Buses and Bus Architecture

Introduction
• The difficulty in transferring information among the units of
a computer largely depends on the physical distance
separating them.

• Two types of communication based on distance:-

• Intra-system – communication within a system.
• Inter-system - communication between two or more systems.

• Intra-system communication is primarily implemented by

groups of wires called buses, which support parallel that is
word-by-word, data transmission.
 Buses
• The various processor-level components, CPU, caches, main
memory and I/O devices within a computer system
communicate via buses.

• The term “bus” in this context covers not only the physical
links among the components, but also the mechanisms for
controlling the exchange of signals over the bus.

• A single bus, the system bus, handles all the intra-system

communication. All units share the system bus, therefore at
any time only two units can communicate with each other.
 Bus Transactions
• A typical system bus transaction is a memory load (read)
operation that involves the transfer of one or more data
words over the system bus from the memory to the CPU.

• Memory store (write) operation that involves the transfer

of one or more data words over the system bus from the CPU
to the memory.

• I/O operations – data transfer between an I/O and memory.

 Bus Master and Bus Slaves
• In all operations Memory is a passive or slave device with
respect to system bus transactions, where as the CPU can
actively control the system bus; i.e., serve as bus master.

• I/O are normally slaves but can be made into master via
control units such as specialized I/O controllers or general
purpose I/O processors.
 Fundamental Types of Buses
The system bus, or any other bus, consists of 3 main groups
of lines:
• The address lines, typically 8 to 32 in number, transmit the
address of data items stored in the system’s main memory or
I/O address space.
• The data lines, typically 16 to 128 in number, transmit data
words over the bus.
• The control lines, which perform such functions as
identifying the transaction type (memory read, memory
write, I/O operation, etc.) and synchronizing communication
between fast and slow units.
Fundamental Types of Buses
 Need for I/O Bus
• The principle use of the system bus is high-speed data
transfer between the CPU and Main Memory (M).
• Most I/O devices are slower than the CPU or M and present
an external interface that is different from that of the system
bus. For example, magnetic disk units and other secondary
memories transfer data serially.
• Therefore, they need to be connected to the system bus via
interface circuits called I/O controllers that perform serial-to-
parallel and parallel-to-serial format conversions and other
control functions.
• A single I/O controller can interface many I/O devices to the
system bus.
Need for I/O Bus
 Interconnected Structures

A system’s interconnection structure can be defined by a

graph whose nodes denotes components such as
computers, memories, communication controllers, etc., and
whose edges denote communication paths such as buses.
 Dedicated Interconnection
• A path designed to link only two devices is said to be
dedicated.

• Dedicated pair of buses between all pair of components

that need to communicate.

• n units = (n*(n-1))/2 buses

Dedicated Interconnection
 Advantages
• Allows very fast information transfer.

• All n devices can send or receive data simultaneously, and

there is no delay due to busy connections.

• Failure of one link affects only the two units connected to

the link, hence reliable. Can still communicate if data is sent
through other units.
 Disadvantages
• High cost as number of buses needed is huge.

• Adding a unit is difficult as new unit must be connected to

every other unit.
 Shared Interconnection
• A single shared bus can provide all communications among
n units.
• Such a path which is used to transfer information between
different sets of devices at different times is said to be (time)
shared or multiplexed.
• At any time only two units can communicate with each
other via the bus; the remaining units are effectively
disconnected from one another.
• A control method is required to supervise sharing of the bus
among the n devices.
• It is the most widely used connection method in computer
system.
 Advantages
• Low cost.

• Flexible as new units can easily be introduced without

altering the system’s overall structure or the connections to
the old units.
 Disadvantages
• Relatively slow, since units are forced to wait when the bus
is busy.

• Sensitive to failure of shared control circuits.

 Intersystem Communication
Linear Ring

Star
 Practice Questions
Q1. What do you mean by Bus and explain bus
interconnection? (AKTU 2014 - 2015)

Q2. What is the benefit of using a multiple-bus architecture

compared to single-bus architecture? (AKTU 2015 - 2016)