PCI

PCI stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect and is a local data bus on a motherboard that allows installed PCI devices such as NICs and Modems to communicate with the computer's CPU. PCI slots are specialized connection points to the PCI bus on the motherboard that allow compatible PCI circuit boards to be installed on the computer. This is the most common bus on current motherboards although older computers will also offer slower ISA and EISA buses as well. See the terms CPU, Network Interface Card (NIC), Modem, and Motherboard in this glossary for more information.