Ports & Connectors

The Ports and Connectors are basically the connection points through which
we connect various types of I / O devices externally or internally with the
system. The external I / O devices are keyboard, mouse, printer, scanner and
WEB camera etc. Whereas the internal I / O devices are Floppy disk drives,
Hard disk drives and CD - ROM etc. These ports and connectors are designed
differently in order to avoid any kind of damage to the device or the system
electronic sections as the user of the system could be a non – technical
(electronics) person and might not be able to understand the complexity of
connectivity of the devices with the system. Connecting wrong device with
the wrong connection points may lead to partially or completely damage to
the device or the electronic section controlling its functioning or to both.
Types of Ports and connectors
These ports and connectors could be classified in to two main categories on
the basis of their placement in the system and the use. One of these two
ports is called External Ports and Connector and the other as Internal Port
and Connector.

External Port and Connectors

These ports could be seen on the back
of the CPU cabinet. These ports and
connectors are used to connect the
system and a device together, using a
connecting cable so that they can
communicate with each other. We can
see various types of ports and
connectors on the back side of the
cabinet; each has a different size and
shape.

1. Power Connector
The power connector is given on the Power Supply unit of the system. There
maybe one or two connectors. This depends on the discretion of the
manufacturer. These connector are also of two different shapes, Male and
Female type. The male type is used to connect Mains cord with the system to
give the AC 220V as input supply and the female type of power connector (if
available) is used to connect Monitor to give AC 220V input supply voltage.
2. Keyboard Port / Connector
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This port is used to connect keyboard with the motherboard. There are two
types of keyboard port / connectors used in the system.

(A) 5 Pin - Din socket [deustch industries norms]

The 5 Pin - din Socket was widely used in earlier
motherboards to connect the keyboard with the
motherboard. These connectors are also known as AT
keyboard connectors. This connector had 5 pins and was
bigger in size. Standard color – Black. It is also called DIN 5 Connector.
(B) PS/2 Type
This connector was introduced by IBM in its PS/2 model and later on gained
popularity among other clone company based systems also. This connector
is smaller in size and has 6 pins. This connector is similar to the PS/2 Mouse
connector but generally the keyboard connector is located below the PS/2
mouse connector and is near to the motherboard PCB. Standard color –
violet.

3. Mouse Port [PS/2 Type]

Its color is green. It is present in ATX Motherboard.
4. Serial Port (COM1 / COM2)
This port is used to connect serial mouse or any
serial communication device such as Serial Printer or
External Modem with the system. There are two
types of serial connector used in the system. The 9
Pin D – Type connector and 25 Pin D - Type connector.
Both the types of connectors are known as Male
connectors as both of them have 9 or 25 pins respectively. The 25 Pin D -
Type connectors are now obselete, hence not used in newer version of
motherboards starting from Pentium - II. It is also called COM port.
Standard color – Green/Black.
Speed – 9.6 kbps- 115kbps
Use for Mouse, Printer.
5. Parallel Ports
Its standard color is pink. Use for Printer (Dot matrix).This port has 25 pins to
connect devices such as printers, scanners, external hard disk drives etc.
This port is also known as printer port because this port is mainly used for
connecting printer supporting parallel interface. The 25 pin connector has 8
pins dedicated for data lines that means 8 bit data could be transmitted from
one section to the other at a time. This port uses a female type 25 pin D -
type connector and looks like the figure given below:

