) handles communications between peripheral devices. It is
also called the ICH (I/O Controller Hub). The term bridge is generally
used to designate a component which connects two buses.
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Types of Expansion Buses
• Over the years many different buses have been developed.
• Types of Expansion Buses:
– ISA
– PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
– PCI Express (PCIe)
– AGP (Acceleration Graphics Card)
– USB (Universal Serial Bus) USB (Universal Serial Bus)
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Types of Expansion Buses
PCI Bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect Bus)
The PCI is the high speed bus of the 1990s.
It emerged as the answer to the performance bottleneck.
It is a high performance bus that is used for peripherals requiring CPU-like
performance
It is commonly used bus on computers today for connecting adapters, such
as network-controllers, graphics cards, sound cards etc.
The PCI bus connects PCI slots to the Southbridge. On most systems, the
speed of the PCI bus is 33 MHz.
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Types of Expansion Buses
PCI Express (PCIe)
Originally known as 3rd Generation I/O (3GIO) was approved as a
standard on July 2002.
It is a serial bus designed to replace PCI and AGP and is available in
different formats: x1, x2, x4, x8, x12, x16, and x32.
The data transmitted over PCI-Express is sent over wires called lanes in
full duplex mode (both directions at the same time).
Each lane is capable of around 250MBps and the specification can be
scaled from 1 to 32 lanes. This means 16 lanes could support a bandwidth
of up to 4,000MBps in both directions. => 16x250MBps => 4000MBps =>
4GBps.
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Types of Expansion Buses
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
USB is a standard that was introduced in 1995 by Intel, Compaq, Microsoft
and other computer companies.
USB 1.x is an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of 12
Mbps
USB transfer speeds
USB 2.0, also known as hi-speed USB, was developed by Compaq,
Hewlett Packard, Intel, Lucent, Microsoft, and NiCad Philips and was
introduced in 2001. Hi-speed USB is capable of supporting a transfer rate
of up to 480 Mbps and is backwards compatible
As of 2012, USB 3.0 also known as Super Speed USB is the latest version
of the USB protocol. Most new computers feature USB 3.0 ports built-in,
offering data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps.
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ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment)
ATA is a standard interface for connecting storage devices such as hard drives and CD-
ROM drives to a computer motherboard.
It was originally developed in the late 1980s by Western Digital and Compaq.
ATA is also known as Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) or Parallel ATA (PATA). ATA uses
a 40-pin connector to connect the storage device to the motherboard. The interface
supports data transfer rates of up to 133 megabytes per second.
ATA was widely used in the 1990s and early 2000s, but has since been replaced by
newer interfaces such as Serial ATA (SATA) and NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express).
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Types of ATA
There are several types of ATA interfaces,
including:
1. Parallel ATA (PATA): This is the original ATA interface, which uses a parallel
connection to transfer data between the storage device and the computer.
2. Serial ATA (SATA): This is a newer ATA interface that uses a serial connection
to transfer data between the storage device and the computer. SATA is faster
and more efficient than PATA.
3. ATA/ATAPI-4: This is an updated version of ATA that includes support for
faster transfer rates and additional features such as DMA (Direct Memory
Access).
4. ATA/ATAPI-5: This is another updated version of ATA that includes support
for even faster transfer rates and additional features such as Native
Command Queuing (NCQ).
5. ATA/ATAPI-9: This is the latest version of ATA, which includes support for
even faster transfer rates and additional features such as SATA III (also
known as SATA 6G). 21
Standards of ATA
Some of the main standards of ATA include:
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Comparison Table Between SATA and PATA
Parameters of SATA PATA
Comparison
Full-Form SATA stands for Serial PATA stands for Parallel
Advanced Technology Advanced Technology
Attachment. Attachment.
Use SATA is currently in use. PATA is currently not in use.
Therefore, it is outdated.
Connection SATA is hot-pluggable. PATA is not hot-pluggable.
Speed The speed capacity is faster in The speed capacity is slow in
SATA. The average speed is PATA, with an average speed
3Gbps. of 133MBps.
Interface SATA provides an external PATA provides an internal
interface. interface.
Cable Size The size of the cable of SATA is The size of the cable of PATA
small. is larger as compared to
SATA.
Bit Rate The bit rate of SATA is 150 The bit rate of PATA is 16
MB/s – 600 MB/s. MB/s – 133 MB/s
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7.2 Cards
Expansion Cards (Adapter cards) are printed circuit boards which can be
inserted into expansion slots on a computer's motherboard to add functionality
to a computer system.
They increase the functionality by adding controllers for specific devices or by
replacing malfunctioning ports.
Common types:
– Sound
– Video (VGA)
– Network (NIC)
– Modem
– Bluetooth
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The video card
It is the component responsible for producing the visual output from your
computer.
Virtually all programs produce visual output;
The video card is the piece of hardware that takes that output and tells the
monitor which of the dots on the screen to light up (and in what color) to allow
you to see it.
Video cards today are much more like coprocessors; they have their own
intelligence and do a lot of processing that would otherwise have to be done by
the system processor.
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The video card ……
The video card in your system plays a significant role in the following important
aspects of your computer system:
Performance
Software Support
Reliability and Stability
Comfort and Ergonomics
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The sound card
An expansion board that enables a computer to manipulate and output sounds.
Sound cards enable the computer to output sound through speakers connected to the
board, to record sound input from a microphone connected to the computer, and
manipulate sound stored on a disk.
Sound cards use two basic methods to translate digital data into analog sounds:
1. FM Synthesis - mimics different musical instruments according to built-in formulas.
2. Wavetable Synthesis - relies on recordings of actual instruments to produce sound.
• Wavetable synthesis produces more accurate sound, but is also more expensive.
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Network card
Network Interface Cards (NICs) enable you to plug network cables in
to the PC.
Most network cables have either an RJ45 or BNC connector that
connects to the NIC in a corresponding port.
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