BRIDGING

7/20/96

Bridging: A technique for connecting two possibly dissimilar data buses. A bridge takes data on one bus, network, etc., and places it on another bus, network, etc. For example, PCI bus PCs bridge data onto and off of an ISA bus in order to accommodate older ISA bus peripheral cards. There is generally a delay associated with bridging. Bridging delays can be a performance issue especially when the two data streams are not synchronous -- which is to say -- when they do not run at related speeds and with a fixed phase relationship.