Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks

CHAPTER 22

Buses

Buses are the simplest and most widely used of interconnection networks. A bus

connects a number of modules with a single, shared channel that serves as a broad-

cast medium. A bus is usually implemented as a set of signal lines (or a single line)

that is connected to all of the modules. One module transmits messages over the

bus that are received by all of the other modules. In many situations, the message

is addressed to one specific module and is ignored by the others. Often, the recipi-

ent of a message will respond by sending a reply message back to the sender of the

original message. To read from memory, for example, a processor ...