Although, generally, the idea of port to facilities that operate in a coastal area and that are used by boats, the concept is broader and has other uses. The port can be understood as an infrastructure that provides various kinds of benefits.
In the computing , a port is an interface that enables the exchange of digital information. These ports can be physicists (with an entry in the hardware of the computer to allow the connection of a peripheral) or virtual (logical ports managed through the software ).
It is known as parallel port to the connection type which allows the transfer of data through packets that circulate simultaneously using a cable Within the framework of said exchange of information , there will be bits that will travel different paths, both ways.
What allows the parallel port, in short, is the simultaneous exchange of bit packets across different threads . Each parallel port can be used to send up to 8 bits simultaneously, through 8 different wires.
In a PC , the parallel port is integrated into motherboard or motherboard . The speed of parallel ports increased with technological advancement.
At a speed of 2.4 megabytes per second, the first parallel ports that were created worked, that is, at that time they allowed the exchange of information in a bidirectional way. However, now it is not so.
The studies and advances made in this regard have allowed us to find parallel ports much faster today, highlighting these two types in a fundamental way:
-EPP (Enhanced Parallel Port), which has the capacity to reach speeds between 8 and 16 megabytes per second.
-ECP (Enhanced Capacity Port). This has been developed by the joint work of two important companies, such as Microsoft and Hewlett Packard. It can achieve the same operating speeds as the previous one, but it has a nuance that makes it different: a system thanks to which it can immediately recognize one or more peripherals that are connected.
Physically we can say that the parallel port of a PC is connected to the outside of it by using a female connector called DB25, which is composed of the following elements:
-Land lines.
-8 data pins.
-5 status lines.
-4 control lines.
The possibility of exchanging information bi-directionally through different wires is what distinguishes parallel ports from serial ports or serial ports , which allow information to circulate through a single thread.
In addition to all this, other identity signs can be highlighted from the parallel port:
-Has an input / output address.
-The standard has three 8-bit registers, data, control and status.
-There is the parallel IDE port, which is used to connect hard drives, CD recorders ...
-There is also the SCSI parallel port, which is used in the Apple signature computers.
