what type of port do most digital devices use to attach peripherals?

Computer hardware

Examples of estimator connector sockets on various laptops

Ports on the dorsum of the Apple Mac Mini (2005)

In computer hardware, a port serves every bit an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices. In figurer terms, a port by and large refers to the part of a computing device available for connection to peripherals such as input and output devices. Estimator ports have many uses, to connect a monitor, webcam, speakers, or other peripheral devices. On the physical layer, a computer port is a specialized outlet on a piece of equipment to which a plug or cable connects. Electronically, the several conductors where the port and cable contacts connect, provide a method to transfer signals between devices.

Aptitude pins are easier to supercede on a cable than on a connector fastened to a computer, so it was common to use connectors for the fixed side of an interface.

Estimator ports in common use cover a wide variety of shapes such as round (PS/two, etc.), rectangular (FireWire, etc.), square (Telephone plug), trapezoidal (D-Sub — the old printer port was a DB-25), etc. In that location is some standardization to physical properties and function. For instance, most computers take a keyboard port (currently a Universal Series Bus USB-like outlet referred to as USB Port), into which the keyboard is connected.

Physically identical connectors may be used for widely different standards, especially on older personal calculator systems, or systems non generally designed according to the current Microsoft Windows compatibility guides. For case, a 9-pin D-subminiature connector on the original IBM PC could accept been used for monochrome video, colour analog video (in two incompatible standards), a joystick interface, or for a MIDI musical instrument digital control interface. The original IBM PC besides had two identical 5 pivot DIN connectors, one used for the keyboard, the 2d for a cassette recorder interface; the two were not interchangeable. The smaller mini-DIN connector has been variously used for the keyboard and two different kinds of mouse; older Macintosh family computers used the mini-DIN for a serial port or for a keyboard connector with different standards than the IBM-descended systems.

Electrical signal transfer [edit]

Electronically, hardware ports tin almost always be divided into 2 groups based on the signal transfer:

Analog ports
Digital ports:
- Parallel ports ship multiple $.25 at the same time over several sets of wires.
- Serial ports ship and receive ane flake at a time via a unmarried wire pair (Ground and +/-).

After ports are connected, they typically require handshaking, where transfer blazon, transfer rate, and other necessary data is shared before information is sent.

Hot-swappable ports can be connected while equipment is running. Almost all ports on personal computers are hot-swappable.

Plug-and-play ports are designed and then that the connected devices automatically commencement handshaking as soon as the hot-swapping is done. USB ports and FireWire ports are plug-and-play.

Car-detect or car-detection ports are normally plug-and-play, but they offer another type of convenience. An auto-discover port may automatically determine what kind of device has been attached, but it likewise determines what purpose the port itself should take. For case, some audio cards let plugging in several different types of audio speakers; then a dialogue box pops up on the computer screen asking whether the speaker is left, right, front end, or rear for surround sound installations. The user's response determines the purpose of the port, which is physically a 1/viii" tip-ring-sleeve mini jack. Some machine-detect ports can even switch between input and output based on context.

As of 2006, manufacturers have nearly standardized colors associated with ports on personal computers, although at that place are no guarantees. The following is a short listing:

Orange, regal, or grey: Keyboard PS/2
Green: Mouse PS/2
Bluish or magenta: Parallel printer DB-25
Bister: Serial DB-25 or DB-nine
Pastel pink: Microphone ane/8" stereo (TRS) minijack
Pastel green: Speaker 1/eight" stereo (TRS) minijack

FireWire ports used with video equipment (among other devices) can be either 4-pin or 6-pin. The ii extra conductors in the half-dozen-pin connection carry electric power. This is why a cocky-powered device such as a camcorder often connects with a cable that is 4-pins on the photographic camera side and half-dozen-pins on the computer side, the 2 power conductors just being ignored. This is also why laptop computers usually have only 4-pivot FireWire ports, as they cannot provide enough power to run into requirements for devices needing the power provided by 6-pivot connections.

Optical (calorie-free) cobweb, microwave, and other technologies (i.e., quantum) have different kinds of connections, as metallic wires are non constructive for signal transfers with these technologies. Optical connections are usually a polished glass or plastic interface, maybe with an oil that lessens refraction between the ii interface surfaces. Microwaves are conducted through a piping, which tin be seen on a large scale past examining microwave towers with "funnels" on them leading to pipes.

Hardware port trunking (HPT) is a technology that allows multiple hardware ports to exist combined into a single group, effectively creating a single connection with a higher Bandwidth sometimes referred to every bit a double-barrel approach. This technology too provides a higher degree of fault tolerance because a failure on one port may just mean a boring-downwards rather than a dropout. Past contrast, in software port trunking (SPT), two agents (websites, channels, etc.) are bonded into ane with the same effectiveness; i.e., ISDN B1 (64K) plus B2 (64K) equals data throughput of 128K.