Bus contention

Not to be confused with resource contention.

Bus contention is an undesirable state in computer design where more than one device on a bus attempts to place values on it at the same time.

Bus contention is the kind of telecommunication contention that occurs when all communicating devices communicate directly with each other through a single shared channel, and contrasted with "network contention" that occurs when communicating devices communicate indirectly with each other, through point-to-point connections through routers or bridges.[1][failed verification]

Bus contention can lead to erroneous operation, excess power consumption, and, in unusual cases, permanent damage to the hardware—such as burning out a MOSFET.[2]

  1. ^ Theodoros Konstantakopoulos, Jonathan Eastep, James Psota, and Anant Agarwal. "Energy Scalability of On-Chip Interconnection Networks in Multicore Architectures".
  2. ^ Ian Sinclair; John Dunton. "Practical Electronics Handbook" 2013. section "Three-state control". p. 208.