There are many things you may want to do with your computer, such as
scanning photos, downloading video from a video camera, downloading
photos from a digital camera, adding an external hard drive to store
files, and so forth. There are also many different ways to connect
these external devices to your computer, some being faster than others,
some being more reliable. After becoming familiar with the different
technologies you should be able to choose the best technologies
for your computing needs.
If you can understand the different type of connections you can
figure out how to get all of you peripherals to communicate with each
other.
- Mbps - Megabits (Million Bits) per second. A measurement of
data transfer rate. How fast the data can move in one second. For
example, 12 Mbps would be a transfer rate of 12 million bits in each
second.
SCSI
Small Computer System Interface (pronounced "scuzzy") is a parallel
interface standard and is the oldest of these interface technologies.
Transfer rates with SCSI devices range from 4-80 MBps depending on
which SCSI technology being used. There are approximately nine
different SCSI technologies in widespread use and one must be careful
to use the right connectors. SCSI is less stable than USB and Firewire
and is only capable of connecting a small number of devices. Each
device must be designated with a number ranging from 1-9 with the
computer's hard
drive and CD-ROM taking up two of these numbers. USB/US02
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. USB devices can be "hot
swapped", meaning you can plug and unplug them from your computer
without turning your computer or the device off. With a transfer rate
of 12 MBps they are perfect for such devices as keyboards, mice,
digital cameras and printers. With USB you are able to connect up to
127 USB devices to your computer. USB is expected to completely replace
serial and parallel ports within the near future. Firewire
Also known as IEEE 1394, iLink, and Lynx, Firewire has a very high
rate of data transfer (up to 400 Mbps). Because of its high speed it is
most often used in applications that require transfer of very large
files such as video editing. Firewire is capable of connecting 63
devices together and is also hot swappable. Firewire also has built in
power, which means that most devices don't even need to be plugged into
a power outlet. Beyond
Work is currently being done to improve two already existing peripheral technologies making them faster yet.
- USB 2 - USB 2 can reach speeds of up to 480 Mbps. USB 2
devices will be able to run with the original USB drivers but USB1
devices will not take advantage of the new drivers and speed.
- Firewire 2 - Firewire is evolving as well, and transfer speeds should reach 800 Mbps.
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