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There are different types of
parallel ports used in the system.
The difference between them is
their capability to transmit the
data and other signals. These
different types of parallel ports are as under:
Unidirectional This port transmits data in one direction at a time that
means either sending data or receiving data at a time.
SPP It is known as Standard Parallel Port. This enables bidirectional data
communication between the system and device simultaneously at a time.
That means the device can send the data while receiving at the same time.
EPP It is known as Enhanced Parallel Port. This provides data transfer speed
of 500 kb to 2 Mb of data per second between the system and the device.
This port is used for attaching external storage devices to the system or
scanners.
ECP It is known as Enhanced Capabilities Port. This provides data
communication speed between the system and the device.
6. USB Port
The USB is known as Universal Serial BUS. The BUS through which number of
devices could be connected with the system. This port was developed by a
group of some leading IT organizations like Intel Corp., Microsoft, HP, DELL
etc. This port was developed in order to attach new devices with the system
to use system resources when ever connected and required because in
earlier Pc’s there was a limitation of devices to be connected with the system
and to which the system hardware recognizes but with the introduction of
new devices such as WEB Camera and storage devices like Pen drive the
need to recognize these devices and to allow a faster data transmission was
required. This requirement was fulfilled by a dedicated port known as USB
port. In order to easily identify this port from other ports and connectors USB
port is given a different design. The figure below shows different types of
USB ports. USB carries data at the rate of 12 megabits per second, which is
sufficient for "medium to low-speed peripherals". This broad category
includes Mobiles, digital cameras, modems, keyboards, mice, digital
joysticks, some CD-ROM drives, tape and floppy drives, digital scanners and
specialty printers. USB's data rate also accommodates a whole new
generation of peripherals, including MPEG-2 video-base products. Computer-
telephony integration is expected to be a big growth area for PCs, and USB
can provide an interface for Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN).
Technically, up to 127 individual USB peripherals could be connected at a
time. It is hot swappable. Win 95, Win NT, and UNIX are not compatible with
USB Port.

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7. Monitor Port
The monitor port is used to connect monitor with the
system. Earlier systems based on CGA (Color Graphic
Adapter), MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter) and EGA
(Enhanced Graphic Adapter) display cards had 9 Pin D -
Type connector but the systems now a days are based
on VGA (Video Graphic Array) and AGP display cards
uses 15 Pin D-Type female connector (port). The monitor
is given some basic signals such as Red colour info,
Green colour info, Blue colour info, and Intensity,
Vertical and Horizontal Sync signals through this port to
produce the picture on the screen. Earlier this port was
available on display card (as used in the system) but now, this port is placed
on the motherboard itself. The figure below shows the Monitor Port and the
Monitor interface cable connector. This connector is used to connect the VGA
port connected in the slot area of the cabinet to the motherboard based
display controller section. These connectors have 15 or 16 pins and are
marked on the motherboard as VGA.

7. Network Port

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This port is generally given on the
Network Interface Card (NIC), which
is now available on motherboards
also. This port is used to connect
network cable segment with the
system to enable data flow in the
network environment. Generally two
types of ports are used for network cable segment, one BNC connector and
other RJ 45 or UTP connector. Today’s motherboards have RJ 45 connectors
connected on it and could be found in the back side of the system in
between other ports and connectors.
8. Sound Port
This port was earlier the part of the
sound card but now; built on the
motherboard therefore this port is
also provided on the rear side of the
motherboard along with the other
ports and connectors. The sound
port has three points to connect MIC,
Speaker and any sound input device
in Line in. These ports are now
provided with a colour rings in order
to easy identification. The pink
colour ring is for MIC, the Green is to
connect speaker and the Blue ring is
to connect Line in device such as
tape recorder, MIDI device etc. Generally the top connector ring is for Line -
in, the center connector ring is for speaker and the bottom connector (near
the motherboard PCB) is used to connect MIC. This colour ring codes are
however used in general but it could change from manufacturer to
manufacturer basis.

Internal Connectors
The internal connectors are found on the motherboard or any adapter cards.
These connectors are used to connect
respective devices as per the controlling
sections. Now a days most of these
connectors are placed on the motherboards
itself only few connectors are found on any
adapter cards since today’s system uses a
integrated (single board technology)
motherboards which not only has important
sections but also has controllers earlier used
as an adapter card. These connectors and their shapes are as under:
1. HDD Connector

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This connector is used to connect hard disk drives with the motherboard
based its controlling section. There are physically two HDD connectors on the
motherboard. The first one is known as Primary HDD connector or IDE 1 and
the second one is known as Secondary HDD connector or IDE 2. Some times
these connectors are also termed as Primary HDD and Secondary HDD. Each
connector has 40 pins and notch on one of the side wall of the connector.
This notch helps to connect the IDE interface cable used to connect hard disk
and the controlling section in correct way as
connecting the cable in wrong way may
damage the HDD or controller or both.

