What Is a PC Bus? A Basic Definition
Credit: BW Folsom/ShutterstockA PC bus, also referred as "the bus," is the path on the motherboard a PC uses to transfer data to and from the CPU and other PC components or other PCs. This includes communication between software. For example, a PCIe (peripheral component interconnect express) expansion card, such as a graphics card (aka GPU aka video card), will send data to and from PCIe bus.
There are numerous types of buses to accommodate different technologies. Below is a list of common computer buses:
- eSATA (External SerialATA) - for transferring data between external hard drives and disk drives
- PCIe - for accessing PCIe expansion cards and certain M.2 SSDs
- SATA (Serial ATA) - for accessing internal storage drives. Slower than PCIe
- Thunderbolt - for accessing peripherals
- USB - for accessing peripherals
This article is part of the Tom's Hardware Glossary.
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