(1) A collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one
part of a computer to another. You can think of a bus as a highway
on which data travels within a computer. When used in reference to
personal computers, the term bus usually refers to internal bus.
This is a bus that connects all the internal computer components
to the CPU and main memory. There's also an expansion bus that
enables expansion boards to access the CPU and memory.
All buses consist of two parts -- an address bus and a data bus.
The data bus transfers actual data whereas the address bus transfers
information about where the data should go.
The size of a bus, known as its width, is important because it
determines how much data can be transmitted at one time.
For example, a 16-bit bus can transmit 16 bits of data,
whereas a 32-bit bus can transmit 32 bits of data.
Every bus has a clock speed measured in MHz. A fast bus
allows data to be transferred faster, which makes applications
run faster. On PCs, the old ISA bus is being replaced by faster
buses such as PCI.
Nearly all PCs made today include a local bus for data that requires
especially fast transfer speeds, such as video data. The local bus is
a high-speed pathway that connects directly to the processor.
Several different types of buses are used on Apple Macintosh computers.
Older Macs use a bus called NuBus, but newer ones use PCI.
(2) In networking, a bus is a central cable that connects all
devices on a local-area network (LAN). It is also called the backbone.
RAS in IT Glossary
is a management protocol between endpoints (terminals and gateways)
and gatekeepers. The RAS is used to perform registration, admission
control, bandwidth changes, status, and disengage procedures between
endpoints and gatekeepers.
Streaming in IT Glossary
A technique for transferring data such that it can be processed
as a steady and continuous stream. Streaming technologies are becoming
increasingly important with the growth of the because most users do
not have fast enough access to download large files quickly.
robotics in IT Glossary
The field of computer science and engineering concerned with creating
robots, devices that can move and react to sensory input. Robotics is
one branch of artificial intelligence.
Robots are now widely used in factories to perform high-precision
jobs such as welding and riveting. They are also used in special
situations that would be dangerous for humans -- for example,
in cleaning toxic wastes or defusing bombs.
Although great advances have been made in the field of robotics
during the last decade, robots are still not very useful in
everyday life, as they are too clumsy to perform ordinary
household chores.
Robot was coined by Czech playwright Karl Capek in his
play R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots), which opened in
Prague in 1921. Robota is the Czech word for forced labor.
The term robotics was introduced by writer Isaac Asimov.
In his science fiction book I, Robot, published in 1950,
he presented three laws of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or,
through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings
except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such
protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
