Computer Interfaces

Molex Connectors

Molex connectors are used to connect disk drives using a two piece pin and socket connection. The company Molex developed these in the late 1950s and early 1960s and are now used in cars, vending machines, and computers. Because the connections have a large contact surface area, they are most often used for power.

SATA Cables

Serial ATA, or SATA, are cables used to connect storage devices such as hard drives and optical drives. These replaced the Parallel ATA, or PATA, cables because they are cheaper, smaller, and faster than the PATA cables. 

Jumper

Jumpers are conductors used to close a break in or an opening. When jumpers are put on two or more jumper pins, an electrical connection is made and the computer will activate settings according to the placement of the jumpers.

BIOS and CMOS Jumper

The BIOS and CMOS jumpers are used to clear the CMOS and BIOS passwords. These are located on the motherboard near the processor and CMOS battery or near the edge of the motherboard. To clear the CMOS and BIOS, put the jumper on the middle wire and the uncovered one and turn on the computer to see if the password has been cleared. If it has, put the jumper back in its original position.

Computer Fan

This cable gives power to active cooling fans. They can either be 2 pin, 3 pin, or 4 pin. Cooling fans are used to draw warm air away from the computer components so the parts operate more efficiently.

DVI Monitor Cable

The DVI monitor cable is used to connect the computer to the monitor. It can have up to 29 pins (DVI-I Dual Link). The signal speed is 60 Hz.

USB 3.0

The USB 3.0 is used to transfer data at a faster rate than USB 2.0. They can transfer data at 500 MB/s and can only be used in USB 3.0 ports. USB 3.0 ports are colored blue instead of black or white.

Firewire

Firewire is a interface used for data transfers. It was designed by Apple in the 1980s. It is similar to USB but USB has more of the market. Firewire is a serial bus and transfers data one bit at a time. It is often used to connect data storage devices and DV cameras.

PCI Buses

PCI is a bus for connecting RAM and other internal hardware to the motherboard. Any attached device is either an integrated circuit or an expansion card. The speed of these buses can be 133 MB/s, 266 MB/s, or 533 MB/s.

Display Port

The Display Port is a display interface developed by VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) and is used to connect a video source to a video display device. The speed is 4.6 MB/s.

PS/2 Port

These ports connect Mice (green) and keyboards (purple) to a PC computer. They are 6 pin Mini-DIN connectors. The data signal is 10 to 16 kHz with 1 stop bit, 1 start bit, and 1 parity bit.