---
title: "Bit-serial architecture"
chunk: 1/1
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit-serial_architecture"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T11:31:28.192019+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In computer architecture, bit-serial architectures send data one bit at a time, along a single wire, in contrast to bit-parallel word architectures, in which data values are sent all bits or a word at once along a group of wires.  
All digital computers built before 1951, and most of the early massive parallel processing machines used a bit-serial architecture—they were serial computers.
Bit-serial architectures were developed for digital signal processing in the 1960s through 1980s, including efficient structures for bit-serial multiplication and accumulation.
The HP Nut processor used in many Hewlett-Packard calculators operated bit-serially.
Assuming N is an arbitrary integer number, N serial processors will often take less FPGA area and have a higher total performance than a single N-bit parallel processor.


== See also ==
Serial computer
1-bit computing
Bit banging
Bit slicing
BKM algorithm
CORDIC


== References ==


== External links ==
Application of FPGA technology to accelerate the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method
BIT-Serial FIR filters with CSD Coefficients for FPGAs