Difference Between Computer Ports

In daily life, we encounter with the peripheral devices which are connected to the different ports of computer but there are few people who have the clear idea about these ports and the differences between them. Following is brief summary of the widely used computer ports:

Serial Port

Serial port is considered as the essential part of the computer since 1980's. Many modems and mouse were designed to communicate with the computer by using only serial port. In the past, some printers, handheld devices and digital cameras were only compatible with serial port.

Parallel Port

In 1970, first time parallel port was used for a printer (Centronics Model 101) interfacing with the computer. Parallel port was widely used, before the advent of USB port, to connect printers, scanners, zip drives, network adapters and magnetic tape devices.

Parallel Port of a PC - above is male and below one is female

USB Port

USB (Universal Serial Bus) connectors and ports in any ordinary computer are one of the finest solutions of hardware connectivity problems. It is very easy for a common computer user to connect a device with computer using USB port and computer also quickly configure the attached device in no time. As we know about USB memory device which is the best example of plug and play devices.

Group of 4 USB ports in a PC

Comparison

"What is the best way of interfacing?" I am sure that this question is striking in your mind so its answer is USB port because it is more flexible, easy and fastest way of device interfacing and data communication.The reason of this answer is given following:

"Data transmission rate by using serial port or parallel port is very less as compared to the USB port and many of us have witnessed this fact. So if there are the devices which have the faster connections then we have to use additional cards in the computer to minimize this speed difference and then also need to install the relevant programs\drivers. Therefore, this complete process wastes time and requires hardware expertise."

Only one USB port can facilitate us to connect more than 127 versatile devices to a single computer. Majority of the peripheral manufacturers use USB connectivity as a standard. These peripheral devices includes:

• Printers
• Speakers
• Digital Cameras
• Mice
• Keyboards
• Modems
• CD\DVD ROMs
• External Storage Devices
• Mobile Phones

and many other devices used in scientific research.