VLB

VLB is an acronym that can refer to several concepts, but in technology and computer history it is most commonly associated with the VESA Local Bus. The VLB was a short‑lived expansion bus introduced in the early 1990s to boost data transfer between a PC’s motherboard and adapters, notably video cards, by connecting devices directly to the processor’s local bus. It was developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) to provide higher bandwidth than the older ISA bus while preserving compatibility with existing system architectures.

A VLB system typically offered a 32‑bit data path and timing aligned with the processor’s local bus, enabling higher throughput than ISA. VLB slots were located on the motherboard near the CPU and required chipset support and specific bridging logic to interface with other buses such as ISA or PCI. The design aimed to accelerate graphics and other performance‑sensitive devices during the era when PCI was not yet universally adopted. However, VLB's lifespan was brief, as PCI rapidly became the standard due to better scalability, ease of use, and broader ecosystem. By the mid‑ to late‑1990s, VLB was largely supplanted and is now of historical interest, occasionally found in legacy systems or used by collectors and in retrocomputing projects.

Outside of this context, VLB is a lesser‑used acronym whose meaning varies by field, so clarification is often required to avoid ambiguity. The VESA Local Bus usage is the best documented and most widely recognized interpretation.