Computer busses are like the “public transportation” for data, transferring it from one position to another.

Bus Width §

A bus operates at a strict schedule, picking up and dropping off data at regular intervals measured in hertz. e.g. 1 Hertz is one data transfer per second, 2 MHz or Megahertz is 2 million data transfers per second this is referred to as the bus width.

Address Bus §

The address bus refers to how many bits of information can be addressed in memory, e.g. a 32-bit Address Bus can address 4GB of memory, or a 36-bit Address Bus can address 64GB of memory.

Computer Bus Diagram

The illustration below shows the different types of computer buses and how they connect devices on the motherboard.

Types of computer buses §

There are twfo properties a bus must have,

• Internal vs. External bus

• Parallel bus vs. serial bus

Internal Bus vs. External Bus §

Internal Bus §

Manages connections vs internal components, such as video card and memory.

External Bus §

Communicates with external Peripherals, e.g. USB or [[https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/scsi.htm |SCSI]] device. https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/scsi.htm

Parallel bus vs. Serial Bus §

Parallel Bus §

Data is transmitted several bits at a time

Serial bus §

Data is transferred one bit at a time.

Bus Speed §

Device speed is measured in MHz, e.g. 100 MHz, Where-as throughput is measured in bits per second or megabytes per second.