Computer Architecture

Lecture 2
 Bus
• 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. 
• FUNCTIONS OF BUSES IN COMPUTER
• 1. Data sharing - All types of buses found in a computer transfer data between the
computer peripherals connected to it.
• 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.
 Types of Bus
• Computers have two major types of buses:

1. System bus:- This is the bus that connects the CPU to main memory on the
motherboard. The system bus is also called the front-side bus, memory bus,
local bus, or host bus.

2. 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
I/O Buses. Other names for the I/O bus include “expansion bus", "external
bus” or “host bus”.
 Bus Organization
• In computer architecture, a bus is a communication system that transfers data
between components inside a computer, or between computers.

• Buses can be Parallel buses, which carry data words in parallel on multiple

wires, or Serial buses, which carry data in bit-serial form.

• The Internal bus connects all the internal components of a computer, such as
CPU and memory, to the motherboard. Internal data buses are also referred to
as a local bus, because they are intended to connect to local devices. Example
is Front Side Bus.

• The External bus or expansion bus, is made up of the electronic pathways that
connect the different external devices, such as printer etc., to the computer.
Examples include Universal Serial Bus, Firewire and Thunderbolt.
 Composition of the Bus
• Buses consist of
– data lines, control lines, and address lines.
• Data lines
– convey bits from one device to another,
• Control lines
– determine the direction of data flow, and when each device can
access the bus.
• Address lines
– determine the location of the source or destination of the data.
 Bus Speed
– The more data a bus can handle at one time, the faster it
allows information to travel.

• The speed of the bus, measured in megahertz (MHz), refers

to how much data can move across the bus simultaneously.

– Bus speed usually refers to the speed of the front side

bus (FSB).
– FSB speeds can range from 66 MHz to over 1000 MHz.
The Bus
 Point to Point Bus
• Two types of buses are commonly found in computer systems:
point-to-point, and multipoint buses.

• The CPU shares data with other system components through a

data bus.
– A bus is a set of wires that simultaneously convey a single bit along
each line.

This is a point-to-point
bus configuration:
 Multipoint Bus
• A multipoint bus is shown below.
• Because a multipoint bus is a shared resource, access to it is
controlled through protocols, which are built into the hardware.
 Categories of Bus Arbitration/Consideration

• In a master-slave configuration, bus master requests must be

arbitrated/considered.
• Four categories of bus arbitration are:

– Daisy chain: Permissions are – Distributed using self-detection:

passed from the highest- Devices decide which gets the bus
priority device to the lowest. among themselves.
– Centralized parallel: Each – Distributed using collision-detection:
device is directly connected to Any device can try to use the bus. If
an arbitration circuit. its data collides with the data of
another device, it tries again.
 Synchronous VS Asynchronous Buses
• Synchronous buses are clocked
– Things happens at the tick of the clock or the sequence of action are
controlled by the clock
– Every device is synchronized with the clock

• For Asynchronous bus, the control line coordinate the operation with
handshake protocol
– ReqREAD (Requirement READ)
– ReadyDATA (Ready DATA)
– Ack (Acknowledge)
 Handshake
• Handshake is an automated process of negotiation between
two communicating participants (example "Alice and Bob")
through the exchange of information that establishes the
protocols of a communication link at the start of the
communication, before full communication begins.
• The handshaking process usually takes place in order to
establish rules for communication when
a computer attempts to communicate with another device.
• Signals are usually exchanged between two devices to
establish a communication link.
 I/O Bus Types / Expansion Bus Types
• These are some of the common expansion bus types that have ever been
used in computers:
• ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
• EISA - Extended Industry Standard Architecture
• MCA - Micro Channel Architecture
• VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
• HDMI - High-Definition Multimedia Interface
• PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
• SATA – Serial AT Attachment
• PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card Industry Association (Also
called PC bus)
• AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
• SCSI - Small Computer Systems Interface.
• Thunderbolt
 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
4.77MHz.
• 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 AT bus was backward compatible with its 8-bit predecessor.

• 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.
 MCA Bus
• IBM developed this bus as a replacement for ISA 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.
 EISA Bus
• This is a bus technology developed by a group of manufacturers 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.

• EISA cards were relatively expensive and were normally found on high-end
workstations and network servers.
 VESA 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.

• This Bus provided 32-bit data path and ran at 25 or 33 MHZ. It was
designed to run at the same clock frequency as the host CPU. But this
became a problem as processor speeds increased.