2. FDD Connector
This connector is used to connect floppy disk drives with the system and to
its controlling section. There is only one connector given on the motherboard
to connect floppy disk drive(s). This connector looks similar to the HDD
Connector but is slightly smaller in size as it has only 34 pins. This connector
like HDD Connector also has a notch in the middle of one of its wall.
3. Power Connector
This connector is used to connect wire / connectors coming from power
supply of the system. There are generally three types of power connectors
used in the motherboard. Depending of the motherboards supply
requirements and support features, there might be one of these three
connectors or all of them connected on the motherboard. These power
connectors are as under:
(i) AT Power Connector
The AT power connector was used in the system from PC - XT to AT systems
based on Pentium II and some Pentium III processor. AT power supplies use a
pair of connectors called P8 and P9 to provide power to the AT motherboard.
Each of these connectors has a row of teeth along one side and a small guide
on the opposite side that help to hold the connection in place, Figure below
shows the AT power plug on the motherboard. P8 and P9 power connectors
are faced (that is, they have a front and a back), to avoid wrong connectivity
of the connectors. Sometimes the small keys on P8 and P9 require angling
the connectors in before snapping them down. Figure shows a technician
angling in the P8 and P9 connectors. In order to avoid wrong connection and
actual placement of P8 and P9 connectors the black wires of both P8 and P9
connectors should face each other and then slided. The wrong placement of
P8 and P9 connectors could lead to damage motherboard circuitry. Red wire
12V and yellow wire 5V current supply.

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ATX Power Connector
The ATX stands for Advance Technology - Extended. This connector was
introduced from the systems based on Pentium II or compatible processor
and soon it became popular in almost every systems based on Pentium II / III
/ IV or compatible systems. Like motherboards there is different form factors
used in the power supplies also. The earlier supply known as AT Power supply
(SMPS) was a manually operated power supply whereas the ATX power
supply is a pulse driven power supply which means the power supply will
release or stop the supply of power from SMPS on getting a pulse. Due to this
feature system could be started automatically on accessing via LAN or on
receiving any call on phone line.

Another major factor of difference between the two types of power supplies
is their output voltage levels. The AT power supply generates a constant
+5V, + 12 V, - 5 V and - 12 V output voltages and the ATX power supply
generates + 3.3 V output voltage along with the voltages as generated in AT
power supplies. There are two types of connectors used in ATX power
supplies, the first one is known as 20 Pin Molex connector and the second
one is known as ATX 12 V connector. ATX use a single P1 power connector
instead of P8 & P9.
Peripheral power: Device like mass storage and media drives, hard drives,
floppy disk drive, ZIP drive, CD ROM drive and Fan also draw power directly
from the PC power supply. AT and ATX power supplies both have the Molex
and mini connector used by the device.

Front Panel Connectors

The front panel connectors are basically
some indicator and control switch
connections. These connectors includes
indicators like HDD function LED, Power
LED and control switches like Power On /
Off switch and Reset switch connections.
The wires coming from front panel also
known as bezel are connected with these
connectors. The figure below shows
these connectors. The connection pins
are marked on the motherboard PCB for
the wire to be attached with them or some times a layout is provided with
the motherboard either in the form of a user manual or a sticker showing the
placement of the connectors. Apart from these connectors mentioned earlier
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some other type of connectors are also used mainly in the Pentium I / II and
III category systems. These connectors are used to connect the ports with
the motherboards.

5. IEEE 1394 Port

IEEE 1394 is a very fast standard that supports of up to 400 (in 1394a) and
800Mbps (in 1394b). Products supporting the 1394 standard go under
different names, depending on the company. Apple, which originally
developed the technology, uses the trademarked name FireWire. Other
companies use other names, such as i.link and Lynx, to describe their 1394
products. A single 1394 can be used to connect up 63 external devices. In
addition to its high speed, 1394 also supports data, delivering data at a
guaranteed rate. This makes it ideal for devices that need to transfer high
levels of data, such as devices. Although extremely fast and flexible, 1394 is
also expensive. Like 1394 supports both and, and also provides power to
peripheral devices.

Motherboard Resources
In computer system every device requires a medium to communicate, to
inform about itself and proper information about where to transmit its data.
In order to have proper communication between devices in the form of
signals certain signal lines are required which we can term as motherboard
resources or in other words system resources. These system resources help
in sending or receiving the information (data) from one section / device to
the proper destination.

