Cable Buses

This is a subdivision of the main top level indexed Interface Bus Tree for Cable buses. Buses designed to operate over [copper or fiber] cables are listed here. Copper wire cable buses may be further subdivided into either parallel or serial buses.
Video buses interfacing to Monitors, which are all cable buses, are listed on the Video Bus page. In addition, all Industrial Buses are listed on the Field Buses page. All Vehicle Buses either use copper wire or fiber cable and are listed on the Automotive Buses page. Most, but not all Avionics Buses are cable buses and are listed on the Avionics Buses page. There are also two or three cable buses which are defined as VME bus enhancements, or add on buses to a VME system. Cable buses which may be used in a VME system are listed on the VME (P2) Add on Buses page. All other electronic bus types or buses, not listed in one of the sub-groups above which operate over a [fiber or copper] cable are listed on this page. Each bus has a brief description, click the link if provided for a more detailed description and links to manufactures. In many cases the maximum bus speed is provided as well as the maximum cable length. Normally the cable limit my be increased by reducing the bus speed, but not all speed vs cable limits are provided. The type and quality of the cable plays a large part in the allowable maximum cable speed and length of the cable run. At a minimum use the lowest grade cable called out in the standard.





1-Wire {Originally developed as a processor to memory chip-to-chip interconnect found on Maxim ICs, and now allowed to operate over Category 5 twisted pair copper cable interfaces}

10Base2 / 10Base5 {Ethernet running over Coax, maximmum bus length is 500 meters, at a maximum speed of 10M bits/sec}

10BaseT {Ethernet running over Twisted-Pair wire, maximum bus length is 100 meters, at a maximum speed of 10M bits/sec}

10GE {Gigabit Ethernet uses either Shielded Twisted Pair [STP] copper, Un-Shielded Twisted Pair [UTP], or CAT-5 copper or fiber cable. Gigabit Ethernet also runs over a backplane at over 1GHz.}

10GFC {10 Gigabit Fibre Channel, now runs at speeds as 12.75GBd [GigaBaud]}

100BaseX {Ethernet running over Twisted-Pair, Coax or Fiber, maximum bus length is 100 meters, at a maximum speed of 100M bits/sec}

1000BaseX {Gigabit Ethernet operates over either Shielded Twisted Pair [STP] copper, Un-Shielded Twisted Pair [UTP], or CAT-5 copper or fiber cable. Gigabit Ethernet also runs on a backplane, 1GHz.}

Access Bus {Is a low speed 4-wire serial bus aimed at the PC. Access Bus has a maximum cable length is 10 meter [at 100 Kbps], however a repeater may be used.}

AES/EBU {AES/ EUB [Audio Engineering Society/European Broadcasting Union, www.ebu.ch] is one of the common names for a digital audio transfer standard The standard is also known as XLR because the AES/EBU digital interface is usually implemented using 3-Pin XLR connectors, which happens to be the same type connector used in a professional microphone. The correct name is AES3. One cable carries both left and right-channel audio data. AES3 [the professional version] is an alternative to the S/PDIF [Sony/Philips Digital Interface] standard. S/PDIF is the Commercial interface version used as an audio transfer file format that transmits digital audio over an RCA connector or Fiber Connectors.}

ATA Bus {IDE/ATA Personal Computer [Parallel; PATA] cable Bus used for Hard drives, Floppy and CD drives. Top bus speed is 133MBytes/sec over an 18 inch Parallel cable; 70 to 90 ohms cable impedance, 30 AWG wire size, IDC termination. IDE: [Integrated Drive Electronics], ATA: [Advanced Technology Attachment].}

ATM Bus {Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM] runs at 155M bits using Shielded-Twisted-Pair [STP] wire with a cable length of 100 meters. Other physical layers are possible.}

Automotive Bus(s) {Vehicle bus descriptions, including: MOST Bus, J1850 Bus, D2B, CanBus, IDB1394, FlexRay, byteflight.. using copper wire or Fiber Optic Buses}

