Type of Bus

Bus Clock Signal

Theoretical Maximum Transfer Rate

Advantages

Disadvantages

ISA

8 MHz

8 Mbytes/sec (64 Mbits/sec)

low cost, compatibility, widely used

low speed, Jumpers & DIP switches. becoming obsolete

Microchannel

10 MHz

40 Mbytes/sec (240 Mbits/sec)

higher speed than ISA

obsolete

PCI

133 MHz

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

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

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

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

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.