Different types of DIN, USB, Firewire, DB, RJ and audio connectores are used in a PC.
Difference between Plug and Port:
A plug is a part with some type of projections that goes to a port. A port /Jack is a part that has some type of matching hole or slot that accepts the plug. The term jack is used as an alternative to port.
mini-DIN Connectors:
mini-DINs are used for keyboard and mouse. This replaced older DIN connectors.
USB and FireWire Connectors:
Universal Serial Bus(USB) connectors come in three different sizes. A, B and mini-B. USB A plug is upstream and a port is downstream.
USB and Firewire(IEEE1394) are hot swappable. FireWire moves data at incredibly high speed. FireWire uses 6 or 9 wire. A smaller 4-wire version is also available.
RJ Connectors:
RJ-11 is the phone jack and a slightly wider RJ-45 is used for your network connection.
Audio and Video Connectors:
Audio uses 1/8 inch connecor normally marked as light green.
Oldest type video connector is 15-pin female DB. Then came the DVI connector which is white in color.
High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is the newest type of video connector. It has the ability to carry both video and sound on thesame cable.
To consolidate the sound signals, the industry invented Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format(S/PDIF) connection. S/PDIF comes in coaxial and optical versions. One S/PDIF connector replaces all the mini-audio connections, assuming your sound speaker system also comes with an S/PDIF connection.
Printer:
Printer uses USB Ports, FireWire, Ethernet and Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.
eSATA:
eSATA is a special connector for expernal harddrives and optical drives.
CPU and RAM:
Todays popular CPUs are Core2, Core i7, Celeron, Athlon, and Phenom. Intel CPU currently uses a package type called land grid array(LGA) and AMD likes pin grid array(PGA).
Common type of memory stick found is dual inline memory module(DIMM).
Harddrive and Optical Media Drives:
- Parallel advanced technology Attachment(PATA)
- Serial Advanced Technology Attachment(SATA)
Different Type of Optical Media Discs:
- CD-ROM(read only memory)
- CD-R (recordable, you can change the data once)
- CD-RW(rewriteable: you can change the data over them over and over)
- DVD-ROM(4Gb and above)
- DVD+R
- DVD-R
- DVD+RW
- DVD-RW
- Blue-ray Disc (capacities start from 25GB)