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 components, such as sound cards and network cards, to communicate with the central processing unit (CPU). The ISA bus supports both 8-bit and 16-bit data transfers, making it versatile for different types of hardware. Although it was widely used in older computer systems, the ISA bus has largely been replaced by faster standards like PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) and PCIe (PCI Express). These newer buses offer improved performance and greater bandwidth, making them more suitable for modern computing needs.