Parallel port

A parallel port is a computer system interface in which data is transferred in or out in parallel, that is, on more than one simultaneous wire connection. A parallel port carries one bit on each wire thus multiplying the obtainable over a single wire. There will usually be some s on the port as well to say when data is ready to be sent or received.

History
A classic type of parallel port was the PC printer port, e.g. a which transferred 8 bits at a time. Hard disks were also connected via special parallel ports, e.g. SCSI or IDE. Usage of parallel ports was superseded by the introduction of USB in the 1990s.