Avionics Bus(s) {Bus descriptions, including; ARINC, SFODB, SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, MIL-STD-1760, MIL-STD-1776.. using copper wire or Fiber Optic Buses}

BACnet {ISO/ANSI/ASHRAE 135-1995. A protocol that might be found using RS485 or Ethernet as the physical layer, interfacing to HVAC equipment.}

Bit-Bus {Bitbus Operates up to 62,5kbps, 375kbps or 1,5Mbps over a differential twisted pair 120 ohm cable}

CAN Bus {Controller Area Network (CAN) specification defines the Data Link Layer, ISO 11898 defines the Physical Layer. The maximum cable length is 1000 meters.}

BST Bus {vehicle safety bus}

byteflight {Used for safety-critical applications in motor vehicles [air-bags]. Byteflight is a TDMA [Time Division Multiple Access] protocol that runs at 10Mbps over [2-Wire or 3-Wire] Plastic optical fibers [POF].}

Composite Video {Single Yellow video cable used in AV gear.}

DSL {DSL has a maximum cable distance of up to 18,000 feet, but the distance and speed depends on the type of DSL. Also called xDSL}

EIA-232 Bus {RS232 has a maximum cable length of something less then 20 meters, and will operate up to 20kbps.}

EIA-366 Bus {EIA366 description}

EIA-422 Bus {EIA422 and EIA485 has a maximum cable length of 1200 meters at 200kbps over a balanced (differential) interface. Both specifications are Electrical only, and do not specify a cable interface}

EIA-423 Bus {EIA423 is an Electrical [only] Bus Standard and does not define a cable, See EIA449 or EIA530 for cabling descriptions}

EIA-449 Cable Bus {EIA-449 Bus cabling interface. The maximum cable distance is 60 meters [2.1Mbps].}

EIA485 Bus {EIA422 and EIA485 has a maximum cable length of 1200 meters at 200kbps over a balanced (differential) interface. Both specifications are Electrical only, and do not specify a cable interface}

EIA-530 Cable Bus {Defines a cabling interface, Using EIA422 /EIA423 as it's electrical interface. The maximum cable distance is 60 meters, 2.1Mbps}

EIA-568 Cable Bus {is a commercial Building Telecommunications Wiring Standard using 100 ohm Un-shielded Twisted Pair copper wire}

EIA-644 Bus {LVDS [Low Voltage Differential Signaling] with CAT5 cable runs at ~20 meters @ 100Mbps, ~50 meters @ 50Mbps, ~100 meters @ 10Mbps.}

EIA-899 {M-LVDS, Multipoint Low Voltage Differential Signaling, operates at 500Mbps over a maximum cable length of 100 meters. Distance varies with cable AWG}

Ethernet Bus {Ethernet runs over Twisted-Pair, Coax, or Fiber. 100 meter bus length for Twisted-Pair, and 500 meter cable length for Coax}

FDDI Protocol {Fiber Distributed Data Interface Protocol runs over Fiber-Optic cable at 100 Mbit/sec. When running over copper the bus speed is 100Mbps with a cable length of 100 meters.}

Fiber Channel {Fibre Channel, now runs at speeds as high as 2.125 Gbps [200 Mbytes/sec] over twisted-pair copper with a cable length of 50 meters or optical-interconnect [optical distances up to 10 km]. Fibre Channel is primarily used in high-end server SANs (storage-area networks), Fiber Optic Bus}

Field Bus(s) {There are a number of Serial Industrial Bus Standards. Each bus standard may operate at a different rate and protocol, used to control equipment and sensors over long distances.}

FireWire Bus {IEEE 1394 Bus Standard using CAT5 cable allows 100Mbps data to travel a length 100m over copper cable}

Floppy Drive Interface Bus {Flat ribbon Copper cable, and IDC type connector/header interface. Floppy disk drives were used with personal computers and embedded computers, but were replaced by USB flash drives which were smaller, cheaper and had a high memory capacity.}

Gigabit Ethernet {operates using either Shielded Twisted Pair [STP] copper, Un-Shielded Twisted Pair [UTP], or CAT-5 copper or fiber cable. Gigabit Ethernet also runs over a backplane at over 1GHz.}

GPIB Bus {IEEE-488 Bus, Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation operates at 1MBytes/s over a maximum cable length of 20 meters}

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface interface supplies high-definition video and digital audio for consumer AV entertainment equipment )

HIC (IEEE-1355) (runs a distance of 1 to 10 Meters over copper cable at 38MBps, and a cable distance with fiber from 100 to 3000 Meters at 169MBps, distance depends on fiber type.)

