| A | B |
|---|
| Bus | A parallel collection of conductors that carry data or control signals from one unit to another |
| Data Bus | A bidirectional pathway linking the CPU to memory and I/O devices |
| Address Bus | A pathway that carries data generated by the CPU to various memory and I/O elements of the computer |
| PC Bus | The bus architectures used in the first IBM PCs, orginally an 8-bit bus expanded to 16-bit bus |
| ISA | Industry standard architecture. The 8- and 16-bit original connectors used in PCs. They run at a bus speed of 8 MHz. You can plug an ISA expansion card into an ISA slot. |
| EISA | Extended Industry Standard Architecture. 16-bit ISA was extended to 32 bits and they called it EISA |
| PCI | Peripheral system interconnect. A high-performance 32/64-bit bus |
| Plug and Play (PnP) | This is a standard that was supposed to make adding peripherals to your system as easy as plugging them in and using them |
| Bandwith | A measure, in some amount of bits per second, of the amount of data thatcan be sent over a particular cable, interface, or bus |
| Bus Master | Any class of microprocessor unit with the ability to take control of the system buses of a computer |
| Bus Speed | A measurement, usually in MHz, of how many times data can be transferred over the bus per second. |
| Expansion Slot | Refers to any type of slot in a computer that you can plug and expansion card into. Generally, its limited to ISA, EISA, PCI, and PCMCIA |
| Legacy | Describes older computer systems, hardware, software |
| FireWire | High speed serial bus allows for connection of up to 63 devices primaruly used for digital video |
| Jumper | A jumper fits on 2 metal connectors. It provides an electrical connection between the 2 wires to enable a semi-permanent hardware configuration |
| AGP | Stands for Accelerated Graphics port. Architecture that is based on the PCI architecture and is designed specifacally to speed up 3D graphics |
| Adapter | A device that allows one system to connect to and work with another. |
| Interrupt | A signal that gets the attention of the CPU and is usually generated when I/O is required |
| DMA | Direct memory access. The ability of certain intelligent high speed I/O devices to perform data transfers themselves, with the help of the DMA controller |
| I/O Address | On PCs a 3 digit hexadecimal number (2AB, 2A0 and so on) used to identify and signal peripheral device like a serial port, parallel port, or sound card |
