Bus Classifications

This chapter presents the different topologies of bus-based architectures and covers buses currently used in the computer industry. Initially, all the entities shared the same bus, called a “shared bus”, or “linear bus”, when there was only one bus connecting all of the subunits inside a computer. All sorts of information and signals would pass through this bus, at variable bitrates. The chapter discusses the multibus architecture, including segmented buses, hierarchical buses, and multiple buses. A bridge links two buses together. It can be as simple as a driver, which isolates and amplifies the signals. The chapter also introduces buses that are presented in the industry depending on their location in a digital system, including local buses, memory buses, link bus, expansion slot bus, expansion bus, input/output bus, and backplane and centerplane buses, field bus, and power bus.