HIPPI 'High-Performance Parallel Interface' (Parallel HIPPI operates with a throughput of 200 MBps [HIPPI-1600], up to 25 meters, using copper cabling. Serial HIPPI will run at 200 MBps [HIPPI-1600 Serial] using coaxial cable for distances up to 25 meter, and fiber optic cabling for distances up to 1K meter (Multi Mode) or 10K meters (Single Mode) HIPPI-6400 will run at 1.6Gbps.)

HSSI Bus {High Speed Serial Interface Bus specification has a Maximum rate of 52Mbps [bits per second] using differential ECL [Emitter Coupled Logic] over shielded twisted pair [STP] cable (similar to SCSI II) with a maximum [cable length] distance of 50 feet.}

HyperTransport Bus (A Point-to-Point bus with [at least] two unidirectional links. Uses 2, 4, 8, 16 or 32 bits [in each direction]. Data rate is 800MBs/per 8 bit pair(s) with a 400MHz clock. The maximum bus length is 0.75 meters [30 inches].)

I2C Bus {Inter-IC [I2C] Bus specification allows 3 different speeds of 100kbps, 400kbps, and 3.4Mbps which run over a cable with a maximum capacitance of 400pF [which sets the maximum bus length]}

IDE Bus {IDE HDD Bus. Top bus speed is 133MBytes/sec over an 18 inch Parallel [ribbon] cable; 70 to 90 ohms cable impedance, 30 AWG wire size, IDC termination. At the top speed of 133MBps the cable used has 80 conductors, 40 for the signals and 40 interlaced ground lines.}

IEEE-488 {IEEE-488 Bus, Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation operates at 1MBytes/s over a maximum cable length of 20 meters, or 2 meters per device which ever is less.}

IEEE-1284 {Personal Computer [PC] Bi-Directional Parallel Peripheral Interface, mainly used as a Printer Bus. The maximum recommended length for a printer cable is 25 feet. Centronics parallel cables run out to 12 feet.}

IEEE-1355 (HIC runs a distance of 1 to 10 Meters over copper cable at 38MBps, and a cable distance with fiber from 100 to 3000 Meters at 169MBps, distance depends on fiber type.)

Industrial Bus(s) {There are a number of Serial Field Bus Standards. Each bus standard operating at a different rate and protocol}

InfiniBand bus (Using Bi-direction differential LVDS wire pairs, over fiber [100 meters] or copper [17 meter bus length].)

J1850: {Automotive bus takes two forms; A 41.6Kbps Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) two wire differential approach, or a 10.4Kbps Variable Pulse Width (VPW) single wire approach. The single wire approach may have a bus length up to 35 meters, with 32 nodes.}

LVDS Bus {LVDS/M-LVDS is an electrical only standard working to a distance of 10 meters [referenced by other specifications]}

LXI Bus {Instrumentation bus controlled via Ethernet}

MIL-STD-1553 {MIL1553B is a dual redundant differential bus defined by Military Standard 1553 [MIL-STD-1553]. Operates at 1.0 MHz over a length of 30 meters on a copper wire [Tri-ax] bus.}

MIL-STD-1397: {NTDS; MIL-STD-1397, Input / Output Interfaces, Standard Digital Data, Navy Systems.}

Monitor Buses: {Personal Computer Video Monitor Buses are listed}

NADSI {NATO Interface bus based on Fiber Channel.}

NMEA 2000 is a CANbus link interface for marine vessels. Two signal wires, power, & ground with a shield.

