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Types of System Buses
Types of System Buses - Quick Reference
Table of Content
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA)
Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
VESA Local Bus (VESA)
Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
PCI-X
Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
PCI Express (PCI-E, PCIe)
Intelligent Input/Output (I2O)
InfiniBand Architecture (IBA)
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA)
Introduced in 1984 with the IBM PC AT
8- or 16-bit bus
98-pin connector
8 MB/sec bandwidth
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Extended Industry Standard Architecture (EISA)
Introducted in 1987 to compete against MCA bus
32-bit bus
Dual purpose bus
Replace by better performing PCI bus
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Micro Channel Architecture (MCA)
Developed by IBM in 1987
Not widely adopted by vendors as IBM charged royalties for the rights to use it
116-pin connector
Made extinct by the license-free EISA bus and later by the PCI bus
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VESA Local Bus (VESA)
Developed in 1992 as an extension of video memory
116-pin connector
Replaced by better performing AGP bus
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Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)
Standard bus on almost all computers of the era
Developed with open standards (no licensing fee to use)
Hot-swappable
Plug-and-play compatible
32-bit bus
Can support 5 devices at a time
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PCI-X
64-bit wide bus
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Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP)
Introduced by Intel in 1997
Used mostly with AGP-compatible video cards
Original AGP standard (AGP 1x) offered data transfer rate of 264MB/sec
32-bit wide bus
132-pin connector
AGP 2x, 4x, and 8x offered data transfer rate of 528MB/sec, 1GB/sec,and 2GB/sec respectively
Replaced by PCI Express in late 2000s
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PCI Express (PCI-E, PCIe)
Developed by Intel in 2004
Formerly known as 3GIO
1-bit wide bus (serial communication)
Bandwidths:
PCI-E 1x: 250 MB/sec
PCI-E 2x: 500 MB/sec
PCI-E 4x: 1000 MB/sec
PCI-E 8x: 2000 MB/sec
PCI-E 16x: 4000 MB/sec
PCI-E 32x: 8000 MB/sec
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Intelligent Input/Output (I2O)
Designed in 1996 by Intel and I20
Works along with a PCI bus
Uses special input and output drivers to "think for itself" thus freeing up computer resources
End of life in October 2000
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InfiniBand Architecture (IBA)
Conceived in 1999
High-speed / high-output bus to replace PCI
Low latency
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