What is Bus ?

Bus is a set of signals grouped together to

perform specific function
Various subsystems must have interfaces
to one another eg.
Memory and CPU need to communicate
CPU & I/O need to communicate with each
other
Bus serves as shared communication link
between the sub systems
Computer Block Diagram

Memory

Input CentralControl Output

Unit
Device device

ALU
CPU
 Memory

Data Bus

Control bus
Processor

Address Bus

I/O I/O
 Advantages of BUS
Low cost & versatility
By defining single interconnection
scheme, new devices can be easily added
Peripherals can be moved between
computer system that use common bus
Cost is low as single set of wires is shared
among multiple devices
Bus standardization has led to
Standard I/O communication
Modular system design
 Disadvantage of Bus

Bus creates a communication bottleneck

Bus puts a maximum Limit on the I/O
throughput
 Bus design Challenges
In general I/O devices are much slower as compared to CPU
A computing system may have several different type of I/O
devices having
Different Data transfer speed
Different data Bus width
Maximum Bus speed is limited by physical factors
Length of bus
Number of devices connected to bus (Bus Loading)
Physical limits prevents arbitrary bus speedup
High I/O rate and high data transfer rate put conflicting
design requirement
 Buses were traditionally classified as CPU- Memory Bus
and I/O Bus
CPU -Memory Bus
It is short
It is High Speed
Matched to Memory system to maximize memory-CPU
bandwidth
Designing a CPU-memory bus is easier as all memory
devices in the system have to have similar characteristics
as opposed to I/O devices
I/O Bus
May be long
May have many types of devices
Bus designer has to take care of varying latency and
bandwidth requirement of I/O devices
 Some systems use a single bus for both
memory and I/O and some have hybrid bus
eg. PCI
PCI bus uses Bridge to connect to traditional
I/O Bus
Bridge understands both PCI and I/O bus
protocol
 CPU Memory Bus

Cache
Bus Adapter Bus Adapter
Main Memory
CPU

AGP Bus PCI Bus

Bus Adapter
I/O Controller I/O Controller

I/O Bus Network

Graphical
Output I/O Controller I/O Controller

Disk Disk CD
Options for Bus
Bus width
Separate address and data lines
Multiplexed address and data lines
Data width
Wide (64 Bit)
Narrow (8 bit)
Transfer size: Multiple word Vs single word
Bus master
Multiple ( Require bus arbitration)
Single master (No arbitration)
Clocking : Synchronous Vs Asynchronous
Parallel bus Vs serial bus