NTDS: {NTDS; MIL-STD-1397, Input / Output Interfaces, Standard Digital Data, Navy Systems.}

OP iLink {Sony's name for FireWire; OP i.Link is based on IEEE1394a-2000 using single-core plastic optical fiber.} See Firewire.

Optomux {is a Field Bus that operates over RS-422/485. Refer to the Field bus page for more information}

OTN {Optical Transport Network; ITU G.709 Description}

PCI Express Bus {Serial PCI Bus is a point to point serial interface over copper or optical. PCI Express uses LVDS drivers which set the maximum cable length at around 10 meters.}

POE {Power Over Ethernet.}



QuickRing Bus {QuickRing, is an offshoot of SCI. QuickRing uses six differential data signals and a differential clock with clock speed of 50MHz to achieve a throughput of 200 MBytes/second/link. The six data signals use the SCI P1596.3 Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) protocol for low power dissipation and low noise immunity. This bus used twisted-pair copper wiring or a fiber optic cable. The QuickRing bus is OBSOLETE, replaced by the PCI bus, not even sure it reached the market place.}

RapidIO {Used as either a bus or back plane interconnect. 8-bit or 16-bit Input and Output at 10Gbps, using LVDS over a maximum cable length of 30 inches.}

RS Standards { The correct term is EIA, RS went obsolete in the 60's. Refer to the EIA listing for any cabling standards.}

SCbus {The SCbus is based on the SCSA specification [Signal Computing System Architecture] as a stand-alone component, with a single distributed switching model. SCbus is a board-to-board 16 or 32 wire, bi-directional, bit-serial, TDM [Time Division Multiplexing] data bus developed for computer telephony. With a serial message bus for control and signaling. The SCbus capacity is 512, 1024 or 2048 [64kbit/s] time-slots depending on the clock frequency used. Any device may occupy any number of time slots [bundling]. The maximum physical bus length is 50cm over a flat cable. Up to 16 SCbus's can be connected together with SCxbus. Scbus is an ANSI standard.}

SCI bus { IEEE Std 1596-1992 SCI (Scalable Coherent Interface) SCI is a scalable network, nodes are interconnected in a point-to-point unidirectional link [ring]. The bandwidth grows with the number [concurrent] nodes used. SCI links are operate at 1 Gbps [serial], or 1 GBps [16-bit parallel], using a 250-MHz bi-phase clock over fiber-optic or twisted-pair wires. Physical SCI controllers use LVDS signaling levels for 16 and 8 bit wide links.}

SCSI Bus {SCSI Bus [Parallel Interface] may run up to 12 meters [version dependent] at a maximum bus speed of 320MBps, replaced by Serial SCSI [SAS]}

SCSI Express {A standard proposed in 2011, but not yet written.}

SDH {Synchronous Digital Hierarchy description and manufacturing links, Fiber Optic Bus}

SDI; Serial Digital Interface is a video bus running over coax

SDI-12 {Serial Digital Interface 1200 Baud. SDI-12 is used for interfacing data recorders with microprocessor-based sensors. The interface consists of 3-wires; Serial Data, Ground and 12 volts. Operating at 1200 Baud implies this bus is operational only for legacy systems.}

SDIF bus {Sony Digital Interface for digital audio. SDIF allows for transmission of 20 bit audio. Two standards are common: 2-channel transmission, unbalanced, on 75 ohm cable (BNC), or multichannel transmission on balanced lines with RS485 characteristics.
SDIF-2 (Sony Digital Interface-2) Two channel operation, with each channel transmitted on a separate 75 Ohm unbalanced coaxial cables with BNC connectors. Multichannel operation, transmits 24 channels on 2 separate balanced cables with multi-pin connectors. A separate cable with BNC connections for word clock. All 3 cables should be the same length.
SDIF-3 Each channel transmitted on a separate 75 Ohm unbalanced coaxial cables with BNC connectors. Multichannel operation, transmits 24 channels on 2 separate balanced cables with multi-pin connectors. A separate cable with BNC connections for word clock. All 3 cables should be the same length. Two bit rates are possible 5.6448Mbps and 11.2896Mbps. The Word clock is 44.1kHz. The output voltage is VOH= 2.4V, VOL=0.55V}

