USB

USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is an industry standard developed in the mid-1990s that
defines the cables, connectors and communications protocolsused in a bus for connection,
communication, and power supply betweencomputers and electronic devices.[2]
USB was designed to standardize the connection of computer peripherals(including
keyboards, pointing devices, digital cameras, printers, portable media players, disk
drives and network adapters) to personal computers, both to communicate and to supply electric
power. It has become commonplace on other devices, such as smartphones, PDAs and video
game consoles.[3] USB has effectively replaced a variety of earlier interfaces, such
as serial andparallel ports, as well as separate power chargers for portable devices.
The original USB 1.0 specification, which was introduced in January 1996, defined data transfer
rates of 1.5 Mbit/s "Low Speed" and 12 Mbit/s "Full Speed".[11] The first widely used version of
USB was 1.1, which was released in September 1998. The 12 Mbit/s data rate was intended for
higher-speed devices such as disk drives, and the lower 1.5 Mbit/s rate for low data rate devices
such as joysticks.[12]
The USB 2.0 specification was released in April 2000 and was ratified by the USB Implementers
Forum (USB-IF) at the end of 2001. Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent Technologies (now AlcatelLucent), NEC and Philips jointly led the initiative to develop a higher data transfer rate, with the
resulting specification achieving 480 Mbit/s, a 40-times increase over the original USB 1.1
specification.
The USB 3.0 specification was published on 12 November 2008. Its main goals were to increase
the data transfer rate (up to 5 Gbit/s), decrease power consumption, increase power output, and
be backward compatible with USB 2.0.[13] USB 3.0 includes a new, higher speed bus called
SuperSpeed in parallel with the USB 2.0 bus.[14] For this reason, the new version is also called
SuperSpeed.[15] The first USB 3.0 equipped devices were presented in January 2010.[15][16]
As of 2008, approximately six billion USB ports and interfaces were in the global marketplace,
and about two billion were being sold each year.[17]
In December 2014, USB-IF submitted USB 3.1, USB Power Delivery 2.0 and USB TypeC specifications to the IEC (TC 100 Audio, video and multimedia systems and equipment) for
inclusion in the international standard IEC 62680 "Universal Serial Bus interfaces for data and
power", which is currently based on USB 2.0.

Mini-DIN connector
The mini-DIN connectors are a family of multi-pin electrical connectors used in a variety of
applications. Mini-DIN connectors are 9.5 mm in diameter and come in seven patterns, with the
number of pins from three to nine. Each pattern is keyed in such a way that a plug with one
pattern cannot be mated with any socket of another pattern. An important aspect of why each of
these 7 mini-DIN connectors are official standards is because they are each drastically different
from the other. The pin numbering for the plugs shown above is done left to right, bottom row to
top row. Pin 1 will be on the lower left, and the highest pin number will be on the upper right.

FireWire Cables and Connectors

FireWire is a method of transferring information between digital devices, especially audio and video
equipment. Also known as IEEE 1394, FireWire is fast -- the latest version achieves speeds up to 800
Mbps. At some time in the future, that number is expected to jump to an unbelievable 3.2 Gbps when
manufacturers overhaul the current FireWire cables.
You can connect up to 63 devices to a FireWire bus. Windows operating systems (98 and later) and
Mac OS (8.6 and later) both support it.
The original FireWire specification, FireWire 400 (1394a), was faster than USB when it came out.
FireWire 400 is still in use today and features:

Transfer rates of up to 400 Mbps

Maximum distance between devices of 4.5 meters (cable length)

The release of USB 2.0 -- featuring transfer speeds up to 480 Mbps and up to 5 meters between
devices -- closed the gap between these competing standards. But in 2002, FireWire 800 (1394b)
started showing up in consumer devices, and USB 2.0 was left in the dust. FireWire 800 is capable of:

Transfer rates up to 800 Mbps

Maximum distance between devices of 100 meters (cable length)

The faster 1394b standard is backward-compatible with 1394a.

Registered jack
A Registered Jack (RJ) is a standardized telecommunication network interface for connecting
voice and data equipment to a service provided by a local exchange carrier or long distance
carrier. The specification includes physical construction, wiring, and signal semantics.
Accordingly, registered jacks are primarily named by the letters RJ, followed by two digits that
express the type. Additionally, letter suffixes indicate minor variations. For example, RJ11, RJ14,
andRJ25 are the most commonly used interfaces for telephone connections for one-, two-, and
three-line service, respectively. The same six-position plug and jack commonly used for
telephone line connections may be used for RJ11, RJ14 or even RJ25, all of which are names of
interface standards that use this physical connector. The RJ11 standard dictates a 2-wire
connection, while RJ14 uses a 4-wire configuration, and RJ25 uses all six wires. The RJ
abbreviations, though, only pertain to the wiring of the jack (hence the name registered jack); it is
commonplace, but not strictly correct, to refer to an unwired plug connector by any of these
names.

