Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCI
PCI bus
<hardware> (PCI) 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).
PCI is used in systems based on {Pentium}, {Pentium Pro}, {AMD
5x86}, {AMD K5} and {AMD K6} processors, in some {DEC Alpha}
and {PowerPC} systems, and probably {Cyrix 586} and {Cyrix
686} systems. However, it is processor independent and so can
work with other processor architectures as well.
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.
(1997-12-07)