Sensor Buses {A sub-division of the Industrial Field Buses section used to control sensors and transducers.}

Serial ATA Bus {SATA has a maximum bus length of 1 meter with Data running at 150MBps. The bus uses one differential pair for data with additional power and ground.}

Serial SCSI Bus {Serial Attached SCSI [SAS] uses the SCSI protocol with a Serial ATA physical interface, running at 1.5Gbps or 3.0Gbps. SAS is a replacement to parallel SCSI}

SONET {Synchronous Optical NETwork Links, Fiber Optic Bus}

S/PDIF bus {SPDIF [Sony/Philips Digital Interface] is used on digital audio consumer products}

T1/E1 Buses {T-x trunks used mostly between Central [Phone] Offices}

Token Ring Bus {Token Ring Protocol Pin Out}

TPE {Twisted-Pair Ethernet over an RJ-45 connector. The pinout is listed on the Ethernet page.}

TRS-80 Serial Port {RS232 interface used on a 1908's commercial computer.}

USB Bus {The Universal Serial Bus provides two-way communication between the PC and multiple peripheral devices, over a Differential 4-wire serial interface cable [Differential data, and Power/Ground] up to 3-5 meters away. A Slow-Speed mode of 1.5Mbps is used for devices such as mice. Full-Speed mode is used by most devices and allows a transfer rate of 12Mbps. High-Speed mode allows rates of 480Mbps.}

Utopia Bus {Utopia is one of the possible physical layers of ATM}

V.35 Bus: {This bus was discontinued, replaced by the V.10/V.11 standard}

Vehicle Bus(s) {Vehicle bus descriptions, including: MOST Bus, J1850 Bus, D2B, CanBus, IDB1394, FlexRay, byteflight, LIN Bus, IE Bus.. some using copper wire or Fiber Optic Buses}

Video Buses: {TV Video Bus standards and Personal Computer Video Monitor Buses are listed}

VT-100: As found on a female DE-9; Pin 1, Control Out. Pin 2, Serial Transmit Data. Pin 3, Serial Receive Data. Pin 4, Control In. Pin 5, Ground.

X.21 Bus: {An Obsolete interface}

X-Bus: An Obsolete four wire bus based on RS-485. Two wires for data, and two wires for power.

X-by-Wire Bus A type of vehicle interface or aircraft bus.

XGA [Extended Graphics Array]: IBM introduced the XGA video interface as a successor to its 8514/A display in 1990.

XLR (Not a bus, but a connector used with audio and video connections, IEC 61076-2-103.}

Y-Interface; is more a cable interface than a interfacing bus, in that there is no standard that defines it. A Y-interface is an electrical and physical interface between three ports on one or more devices. The Y-Interface either combines two different ports [on one or more components] into one port, or it takes one port and sends that information to two different devices. Because there is no standard the ports, their connector types and the signal that use the cable could be anything. In effect this becomes just a unique cable assembly between ports.

Y-cables are found in many applications including audio systems and power systems and regular interfacing. A good example would be a power cable running from a PC mother-board than to both a hard drive and floppy drive to supply power to those devices. An audio cable example would be an 1/8 inch mini-plug to Red/White RCA connectors, forming a Y cable.




All of the different Cable interface bus descriptions or links to electronic bus pages listed above deal with layer 1 [Physical, Electrical and Mechanical Layer] of the OSI protocol stack. Many electronic bus pages also reference layer 2; the Data Link Layer [which provide bit/byte stuffing, checksum, Protocols..]. In addition, all of the page links listed above provide links to devices related to that particular bus, which include IC manufacturers, Connector manufacturers, Bus Termination manufacturers, cable manufacturers, and electronic equipment manufacturers, Standards/Specifications and so on... The extent of the description provided for any particular electronic bus varies widely from page to page depending on the bus.


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Modified 9/13/15
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