Serial networks for computing applications

Serial links (i.e., communication paths on single lines, in that the clock information is merged into the data bit stream) have been widely used by the telecom industry since their origin, but the computer community is still very reluctant to introduce them. Transputers pioneered their use in computing applications. However, many system architects still consider serial links as a unreliable communication medium, due to the error rates that they generate in noisy telecom applications. Recent work has demonstrated that serial links display robustness similar to busses, when used in a protected environment. This paper lists the existing serial link technologies in the gigabit per second rates.