The ISA Bus, or Industry Standard Architecture Bus, is a computer bus standard used for connecting peripheral devices to a computer's motherboard. Introduced in the 1980s, it allows various hardware components, such as sound cards and network cards, to communicate with the central processing unit (CPU). The ISA Bus operates at a speed of 8 or 16 bits, depending on the version, and was widely used in early personal computers. Although the ISA Bus was popular for many years, it has largely been replaced by faster and more efficient standards like PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and PCI Express. These newer buses offer improved data transfer rates and better support for modern hardware, making the ISA Bus less common in contemporary systems.