Declining PC Interface Buses

Following the previous post on the decline of the RS232 bus, I checked the other common PC buses found on computers. Because the article contains a number of graphics I up-loaded it to Google base as a holder for the pictures, the text is duplicated below. Simply mouse over the pictures to see the search trends: Interface Bus Search Terms.

The attached files show the search trends for a number of PC interface buses. The graphs show the number of searches on the terms indicated, all were common PC buses over the last decade.

The SCSI bus shows a large decline in search traffic. SCSI was always an expensive interface to implement and really used mostly by high-end or enterprise users. So it's understandable that when Serial SCSI [SAS] came out users would quickly migrate to using the faster SAS bus.

The RS232 bus used as the main serial interface on the PC for years, is now being left off new computer systems in favor of the USB port. There are a number of reasons to drop the RS232 interface, the size of the 9-pin D connector is just one reason, speed is another.

The term Printer Port also shows a decline in searchs. Printer Port is a generic term used to describe the connector located either on the printer or a PC. A Printer Port may refer to a Centronics interface, IEEE-1284 interface or another other interface used on a printer. However; now that USB and Ethernet connections are showing up on printers it's safe to assume that the searches are being done using those terms.

The Centronics printer port was used on computers almost from the beginning of the PC age. However in the mid 90's the centronics bus started to be replaced by the IEEE-1284 interface which happen to be a better well define standard. By 2005, the IEEE1284 was being left off printers in favor of an Ethernet and/or a USB port.

The PCI bus still exists on PC Motherboards, but is slowing being replaced by the newer faster PCI Express bus [PCIe]. But the decline of PCI has been slower than other interface standards due to the slow implementation of boards using the 1x PCIe interface. While the 16x PCIe slot started to replace the AGP expansion slot by the very first year of release. Note the large increase in searches for the term PCIe.

The AGP interface seems to be hanging on in the PC upgrade market. Not sure how many motherboards are still shipping with an AGP interface.

The Firewire interface doesn't seem to be popular any longer.

The ISA bus [ATbus] also is showing a decline, but not as great as expected. The ISA bus was rendered obsolete by the PCI bus years ago. It could be that as long as industrial legacy computers continue to function they don't require replacement.

The main interface between PC motherboards and Hard Disk Drives [HDD] use to be the IDE [ATA] interface; however most newer models shipped are now using the Serial ATA bus [SATA]. Serial ATA is much faster than normal ATA. Note the increase for the term SATA

The old Floppy Drive is also in decline. With the low cost of USB thumb drives there is no longer a need for a floppy disk drive. Many new computer systems no longer ship with a floppy drive. But you can always purchase an external Floppy drive, normally with a USB interface to the computer.

So, all these buses were common terms just a few years ago, but don't even exist on most new personal computers shipped today.