NuBus

NuBus NuBus is a 32-bit computer bus that was widely used in Apple Macintosh computers from the late 1980s to the early 1990s. It was developed by Apple Inc. and Siemens as a high-speed, low-cost bus for connecting peripherals and expansion cards. The NuBus was designed to be a high-bandwidth, low-latency bus, with a clock speed of 10 MHz and a bandwidth of 40 MB/s.

History and development

The development of NuBus began in the early 1980s, when Apple Inc. and Siemens formed a joint research and development project to create a new bus standard for their computers. The project was led by Paul Henck, a renowned computer engineer, and Hans G. Gassner, an expert in computer architecture. The NuBus was designed to be a high-performance bus that could support a wide range of peripherals and expansion cards, including graphics cards, sound cards, and network interface cards.

The NuBus was first introduced in 1984, with the release of the Apple Macintosh 128k. Initially, it was used in various Apple Macintosh models, including the Macintosh II, Macintosh III, and Macintosh Quadra.

Technical specifications

The NuBus has a 32-bit address and data bus, with a clock speed of 10 MHz. It has a bandwidth of 40 MB/s and supports up to 16 devices. The bus uses a master-slave architecture, with a central arbiter that manages access to the bus.

The NuBus also has a number of features that make it suitable for use in a wide range of applications, including plug-and-play capability, bus mastering, and DMA (Direct Memory Access).

Implementations and usage

The NuBus was widely used in various Apple Macintosh models, including the Macintosh II, Macintosh III, and Macintosh Quadra. It was also used in other computers, such as the NeXT Computer and the DECstation.

In addition to its use in computers, the NuBus was also used in other applications, such as video production and medical imaging.

Variants and derivatives

There are several variants and derivatives of the NuBus, including the NuBus 90, which has a clock speed of 20 MHz and a bandwidth of 80 MB/s.

Another variant is the TurboBus, which is a high-speed version of the NuBus that was developed by Apple Inc. and Siemens.

Legacy and influence

The NuBus has had a significant influence on the development of modern computer buses, including the PCI bus and the PCI Express bus.

The NuBus was also widely used in the computer industry, and its design and architecture have been studied and emulated by many other bus standards.

The legacy of the NuBus can be seen in many modern computer systems, including Apple Macintosh computers, PCs, and servers.

Category:Computer buses