The correct answer is b. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA).
Here's why: Each of the given choices represents a different type of connection standard or bus architecture used in computers for connecting and transferring data between the motherboard and various devices.
a. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) - This is an older standard that allows various devices to connect to the motherboard using a shared bus. It does not provide a dedicated path for each device; instead, devices share the same bus and must coordinate access to avoid conflicts.
b. Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) - This is a more recent interface compared to PCI and is used primarily for connecting storage devices, like hard drives and solid-state drives, to the motherboard. SATA provides a single, dedicated path for each connected device, enabling higher performance with no need for devices to share bandwidth.
c. Universal Serial Bus (USB) - USB is a very common interface used for a wide variety of peripherals, including keyboards, mice, printers, external storage, and more. USB also uses a shared bus architecture, meaning that the data bandwidth is shared among all connected devices.
d. Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) - This is an even older standard than PCI and also features a shared bus architecture. It was used in early computers before the advent of PCI and was eventually phased out due to its limited speed and capabilities.
So, based on the requirement for a "single dedicated path for each connected device," SATA is the correct choice because each SATA device has its own dedicated connection to the motherboard, which provides better performance without the need to compete for bandwidth on a shared bus.