What is the difference between a serial port and a parallel port?

Answer 1

Parallel ports are easy to program and faster compared to the serial ports. But main disadvantage is it needs more number of transmission lines. Because of this reason parallel ports are not used in long distance communications. Let us know the basic difference between working of parallel port and serial port. In serial ports, there will be two data lines: One transmission and one receive line. To send a data in serial port, it has to be sent one bit after another with some extra bits like start bit, stop bit and parity bit to detect errors. But in parallel port, all the 8 bits of a byte will be sent to the port at a time and a indication will be sent in another line. There will be some data lines, some control and some handshaking lines in parallel port. If three bytes of data 01000101 10011100 10110011 is to be sent to the port, parallel port communication is faster then serial port.

Answer 2

Ah, what a lovely question! A serial port sends data one bit at a time, like painting delicate strokes on a canvas. On the other hand, a parallel port sends multiple bits simultaneously, akin to painting with broad, sweeping strokes. Each has its own unique beauty and purpose in the grand masterpiece of technology.

Answer 3

USB: Is a port that can connect computer peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, game pads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras and printers. For many of those devices USB has become the standard connection method.

SERIAL: Is a port is a serial communication physical interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time (contrast parallel port). Throughout most of the history of personal computers, data transfer through serial ports connected the computer to devices such as terminals or modems. Mice, keyboards, and other peripheral devices also connected in this way.

NOTE: The USB has now retired the use of Serial Connection!

The USB is now the Standard of Connection between two or more Peripherals.

Answer 4

• A parallel port passes multiple data bits per buss cycle, by using a separate wire for each bit to be sent.
• A serial port passes one data bit per buss cycle. It is much cheaper as fewer wires are needed, but also slower.

Answer 5

A serial port is a type of port which sends and receives data one bit at a time, as opposed to parallel ports which can send and receive in multiple streams.

A COM port is a type of serial port. At one time it was the most common type of serial port, but USB has supplanted its role. It is becoming increasingly rare for modern PC's to include the old-style COM ports.

Answer 6

Parallel ports are easy to program and faster compared to the serial ports. But main disadvantage is it needs more number of transmission lines. Because of this reason parallel ports are not used in long distance communications. Let us know the basic difference between working of parallel port and serial port. In serial ports, there will be two data lines: One transmission and one receive line. To send a data in serial port, it has to be sent one bit after another with some extra bits like start bit, stop bit and parity bit to detect errors. But in parallel port, all the 8 bits of a byte will be sent to the port at a time and a indication will be sent in another line. There will be some data lines, some control and some handshaking lines in parallel port. If three bytes of data 01000101 10011100 10110011 is to be sent to the port, parallel port communication is faster then serial port.

Most parallel ports are a DB25 pin female, while most serial ports are DB9 pin male.

Both serial and parallel ports can be used for printer, but parallel is by far the most common. The most common use for serial is modem or communication to a device.

Both use IRQ resources. Parallel use LPT ports in the Operating System, while Serial uses COM ports.

Answer 7

In serial port : The Data flows continuously and

In Parallel Port : The Data is transported as a pack.

Hence for large data to be printed it is always preferable to use the serial port rather than the Parallel port.

Answer 8

The difference is the format of the data being sent. Parallel means that multiple bits are sent at the same time on different wires. Serial means that a single bit is sent at a time on a single wire. There is usually a clock signal pin for keeping track of where each byte begins. Serial ports are often smaller than parallel ports.

In regards to the serial version of the ATA hard drive port and the parallel version, the advantage of the serial version is that faster speeds can be reached. That seems to defy logic since it is faster to send entire bytes or larger at once. However, the problem with PATA is that after reaching 133 MB/S, crosstalk becomes a problem. While SATA would have to be clocked at 10 times the speed to get the same data rate, the signal is much cleaner.

Answer 9

A parallel port can transfer 8 bits at a time, while a serial port can only transfer one bit at a time.

Answer 10

They are the same. Different name for the same port.