• It was difficult to implement the VESA Bus on newer chips such as the
486s and the new Pentiums so eventually the it was superseded by PCI.
 HDMI
• HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) is a proprietary audio/video interface for
transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from
an HDMI-compliant source device.
• Version 1.0
•  HDMI 1.0 allows a maximum of 4.95 Gbit/s.
• Version 1.1
• HDMI 1.1 was released on May 20, 2004 and added support for DVD-Audio.
• Version 1.2
• HDMI 1.2 supports upto 720p video resolution and Super Audio CDs with up to 8 channels.
• Version 1.3
• HDMI 1.3 gives a maximum video bandwidth of 8.16 Gbit/s (1920 × 1080 at 120 Hz or 2560 × 1440
at 60 Hz). It added support for 10 bit, 12 bit, and 16 bit color depth, called deep color. It also
optionally allows output of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio streams for external decoding
by AV receivers.
• Version 1.4
• HDMI 1.4 was released on May 28, 2009, and the first HDMI 1.4 products were available in the
second half of 2009.
• HDMI 1.4 added support for 4096×2160 at 24 Hz, 3840×2160 at 24, 25, and 30 Hz, and 1920×1080
at 120 Hz.
 HDMI
• Version 2.0
• HDMI 2.0, referred to by some manufacturers as HDMI UHD, was released on September 4,
2013. HDMI 2.0 increases the maximum bandwidth to 18.0 Gbit/s. This enables HDMI 2.0 to
carry 4K video at 60 Hz with 24 bit/px color depth.
•  It supports up to 32 audio channels, up to 1536 kHz audio sample frequency, dual video
streams to multiple users on the same screen, up to four audio streams.

• Version 2.1
• HDMI 2.1 was officially announced by the HDMI Forum on January 4, 2017.
• It adds support for higher resolutions and higher refresh rates, including 4K 120 Hz
and 8K 120 Hz. HDMI 2.1 also introduces a new HDMI cable category called Ultra High Speed.
• Ultra High Speed HDMI cables are backwards compatible with older HDMI devices, and older
cables are compatible with new HDMI 2.1 devices, though the full 48 Gbit/s bandwidth is not
possible without the new cables.
 PCI Bus
• 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 connects the CPU, memory and peripherals to 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.
 SATA
• Serial ATA is a computer bus interface that connects Mass Storage Devices to the computer such as  hard
disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives.
• SATA was announced in 2000 and supports advanced features such as hot plugging capability. Like almost
all other bus interfaces, it has evolved over time.
• SATA revision 1.0
• First-generation SATA interfaces, now known as SATA 1.5 Gbit/s, communicate at a rate of 1.5 Gbit/s.
• SATA revision 2.0
• Second-generation SATA interfaces run with a native transfer rate of 3.0 Gbit/s and are backward
compatible with the SATA revision 1.0.
• SATA revision 3.0
• Third-generation SATA interfaces run with a native transfer rate of 6.0 Gbit/s. It is backward compatible
with SATA 3 Gbit/s and SATA 1.5 Gbit/s.

• In general, the enhancements are aimed at improving quality of service for video streaming and high-
priority interrupts. In addition, the standard continues to support distances up to one meter.
 Accelerated Graphics Port
• The need for high quality and very fast performance of video on
computers led to development of the Accelerated Graphics
Port (AGP).
• The AGP Port operates at the speed of the system 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 a large amount of video memory.
• Data transfer rate ranges from 264 Mbps to 528Mbps, 800
Mbps up to 1.5 Gbps.
• AGP connector is identified by its brown color.
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.

• A PCMCIA card is a credit card-size device that connects to a personal

computer, usually a notebook or laptop computer. Probably the most
common example of a PCMCIA card is the 28.8 Kbps modem for notebook
computers.

• Speed: 133 MB/s
• Width in bits: 16 or 32
• No. of devices: 1 per slot
• Year created: 1990
• Style: Parallel
 Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)

• Short for Small Computer System Interface, a parallel interface standard

used by Apple Macintosh computers, PC's and Unix systems for attaching
peripheral devices to a computer.
 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).

• 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 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 (Firewire)
• 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
• Provides power to peripheral devices.
 Thunderbolt
• Thunderbolt is the brand name of a hardware interface standard
developed by Intel (in collaboration with Apple) that allows the
connection of external peripherals to a computer.
• Thunderbolt was commercially introduced on Apple's 2011 MacBook Pro.
• Designed for simultaneous 4K video streaming with Gaming and other
high end applications in use.
• Thunderbolt v1 (Introduced in 2011): 10 Gbit/s
• Thunderbolt v2 (Introduced in 2013): 20 Gbit/s
• Thunderbolt v3 (Introduced in 2016): 40 Gbit/s
• Intel says Thunderbolt 2 is able to transfer a 4K video while simultaneously
displaying it on a discrete monitor.