PCI Local Bus Specification V2.3The PCI Local Bus is a high performance 32-bit or 64-bit bus with multiplexed addressand data lines. The bus is intended for use as an interconnect mechanism between highlyintegrated peripheral controller components, peripheral add-in cards, andprocessor/memory systems.MotivationWhen the PCI Local Bus Specification was originally developed in 1992, graphicsorientedoperating systems such as Windows and OS/2 had created a data bottleneckbetween the processor and its display peripherals in standard PC I/O architectures.Moving peripheral functions with high bandwidth requirements closer to the system'sprocessor bus can eliminate this bottleneck. Substantial performance gains are seen withgraphical user interfaces (GUIs) and other high bandwidth functions (i.e., full motionvideo, SCSI, LANs, etc.) when a "local bus" design is used.PCI successfully met these demands of the industry and is now the most widely acceptedand implemented expansion standard in the world.PCI Local Bus ApplicationsThe PCI Local Bus has been defined with the primary goal of establishing an industrystandard, high performance local bus architecture that offers low cost and allowsdifferentiation. While the primary focus is on enabling new price-performance points intoday's systems, it is important that a new standard also accommodates future systemrequirements and be applicable across multiple platforms and architectures. Figure 1-1shows the multiple dimensions of the PCI Local Bus.The PCI Local Bus has been defined with the primary goal of establishing an industry standard,high performance local bus architecture that offers low cost and allows differentiation.While the primary focus is on enabling new price-performance future system requirements,it is important that a new standard also accommodates future system requirements and be applicable across multiple platforms and architectures.