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This Netpanel special feature will
define and explain a wide variety of interfaces and buses used in personal computers. To
start off, an interface, in this context, is a data path between two separate devices in
your computer. A bus is similar; in fact, you can think of a bus as a data highway
connecting different components of your system. Now we will move on to specific types of
buses and interfaces.
Serial port
A type of interface in which only 1 bit of data is transferred at a time. Mice and modems
are usually connected to serial ports, which are also referred to as COM ports.
Parallel port
A type of interface that allows more than 1 bit of data to be processed at once. Printers
are the most common peripheral devices connected to parallel ports.
PS/2
Another type of port (or interface) that can be used to connect mice and keyboards to the
computer. The PS/2 port is sometimes called the mouse port.
USB (Universal Serial Bus)
A new type of external bus contending to replace serial and parallel ports. Many devices
can be connected to USB ports, which support Plug-and-Play and hot-swapping. USB transfers
data at speeds of 12 Mbps (megabits per second).
FireWire (IEEE 1394)
Another new type of external bus, which supports very fast transfer rates: 400 Mbps.
Because of this, FireWire is suitable for connecting video devices, such as VCRs, to the
computer.
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
A type of parallel interface that is commonly used for mass storage devices. SCSI can
transfer data at rates of 4 MB/sec.; in addition, there are several varieties of SCSI that
support higher speeds: Fast SCSI (10 MB/sec.), Ultra SCSI and Fast Wide SCSI (20 MB/sec.),
as well as Ultra Wide SCSI (40 MB/sec.).
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)
This is a commonly used interface for hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives. It is less
expensive than SCSI, but offers slightly less in terms of performance.
EIDE (Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics)
An improved version of IDE, which offers better performance than standard SCSI. It offers
transfer rates between 4 and 16.6 MB/sec.
ISA (Industry Standard Architecture)
The original form of ISA was a simple and slow 8-bit bus used on IBM PCs. Eventually, the
ISA connector was stretched to allow 16-bits of data to pass through each clock cycle,
bringing its speed to between 8 and 10 MHz. ISA slots are used to connect expansion boards
to the motherboard.
EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture)
This is an enhanced form of ISA, which allows for 32-bit data transfers, while maintaining
support for 8- and 16-bit expansion boards. However, its bus speed, like ISA, is only 8
MHz. EISA is not widely used, due to its high cost and complicated nature.
MCA (Micro Channel Architecture)
This is a proprietary bus used in early IBM machines as a replacement for ISA. It is
slightly superior to EISA, but not many expansion boards were ever made to fit MCA
specifications.
VLB (VESA Local Bus)
This type of bus was developed as an alternative to ISA, in order to support the better
performance graphics cards of the 486 era. VLB is a 32-bit bus, which runs at speeds
between 25 and 50 MHz.
PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
This type of internal bus is the most commonly used in today's systems. It is a 32-bit bus
that supports rates of 33 MHz; newer specs allow for 64-bit transfers at 66 MHz. Many
modern expansion boards are connected to PCI slots.
AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
This new interface, designed by Intel, is based on the 66 MHz PCI specification. AGP is
geared towards data-intensive graphics cards, such as 3D accelerators; its design allows
for data throughput at rates of 266 MB/sec.
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