A high speed expansion bus that connects higher speed devices is known as a PCI or a peripheral component interconnect. A PCI is a type of bus. A bus is a device that allows a user to connect hardware devices to a computer and have these devices integrate with all other devices on the computer. The devices integrated by a bus include monitors, mice, sound cards and others. There are many
. different types of buses, and one of the most well known is the USB or universal serial bus, which allows users to connect a myriad of devices to the computer. PCI cards get connected to PCI, which is usually part of the motherboard. There are many different devices that can get connected to a PCI including network cards, sound cards and modems. Although it is possible to connect video cards to PCIs on older computers, they cannot support these connections on newer computers. However, PCIs can also be used to connect USB connectors and serial connection. Thus, they can be used to connect printers, mice and other USB devices. With the advent of portable computers, there are now also mini PCIs. Mini PCIs are used to connect more modern devices. These include high speed ethernet ports, wireless modems, Bluetooth and sound cards. There are many reasons that the PCI card has had success over other forms of internal computer buses. One of the main reasons is that it is a very flexible interface. It can work with many different hardware and hardware manufacturers. In addition, demand for PCIs increased in the mid 1990s because of their ability to support plug 'n' play. This means that users can plug in a device and have the computer recognize it without having to go through complicated steps. Plug 'n' play is one of the main reasons PCIs survived where other internal buses did not. http://searchwinit.techtarget.com/definition/PCI or http://www.pcguide.com/ref/mbsys/buses/types/pci.htm
