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| AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) |
A bus specification by Intel which gives low-cost 3D graphics cards faster access to main memory on personal computers than the usual PCI bus.
AGP dynamically allocates the PC's normal RAM to store the
screen image and to support texture mapping, z-buffering and alpha blending.
AGP operates at 66 MHz, doubled to 133 MHz, compared with
PCI's 33 Mhz. AGP allows for efficient use of frame buffer
memory, thereby helping 2D graphics performance as well.
AGP provides a coherent memory management design which allows scattered data in system memory to be read in rapid bursts. AGP reduces the overall cost of creating high-end graphics subsystems by using existing system memory. |
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| ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) |
A disk drive implementation that integrates the controller on the disk drive itself. There are several versions of ATA, all developed by the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee:
ATA: Known also as IDE, supports one or two hard drives, a 16-bit interface and PIO modes 0, 1 and 2.
ATA-2: Supports faster PIO modes (3 and 4) and multiword DMA modes (1 and 2). Also supports logical block addressing (LBA) and block transfers. ATA-2 is marketed as Fast ATA and Enhanced IDE (EIDE).
ATA-3: Minor revision to ATA-2.
Ultra-ATA: Also called Ultra-DMA, ATA-33, and DMA-33, supports multiword DMA mode 3 running at 33 MBps.
ATA/66: A version of ATA proposed by Quantum Corporation, and supported by Intel, that doubles ATA's throughput to 66 MBps.
ATA/100: An updated version of ATA/66 that increases data transfer rates to 100 MBps.
ATA/133: An updated version of ATA/100 that increases data transfer rates to 133 MBps (the theoretical limitation of the PCI bus).
ATA also is called Parallel ATA. Contrast with Serial ATA. |
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| ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) |
| An extension to EIDE (also called ATA-2) that enables the interface to support CD-ROM players and tape drives. |
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| PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) |
A standard for connecting peripherals to a personal computer, designed by Intel and released around Autumn 1993. PCI is supported by most major manufacturers including Apple Computer. It is technically far superior to VESA's local bus. It runs at 20 - 33 MHz and carries 32 bits at a time over a 124-pin connector or 64 bits over a 188-pin connector. An address is sent in one cycle followed
by one word of data (or several in burst mode).
Technically, PCI is not a bus but a bridge or mezzanine. It includes buffers to decouple the CPU from relatively slow peripherals and allow them to operate asynchronously. |
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| PCI Express |
| PCI has been a local interconnect technology of choice in communications and embedded applications over the last decade. Today's applications demand higher bandwidths that push the limits of parallel bus architecture. PCI Express is a high-bandwidth, low pin count, serial, interconnect technology that also maintains software compatibility with existing PCI infrastructure, and is uniquely positioned as the logical interconnect technology for products being developed today. |
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| PCI-X (PCI eXtended) |
An enhanced PCI bus. PCI-X is backward-compatible with existing PCI cards. It improves upon the speed of PCI from 133 MBps to as much as 1 GBps.
PCI-X was designed jointly by IBM, HP and Compaq to increase performance of high bandwidth devices, such as Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel, and processors that are part of a cluster. |
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| Serial ATA |
Often abbreviated SATA or S-ATA, an evolution of the Parallel ATA physical storage interface. Serial ATA is a serial link -- a single cable with a minimum of four wires creates a point-to-point connection between devices. Transfer rates for Serial ATA begin at 150MBps. One of the main design advantages of Serial ATA is that the thinner serial cables facilitate more efficient airflow inside a form factor and also allow for smaller chassis designs. In contrast, IDE cables used in parallel ATA systems are bulkier than Serial ATA cables and can only extend to 40cm long, while Serial ATA cables can extend up to one meter.
Serial ATA supports all ATA and ATAPI devices, although an adapter is generally required. |
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