Computer bus

A computer bus (often simply called bus) is part of most computers. Its role is to transfer data, signals, or power between some of the components that make up a computer.

The size or width of a bus is how many bits it carries in parallel. Common bus sizes are: 4 bits, 8 bits, 12 bits, 16 bits, 24 bits, 32 bits, 64 bits, 80 bits, 96 bits, and 128 bits. Such buses are in wide use, to

• link between the CPU and on-board Memory.
• link between multiple CPUs in a multi-cpu system
• link the Arithmetic logic unit to the rest of the CPU
• connect hard drives, graphics cards, etc. to the main system.

Serial ATA, ATAPI, USB and Firewire connections are types of bus.