Interrupt Request Query

The Interrupt Request Query is also termed in its short form as IRQ channels
or hardware interrupts. These IRQ’s are used by various devices to signal the
processor that the device wants to communicate and its request must be
fulfilled. These interrupt channels are represented by wires on the
motherboard and in the expansion slots. When a particular interrupt is
invoked, a special routine takes over the system, which first saves all the

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CPU register contents in a stack (register inside the CPU) and then directs
the system to the interrupt vector table. This vector table contains a list of
memory addresses that correspond to the interrupt channels and with the
help of this vector table CPU identifies which device wants its attention.
Through the use of interrupts, the system can respond to external events in a
timely fashion. Each time for example, the serial port presents a byte to the
system; an interrupt is generated to ensure that the system reads that byte
before another comes in. These hardware interrupts are prioritized by their
number, the highest - priority interrupts have the lowest numbers. Higher
priority interrupts take precedence over lower – priority interrupts by
interrupting them. As a result, several interrupts can occur in the system
concurrently. In general each I / O device is assigned a unique IRQ and if any
two device uses the same IRQ at the same time then a resource conflict
takes place and as a result the system assigns the IRQ on the priority basis.
The earlier XT systems (based on 8088 processor) had 8 IRQ’s and the new
generation AT systems (systems based on 80286 onward processor) has 16
IRQ’s. The list of IRQ number and its assigned device is given below:
DMA Channels
The DMA Channels are basically known as Direct Memory Access Channels.
These channels are used by high - speed communication devices that must
transact the information at a high speed. The devices which uses DMA
channel could access the memory directly without the association of
processor. A Serial or Parallel port does not use a DMA channel, but a
network adapter card does, likewise some of the newer type of hard disk
drives also supports DMA. DMA channel could be shared if the devices
connected with the system are not of the type that would need DMA
channels simultaneously. Like IRQ, DMA channels are different for PC - XT
and AT systems. The DMA channels for PC - XT systems are known as 8 bit
ISA BUS DMA channel and for PC - AT systems it is known as 16 bit ISA DMA
channel.

I / O Address
I / O Address is also known as I /O Port Address or Memory Address. A
personal computer may transfer data from disk to CPU, from CPU to memory,
or from memory to the display adapter. A PC cannot afford to have separate
circuits between every pair of devices. The I / O address is a hexadecimal
number (the address) that identifies a particular device or memory location.
The computer chips watch the address wires and respond when their
identifying number is transmitted. They then transfer data on the other wires
known as data bus.
Each I/O device connected to the computer is mapped to a unique pattern of
16 ones and zeros known as I/O (Input/Output) address such as
0000000111110000. These addresses are assigned to every I/O port on the
computer, including USB, Firewire, Ethernet, VGA ports. Having a unique
address assigned to each port allows the computer to easily recognize and
locate devices attached to the motherboard be it a keyboard, mouse, display

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controller, printer, or any other device. The computer can locate it by its I/O
address. There are three basic rules which apply to I /O addresses.
1. All devices must have a unique I / O address.
2. All devices may use more than one I / O address.
3. Once a unique I / O address is assigned to any device, no other device can
use that address.
The list given below shows I / O addresses range and the device using them.

PnP
PnP stands for Plug and Play features. This feature was introduced from
Pentium – I category systems. In early Pc’s new devices such as sound card
or LAN cards, when added to the system required manual configuring to
attach them with the system hardware which included installing the card in
the expansion slot, installation of respective software and resolving resource
conflict if any manually to make them working. The plug and play feature
introduced from Pentium - I onward and Windows 98 operating system
enabled the system to automatically identify new addition of any hardware
devices, assign them their related system resources such as IRQ, DMA
channels and I / O port address along with the software driver (if available in
the database of the operating system) and start the functioning of the newly
added device. Incase if the operating system does not have any
compatible device driver software then it prompts the user to install that
software from the disk provided by the manufacturer of the device. This
feature of automatic configuring the device on connecting with the hardware
is termed as Plug and Play. In order to activate this feature the device to be
connected with the system should also be designed and support the Plug and
Play standards.
For PnP to work properly, the PC
needs three items:

1. The BIOS of the system

motherboard should be PnP
BIOS. This could be identified by
closely monitoring the screen
during the boot process as given
in the figure.
2. The system should have a
PnP supporting operating system such as Windows 9x / ME, Windows 2000 /
XP etc. The older operating system such as DOS does not support PnP
feature.
3. The device to be added in the system should be a PnP device be it a sound
card, display controller, network interface card or modem and even a printer.
All the devices currently available in the market are usually PnP devices and
generally mentioned on them.

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