List of official registered jacks [edit]

Code

Connector

Usage

RJA1X

225A adapter

Connector for a modular plug to a four-prong jack

RJA2X

267A adapter

Connector for splitting one modular jack to two modular jacks

RJA3X

224A adapter

Connector for adapting a modular plug to a 12-prong jack

RJ2MB

50-pin micro
ribbon

RJ11(C/W) 6P2C

RJ12(C/W) 6P6C

RJ13(C/W) 6P4C

212 telephone lines with make-busy arrangement

Establishes a bridged connection for one telephone line (6P4C if

power on second pair)

Establishes a bridged connection for one telephone line with key

telephone system control ahead of line circuit

Similar to RJ12, but behind the line circuit

RJ14(C/W) 6P4C

RJ15C

3-pin
weatherproof

RJ18(C/W) 6P6C

RJ21X

50-pin micro
ribbon

RJ25(C/W) 6P6C

RJ26X

RJ27X

50-pin micro
ribbon

50-pin micro
ribbon

For two telephone lines (6P6C if power on third pair)

For one telephone line for boats in marinas

For one telephone line with make-busy arrangement

For up to 25 lines

For three telephone lines

For multiple data lines, universal

For multiple data lines, programmed

Allows an alarm system to seize the telephone line to make an

RJ31X

8P8C

outgoing call during an alarm. Jack is placed closer to the

network interface than all other equipment. Only 4 conductors
are used.

Like RJ31X, this wiring provides a series tip and ring connection
RJ32X

8P8C

through the connecting block, but is used when the customer

premise equipment is connected in series with a single station,
such as an automatic dialer.

RJ33X

8P8C

This wiring provides a series tip and ring connection of a KTS

line ahead of the line circuit because the registered equipment

requires CO/PBX ringing and a bridged connection of the A and

A1 lead from behind the line circuit. Tip and ring are the only
leads opened when the CPE plug is inserted. Typical usage is for
customer-provided automatic dialers and call restrictors.

RJ34X

8P8C

Similar to RJ33X, but all leads are connected behind the line
circuit.

This arrangement provides a series tip and ring connection to

RJ35X

8P8C

whatever line has been selected in a key telephone set plus a

bridged A and A1 lead.

Similar to RJ31X, with a continuity circuit. If the plug is

RJ38X

8P4C

disconnected from the jack, shorting bars allow the phone circuit
to continue to the site phones. Only 4 conductors are used.

RJ41S

8P8C, keyed

For one data line, universal (fixed loop loss and programmed)

RJ45S

8P8C, keyed

For one data line, with programming resistor

RJ48C

8P4C

For four-wire data line (DSX-1)

RJ48S

8P4C, keyed

For four-wire data line (DDS)

RJ48X

8P4C with
shorting bar

For four-wire data line (DS1)

RJ49C

8P8C

For ISDN BRI via NT1

RJ61X

8P8C

For four telephone lines

RJ71C

50-pin micro

12 line series connection using 50-pin connector (with bridging

ribbon

adapter) ahead of customer equipment. Mostly used for call

sequencer equipment.

Many of the basic names have suffixes that indicate subtypes:

C: flush-mount or surface mount

F: flex-mount

W: wall-mount

L: lamp-mount

S: single-line

M: multi-line

X: complex jack

For example, RJ11 comes in two forms: RJ11W is a jack from which a wall telephone can be
hung, while RJ11C is a jack designed to have a cord plugged into it. (A cord can be plugged into
an RJ11W as well.)

D-subminiature
The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of electrical connector. They are named for
their characteristic D-shaped metal shield. When they were introduced, D-subs were among the
smallest connectors used on computer systems.

Typical applications

Communications ports
The widest application of D-subs is for RS-232 serial communications,

Network ports
DE9 connectors were used for some token ring networks as well as other computer networks.
The Attachment Unit Interfaces that were used with 10BASE5 "thick net" in the 1980s and 1990s
used DA15 connectors for connectivity between the Medium Attachment Units and
(Ethernet) network interface cards.

Computer video output

A female 9-pin connector on an IBM compatible personal computer may be a video display
output such as MDA, Hercules, CGA, or EGA (rarely VGA or others). Even though these all use
the same DE9 connector, the displays cannot all be interchanged and monitors or video
interfaces may even be damaged if connected to an incompatible device using the same
connector.

Game controller ports

Starting in the late 1970s the Atari 2600 game console used modified DE9 connectors (male on
the system, female on the controller) for its game controller connectors.

Other
The early Macintosh and late Apple II computers used an obscure 19-pin D-sub for connecting to
external floppy disk drives. Atari also used this connector on their 16-bit computer range for
attaching hard disc drives and the Atari laser printer

Esata
1.

Short for External Serial Advanced Technology Attachment eSATA is an

extension to the Serial ATA standard that enables SATA drives to be attached
externally. Prior to eSATA, external hard drives were connected via USB 2.0 or
FireWire.
Audio connectors
Audio connectors and video connectors are electrical connectors (or optical connectors) for
carrying audio signal andvideo signal, of either analog or digital format. Analog A/V connectors
often use shielded cables to inhibit radio frequency interference (RFI) and noise.