A+ Hardware Service Technician: System Architecture

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Cable Connections

DB-9

DB-9 is a standard connection for a COM cable (serial cable). Contains 9 pins.

DB-25

DB-25 is the other standard connection for Serial cables. Serial communications only use 9 of the available 25 pins.

Parallel (IEEE 1284)

A 25 pin connector on the computer side and a 36 pin connector on the printer side. Most printers are moving to a standard Ethernet or USB connection.

RJ-11

RJ-11 is a standard telephone type connection. It is 4 or 6 wire and some networking equipment has used RJ-11, though RJ-45 is more common.

RJ-45

RJ-45 is the most popular network cable/connection type. RJ-45 is similar to the RJ-11 type connector, though it has 8 wires.

BNC

BNC is a type of network connection most commonly used in 10 Base 2 networks. BNC is primarily used with a coaxial cable.

PS2/MINI-DIN

PS2 is a standard developed by IBM for keyboards, mice, and input devices. Uses a DIN connection with 6 pins.

USB

Universal Serial Bus, or USB, is the new standard for peripheral connection to PCs. USB devices range from scanners to printers to storage devices. Supports data transfer up to 12 mbps and each port can support up to 127 devices.

IEEE 1394

IEEE 1394 is the standard for what is commonly referred to as “Firewire”. Apple Computer coined the term when they began adding Firewire ports to their Macintosh computers. MORE

IEEE 1394, or Firewire, is a high speed connector for data intensive applications such as video editing or external storage devices.

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