Definition of Serial Port

The serial port or serial port is a species plug that used to be put in computers and that allowed to connect different simple devices to a PC.

A printer, a mouse, a scanner etc. it is what was normally connected to this port or connector. What the serial port does is send the data one by one to communicate external devices of the PC with the same computer. It was soon discovered that it was a bit slow and was replaced by the parallel port that was faster and more practical for the time (we are talking about the beginning of the era computing). Later, new systems for sending data have made this port the most used, mainly due to the little wiring necessary to connect it.

A few serial ports with high velocity that are appearing in the scene of computers are the famous USB (Universal Serial Bus) or universal serial port. Modern serial ports use the

technique of the twisted pair that is nothing other than the twisting of the cable as if it were a woman's pigtail, to prevent cables from generating magnetic fields that interfere with data transported. The data needs to be free of interference, otherwise any “extra” signal that carries the cable to the other end of the line could render the data totally unreadable. This would make the transmission of any data or information useless. To protect this data from external interference, they also have a shield consisting of a layer of aluminum along the entire length of the cable. This aluminum by surrounding the cable can prevent electromagnetic waves from outside from interfering with the data being transported.

If we surround our house or room with a metallic envelope, we would prevent any radio wave, be it from television, mobile phones, etc. come to us. It would be enough with a simple metal grill that we put on the ceiling to be isolated from waves. Another famous standard is Serial ATA (Serial Advanced technology Atachment). This system is used to connect hard drives to their respective motherboards and its connection way makes them data transfers are safer and faster compared to data transfers made with other systems.

Also comment that the famous PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) to which all kinds of devices are connected on motherboards, are serial or serial port.

Themes in Serial Port