Scribd
Upload
213 views7 pages

Diagram of Bus Controller

The document discusses different types of computer buses including local buses, system buses, I/O buses, and expansion buses. It provides details on several common bus standards such as ISA, EISA, PCI, AGP, USB, and FireWire. The key points are: - A bus is a pathway that allows the transfer of data between different components inside a computer. It connects the CPU to memory and peripheral devices. - Common types of buses include local buses that directly connect to the CPU, system buses that connect the CPU to main memory, and I/O buses that connect the CPU to peripheral devices. - Older bus standards like ISA were slow with bandwidth under 10 MBps while

Uploaded by

Ghanshyam Kashyap
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
213 views7 pages

Diagram of Bus Controller

The document discusses different types of computer buses including local buses, system buses, I/O buses, and expansion buses. It provides details on several common bus standards such as ISA, EISA, PCI, AGP, USB, and FireWire. The key points are: - A bus is a pathway that allows the transfer of data between different components inside a computer. It connects the CPU to memory and peripheral devices. - Common types of buses include local buses that directly connect to the CPU, system buses that connect the CPU to main memory, and I/O buses that connect the CPU to peripheral devices. - Older bus standards like ISA were slow with bandwidth under 10 MBps while

Uploaded by

Ghanshyam Kashyap
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

1

bus
A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. You can
think of a bus as a highway on which data travels within a computer
The bus width refers to the amount of bits that can be transferred at any one time,
for example, a 32-bit bus can transfer 32 bits of data simultaneously.
The bus speed (frequency) is usually measured in MHz, for example, say a bus has a
speed of 100Mhz
An FSB (Front Side Bus) transfers data between the CPU, the memory bank and
other components.
A BSB (Backside Bus) transfers data between the CPU and the L2 Cache.
Classification of bus

Diagram of bus controller

Local bus
A data bus that connects directly, or almost directly, to the microprocessor. Although local buses can
support only a few devices, they provide very fast throughput. Modern PCs include both a PCI local bus
and a more general ISA expansion bus for devices that do not require such fast data throughput.
System bus
The bus that connects the CPU to main memory on the motherboard. I/O buses, which connect the CPU
with the systems other components, branch off of the system bus.
The system bus is also called the frontside bus, memory bus, local bus, or host bus

2
i/o. bus
I/O buses connect the CPU to all other components, except RAM. Data are moved on the
buses from one component to another, and data from other components to the CPU and RAM.
The I/O buses differ from the system bus in speed. Their speed will always be lower than the
system bus speed. Over the years, different I/O buses have been developed. On modern PCs,
you will usually find four buses:
The ISA bus, which is an old low speed bus, soon to be excluded from the PC design.
The PCI bus, which is a new high speed bus.
The USB bus (Universal Serial Bus), which is a new low speed bus.
The AGP bus which solely is used for the graphics card. bus

Diagram of i/o bus

Bus comparison chart


Bus

PC and XT

Year

Bus
width

Bus speed

Max.
throughput
(theoretical)

198082

8 bit

Synchronous with
CPU:
4.77 - 6 MHz

4-6 MBps

3
ISA (AT)
Simple bus.

1984

16 bit

Synchronous:
8-10 MHz

8 MBps

MCA. Advanced,
intelligent bus by IBM.

1987

32 bit

Asynchronous:
10.33 MHz

40 MBps

EISA.
Bus for servers.

1988

32 bit

Synchronous:
max. 8 MHz

32 MBps

VL. High speed bus,


used in 486s.

1993

32 bit

Synchronous:
33-50 MHz

100-160
MBps

PCI. Intelligent,
advanced high speed bus.

1993

32 bit

Asynchronous:
33 MHz

132 MBps

USB. Modern, simple, and


intelligent bus.

1996

Serial

1.2 MBps

FireWire (IEEE1394).
High-speed I/O bus for storage,
video etc.

1999

Serial

80 MBps

USB 2.0

2001

Serial

12-40 MBps

Introduction to the ISA bus


Since about 1984, standard bus for PC I/O functions has been named ISA (Industry Standard
Architecture). It is still used in all PCs to maintain backwards compatibility
ISA was an improvement over the original IBM XT bus, which was only 8 bit wide. IBM's
trademark is AT bus. Usually, it is just referred to as ISA bus.
ISA is 16 bit wide and runs at a maximum of 8 MHz. However, it requires 2-3 clock ticks to
move 16 bits of data. The ISA bus works synchronous with the CPU. If the system bus is faster
than 10 MHz, many expansion boards become flaky and the ISA clock frequency is reduced to
a fraction of the system bus clock frequency.
The ISA bus has an theoretical transmission capacity of about 8 MBps. However, the actual
speed does not exceed 1-2 MBps, and it soon became too slow.

