Ports and Connectors

ATX Ports

Soldered on

motherboard

Back plate included

No extention wires

DB Connectors

DataBus or DB connectors have a slight D-shape

Male DB connectors have pins

Female DB connectors have sockets

Oldest type of connector in the PC

Parallel / LPT

Serial / RS-232

Serial Ports

Serial ports are used

to add external

devices to a PC

Takes a stream of

serial data from the

CPU and outputs it

in a serial format

9-pin or 25-pin

serial ports

DIN Connectors

DIN connectors are round

and come in two sizes

DIN

Mini-DIN

Always a female connector

Used frequently by a

keyboard or mouse

Modem

Modems work with your telephone to translate analog telephone signals into digital serial data or vice versa

Internal modems are expansion cards

External modems connect to a serial port

Uses two RJ-11 sockets

One to the telephone jack on the wall

One to a telephone if you wish

RJ Connectors

Registered Jack or

RJ connectors are

used by module

telephones (RJ-11)

and network cards

(RJ-45) and plug into

appropriate ports

Network Cards

PCs connect to other

PCs to share

information or

devices using a

network interface

card (NIC)

Connectors include

RJ-45, BNC, DB

Sound Cards

Sound cards

Takes digital information and turns it into sound

Take sound from a microphone and turns it into

digital data

Use mini-audio jacks for speakers and microphones

Use a 15-pin DB socket for a joystick or musical

instrument

USB Connectors

Universal Serial Bus (USB)

Used by many devices today

Devices are hot-swappable

Meaning you can insert or remove the device while the PC is running

May daisy-chain multiple USB devices together

USB Ports

Universal Serial Bus Theoretically allows up to 127 devices on a

single port.

Practically 4 – 6 devices can be connected

Uses a 4 wire cable

Hot swappable

There are now two USB standards: USB1.1

Will run at 1.5 or 12Mbps (Megabits per second)

USB2.0

Will also run at 480 Mbps

USB "A" and "B" connectors

"A" connectors head "upstream" toward the computer.

"B" connectors head "downstream" and connect to individual devices.

Different connectors on the upstream and downstream helps prevent confusion.

USB 3.0

Super Speed or SS

USB 3.0

FireWire Connectors

FireWire connectors move data at incredibly high speeds Also known as IEEE 1394

6-wire cable

Cables may be no longer than 5 meters

High speeds of 100-400 Mbps

Supports daisy-chaining

Hot-swappable

Firewire Ports

FireWire, originally created by Apple and standardized in 1995 as the specification IEEE-1394 High Performance Serial Bus.

Will support as many as 63 devices on a single controller.

FireWire has three different transfer speeds: 100, 200 and 400 Mbps

Camcorders, printers and storage devices are typical of devices connected to Firewire.

Firewire is platform independent.

Video Cards

Keyboard

Keyboards come in many sizes and shapes Use a keyboard port on

the motherboard

DIN connector is obsolete

Mini-DIN is most common today

USB connectors are sometimes used today

Use the same kind of connector as a mouse but most PCs clearly mark the connectors

Keyboard

Mouse

A mouse allows you to select graphical

items on a screen

Early computers did not need a mouse

Mice used to connect to the PC thru a 9-pin

or 25-pin serial port

Now mice connect thru a mini-DIN (or PS/2)

port which is also serial

Today mice may use a USB port

Trackballs may be used instead of mice

Mouse motion intereption

Mechanical Mouse

Incremental rotary encoder

Centronics Connectors

Centronics connectors have a

D shape with one large central

tab

Uses contacts instead of pins

Still called pins, though

Uses wire rings to hold

connector on

Older printers use a 36-pin

Centronics socket

Printers

Impact Printers

Dot Matrix

Daisy Wheel

Band and Chain

Non Impact Printers

Ink-Jet

Laser/Page

Thermal

Joystick

Joysticks are used

almost exclusively to

play games on the

computer

Originally designed as

an input device to be

used much like a mouse