Thread: Motherboards Ports and Headers

Ports are co,nnectors used to connect external cables and devices to the motherboard. In addition to the keyboard and PS/2 mouse connectors, some types of motherboards (such as the A TX) have on the back edge of the motherboard integrated serial and parallel ports. Motherboards that don't use integrated ports use headers on the motherboard. Headers are groups of pins used to connect devices or ports to the motherboard. A cable runs from the port and is plugged into the header on the board. The following are the headers that are commonly found on a typical Baby AT style motherboard:
• Serial Ports with 9 or 10 pins.
• Parallel Port with 26 pins.
• PS/2 Mouse Port with 5 pins.
• USB (Universal Serial Bus) with 10 pins
• IR (Infrared) Port for wireless devices like cordless mouse or keyboard with 4 - 5 pins.
• Primary and Secondary IDE/ATA Hard Disk Interface with 40 pins each for two IDE interface.
• Floppy Disk Interface 34-pin the floppy disk cable.