Types of isa bus


8 bit isa
16 bit isa

Problems of isa bus


It is narrow and slow.
It has no intelligence.
Problems with IRQs
The ISA bus cannot transfer enough bits at a time. It has a very limited bandwidth. Let us
compare the bandwidths of ISA bus and the newer PCI bus:
Intel's chip set 810 was the first not to include ISA support.

MCA Micro Channel Architecture


The MCA bus is 32 bit wide and "intelligent." The cards configure themselves with respect to
IRQ. Thus, they can be installed without adjustments of jumper switches or other features. It
works constantly at 10.33 MHz, asynchronous with the system bus.
The MCA bus is also relatively fast with transfer rates of up to 40 MBps in 32 bit mode at
10.33 MHz. MCA requires special adapters. There have never been too many adapters
developed, since this bus is by and large used only in IBM's own PCs.
EISA(extended isa)
EISA is built on the ISA bus; the connector has the same dimensions and old ISA cards fit into
the slots. To keep this compatibility, the EISA bus works at maximum 8 MHz. Like ISA, the bus
bus is synchronous with the CPU at a clock frequency reduced to a fraction of the system bus
clock frequency.
EISA is compatible with ISA in the sense that ISA adapters can be installed in EISA slots. The
EISA adapters hold a second level of connectors in the button of the slot.
However, EISA is much more intelligent than ISA. It has bus mastering, divided interrupts and
self configuration. It is 32 bit wide, and with it's compressed transfers and BURST modegives a
highly improved performance.

5
But, like the MCA, it did not have great success. The EISA bus is still used in some servers.
Vesa Local Bus
This Bus called VLB for short. It is an inexpensive and simple technology. This bus only
achieved status as an interim phenomenon (in 1993-94). VLB was widely used on 486
motherboards, where the system bus runs at 33 MHz. VLB runs directly with the system bus.
Therefore, data transfer is at CPU speed, synchronous and in width. The problem with VLB was
compatibility. Adapters and system system boards would not always work together. Vesa is an
organization with about 120 members, mostly monitor and graphics card manufacturers.
Therefore, most VLB cards were video cards.

Introducing the PCI bus


The PCI is the high speed bus of the 1990s. PCI stands for Peripheral Component
Interconnect. This bus is made by Intel. It is used today in all PCs and other
computers for connecting adapters, such as network-controllers, graphics
cards, sound cards etc. The PCI is actually 32 bit wide, but in practice it
functions like a 64 bit bus. Running at 33 MHz, it has a maximum transmission
capacity of 132 MBps.
Diagram of pci bus

Note
There is a PCI Special Interest Group, consisting of the most significant
companies (Intel, IBM, Apple, and others), which coordinate and
standardize the development. the PCISIG called as pci express
IEEE1394 FireWire bus

FireWire is another interface connecting the PC to external units. It does not look
very much like the SCSI. The interface IEEE1394 has a bandwidth of 400 Mbit per second,
which is a lot better than USB and comparable to SCSI.

FireWire handles up to 63 units on the same bus. The units can be plugged and unplugged
hot - meaning you do not have to power down the PC.

6
The Firewire was expected to replace:
Parallel Centronics port (to some extent)
IDE
SCSI
EIDE

it is used for:

Connecting DV-cameras to video editing adapters


High-end scanners
Hot-plugged external harddisks from Maxtor with FireWire interface.

AGP bus
Short for Accelerated Graphics Port, an interface specification developed by Intel Corporation. AGP is
based on PCI, but is designed for the throughput demands of 3-D graphics. Rather than using the PCI bus
for graphics data, AGP introduces a dedicated point-to-point channel so that the graphics controller can
directly access main memory. The AGP channel is 32 bits wide and runs at 66 MHz. This translates into a
total bandwidth of 266 MBps, as opposed to the PCI bandwidth of 133 MBps. AGP also supports two
optional faster modes, with throughputs of 533 MBps and 1.07 GBps.
AGP system requirements:
The chipset must support AGP.
The motherboard must be equipped with an AGP bus slot or must have an integrated AGP
graphics system.
Expansion bus
A collection of wires and protocols that allows the expansion of a computer by inserting printed circuit
boards (expansion boards).

External bus A bus that connects a computer to peripheral devices. Two


examples are the Universal Serial Bus (USB) and IEEE 1394.
Hot bus Another name for the system bus.
USB Bus
Short for Universal Serial Bus, an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates
of 12 Mbps. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such
as mice, modems, and keyboards. USB also supports Plug-and-Play installation and hot
plugging.
USB 2.0
Also referred to as Hi-Speed USB, USB 2.0 is an external bus that supports data rates up to
480Mbps. USB 2.0 is an extension of USB 1.1. USB 2.0 is fully compatible with USB 1.1 and
uses the same cables and connectors.

Nu bus

7
The expansion bus for versions of the Macintosh computers starting with the Macintosh II and ending with
the Performa. Current Macs use the PCI bus.

You might also like