- Look at the different components of a computer system:
Notice that the different components are located apart from each other.
To perform the computing task, the different components in the computer need to communicate with each other (using electrical signals)
- Most commonly used connection between
the components in a computer:
Explanation:
- CPU,
memory
and Input/Output (I/O) devices
are constructed as
electrical devices
- Electical wires
(on the "mother board")
connects
the components in the computer
- The components of the computer exhange control data (= commands) and information data through electrical signals transmitted on these electrical wires
- The electrical wires
connecting the computer components
can be divided into 3 groups
according to their
function:
- Wires used to transmit the ID information of a device (= address)
- Wires used to transmit information between devices (= data)
- Wires used to transmit commands to devices (= control)
- CPU,
memory
and Input/Output (I/O) devices
are constructed as
electrical devices
- Computer "bus":
- Bus inside a computer = a group of electrical wires that are used to transmit similar information
Computer buses inside a computer (terminology of computer science):
- Address bus =
the set of wires in a computer that
are used to transmit
address
(= identifier) information from
one component to another
- Data bus =
the set of wires in a computer that
are used to transmit
data information from
one component to another
- Control bus =
the set of wires in a computer that
are used to transmit
command information from
one component to another
- System bus =
all wires in a computer that
are used to transmit
(any type of) information
between components in the computer
(The system bus consists of the address bus, data bus and the control bus)