| Type of Bus |
Bus Clock Signal
|
Bus Width
|
Theoretical Maximum Transfer Rate |
Advantages |
Disadvantages |
| ISA |
8 MHz |
16-bit
|
8 Mbytes/sec (64 Mbits/sec) |
low cost, compatibility, widely used
|
low speed, Jumpers & DIP switches. becoming obsolete |
| Microchannel |
10 MHz |
32-bit
|
40 Mbytes/sec (240 Mbits/sec) |
higher speed than ISA |
obsolete |
| PCI |
133 MHz |
64-bit
|
1 Gbytes/sec (8 Gbits/sec) |
very high speed, Plug & Play, dominant board-level bus |
incompatible with older systems,
can cost more |
| CompactPCI |
33 MHz |
64-bit
|
132 Mbytes/sec (1 Gbit/sec) |
designed for industrial use, hot swapping/Plug & Play, ideal for embedded systems |
lower speed than PCI, need adapter for PC use, incompatible with older systems |
| PCMCIA |
10 MHz |
16-bit
|
20 Mbytes/sec (160 Mbits/sec) |
Ideal for portable systems, hot swappable, Plug & Play |
lower speed , needs special drive for use in desktop PCs |
| USB
1.1 |
n/a |
n/a
|
1.5 Mbytes/sec (12 Mbits/sec) |
low cost, ideal for portable systems, hot swapping/plug & play, up to 127 devices via 1 port |
slower than PCI and other plug-in busses (such as Firewire), not compatible with older peripherals |
| USB 2.0 |
n/a |
n/a
|
60 Mbytes/sec (480 Mbits/sec) |
All the advantages of USB plus significantly higher speeds making it compatible with high-speed peripherals such as data drives and video cameras. |
Not compatible with older peripherals, still slower than PCI
|
| Ethernet 10 Base T |
n/a |
n/a |
1.25 Mbyte/sec (10 Mbits/sec) |
Enables multiple PCs to remotely share information and peripheral devices, provides error checking lacking in standard serial communication |
Most peripheral devices cannot be connected directly to ethernet, adapter is
required. Slow data communication by current standards Possible security
issues. |
| Ethernet 100 Base T (Fast Ethernet) |
n/a |
n/a |
12.5 MBytes/sec (100 Mbits/sec) |
All advantages of 10BaseT, with significant speed improvement. Backward compatible with 10Base T installations. |
Most peripheral devices cannot be connected directly to ethernet, adapter is
required. Possible security issues. |
