What is the hardware definition of "buffer"?

[suicidaleggroll]

That's because "buffer" is a generic word, and can be interpreted many different ways depending on the application.  It's best to avoid the use of the word "buffer" in general, unless you add a qualifier to specify the type of buffer you mean.  Eg: FIFO buffer, frame buffer, current buffer, etc.

[MarkS]

That's because "buffer" is a generic word, and can be interpreted many different ways depending on the application.  It's best to avoid the use of the word "buffer" in general, unless you add a qualifier to specify the type of buffer you mean.  Eg: FIFO buffer, frame buffer, current buffer, etc.

That would be VERY nice!

[C]

Your other thread asked about a SN74LS245



Cromemco S-100 "Blitz Bus" Motherboard
A S-100 21 slot motherboard

A good S-100 board
1. Use a driver when signal went off the board to the motherboard.
2. Use one Schmidt input for signals from motherboard to the board.

A bus like this has a lot of noise, High power drivers help but terminators are often needed.
Active terminator that allowed for such a long S-100 bus!
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/s-100-multiprocessor/DSC07244.JPG

While 21-slots sounds like a lot, there were systems that needed more.
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/s-100-multiprocessor/DSC07239.JPG

Chicago_Mercantile_Exchange

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cromemco_Z-2_Systems_at_Chicago_Mercantile_Exchange_(1984).jpg#/media/File:Cromemco_Z-2_Systems_at_Chicago_Mercantile_Exchange_(1984).jpg
The picture is racks of rack mounted computers with the above motherboard.


There were systems that had 17 Z80's plugged into one motherboard like this.

The above show where a 74LS245's output is driving many inputs via system bus.

Some of the processor boards used three buses. A local bus, a system bus & a local bus expansion. The Local bus was faster. The local bus expansion was a little slower due to extra buffers. While the system bus you had the many processors trying to use the bus slowing things more.
The three 74LS245's were used as a three way switch.   

A different use is to drive a longer distance to a single input, A bus extension.

So a 74LS245 lets you drive more inputs and it's Schmidt inputs removes some bus noise problems.
This comes at a BIG cost, the time delay of the 74LS245. If you look at the system bus you have 4 drivers in the path for a read, each adding a time delay(
12ns X 4 = 48ns). This delay is with the drivers already enabled.

[Howardlong]

But we're not talking about general hardware here... We're talking about ICs. The OP was clearly talking about the latter type of buffer

Nope, as far as I can see, the OP didn't specify that, but I can see how you might have assumed that. In fact, the OP talked about storage buffers in the very same first post that they did bus transceivers, and was trying to understand the nomenclature.

Whether a buffer is in an IC, discretely made or otherwise doesn't matter.