Section 3: Cable Types

Question 1

How many “bits” is a bit, Nibble, Byte?

Answer 1

Bit: two values of 1 & 0
Nibble: 4bits
Byte: 8bits

Question 2

How many “bits” is kilobit, megabits, gigabit, and terabit?

Answer 2

Kilobit: 1,000Kb
Megabit: 1,000,000Mb (million)
Gigabit: 1,000,000,000Gb (billion)
Terabit: 1,000,000,000,000Tb (trillion)

Question 3

If it takes 2secs to send 50bits then data transfer is how much a sec?

Answer 3

25b

Question 4

What does USB stand for and what was it designed to replace?

Answer 4

Universal Serial Bus; replace serial cables

Question 5

Describe a Serial Cable and what is its fastest possible speed?

Answer 5

Serial cables tranmits data in a straight line of 1s and 0s one bit at a time; 115Kbs

Question 6

What are two types of Serial Cables and describe them?

Answer 6

DB25 connector: has two screws on the side connecting to the back of the PC; has 25 pins

DB9 connector: slow speed connection used for old mouse keyboards and external modems; more common

Question 7

What does a Serial Cable connect to and how many devices can connect to it at a time?

Answer 7

Connects to a Serial Port and only one device can connect at a time

Question 8

How many variation of USB are there and what are their speeds?

Answer 8

1. USB 1.0: 1.5Mbps
2. USB 1.1 (fullspeed): 12Mbps
3. USB 2.0 (highspeed): 480Mbps
4. USB 3.0 (superspeed): 5Gbps
5. USB 3.1 (gen one): 5Gbps
6. USB 3.1 (gen two): 10Gbps
7. USB 3.2 (gen 2x2): 20Gbps
8. USB 4.0 (most common): 40Gbps

Question 9

Describe each Type of USB form factor?

Answer 9

1. Type A: connects in one direction(common)
2. Type C: connects in either direction (modern connector)
3. Type B: use older USB 2 devices - found in larger devices like printers
4. Type B mini: trapezoid shaped; found on older phones and tablets (replaced by USB C)
5. Type B micro: used on small wearable devices like smart watches

Question 10

What are the limitation of USB cable length? What are some USB versions cable max length?

Answer 10

Longer the USB cable the likelihood the cable will not work as efficiently or possibly at all. Shorter cable gives best performance.

1. USB 1.1: 5m (15ft)
2. USB 2.0: 5m
3. USB 3.0: 3m (9ft)
4. USB 4.0: 3m

Question 11

What is a Daisy Chain, the max number of devices that can connect to one, and it’s limitation

Answer 11

The ability to connect multiple devices into one single connector port; up to 127 devices can be connected at a time; host controller and it’s use of the same bandwidth across all devices Basically if you Daisy chain 5 devices to a USB 3 (5Gbps) 1Gb with be allocated to each device evenly

Question 12

Name 6 video cables/ports

Answer 12

1. HDMI (high definition multimedia interface)
2. HDMI version 2
3. Display port interface/cable
4. DVI (digital visual interface)
5. VGA (video graphic array)
6. Thunderbolt

Question 13

Explain HDMI and it’s forms?

Answer 13

HDMI is the most widely used video interface with Category 1 Standard capable of HD resolution of 1080p at 60hertz. Category 2 High-Speed is capable of higher res of 4k and up to 144hertz.

Forms
1. Type A Full size
2. Type C Mini
3. Type B Micro
All do the same thing the sizing is different depending on the device

Question 14

Explain HDMI version 2 and it’s two speeds.

Answer 14

Supports higher speeds and designed for Data Transfer.
Capable of Premium high speeds of 18Gbps and ultra speeds of 48Gbps

Question 15

What’s the one thing to remember for HDMI?

Answer 15

The types don’t matter it just determines size. The Category and Version does because it determines display resolution and hertz which is important depending on the device being used

Question 16

What is HDCP?

Answer 16

HDMI Digital Content Protection allows a device to validate a connection. Example: if you try to stream services from tv to computer it won’t work because the HDCP recognizes its not an authorized device/connection OR ROKU device connecting to TV uses HDCP and will recognize the TV is authorized to receive the streaming data

Question 17

What was Display Ports made to replace, what are its two form factors, and max data transfer speed?

Answer 17

1.Made to be a royalty free competitor to HDMI at its inception
2. has a Full-size (tends to have a locking pin) and Mini Display Port form
3. Max speed of 20Gbps (minimum 2.7Gbps)

Question 18

What is the biggest difference between HDMI and Display Port?

Answer 18

Though Display Port can support high definition it’s slower than and HDMI with a max of 20Gbps to HDMI ultra speed 48Gbps

Question 19

What is a DVI, what was it replaced by, and what are its 3 types?

Answer 19

1. Digital Video Interface supports analog and digital outputs
2. Replaced by HDMI and Display Ports
3. DVI A, DVI D, DVI I

Question 20

What does each DVI type supports?

Answer 20

1. DVI A supports analog
2. DVI D supports digital
3. DVI I support both analog and digital

Question 21

What came before DVI, explain form factor characteristics, what did it do, and it’s limitation?

Answer 21

1. VGA Video Graphic Array
2. Similar to serial cables having 9 or 25 pins But VGA had 15 pin
3. It was a 15pin standard analog video interface port connecting to the computer
4. Pins tend to break and each pin controlled something different like color or horizontal cross section. If one pin broke it could affect the whole picture

Question 22

What is a Thunderbolt port, difference between the versions, and it’s version compatibility?

Answer 22

1. Thunderbolt used for data transfer
2. 3 versions
3. Version 1 & 2 are backwards compatible with display ports; version 3 not backwards compatible with USB C

Question 23

Explain Thunderbolt versions?

Answer 23

1. Version 1& 2 look identical to a display port but with a lightning symbol next to the port
2. Thunderbolt V3 supports USB C - a USB C can connect into a Thunderbolt port but a Thunderbolt device cannot connect to a regular USB C port

Cable length 1.6ft for 40Gbps

Question 24

What are storage cables used for?

Answer 24

Cable used to connect storage devices to computers (SSD, HDD,)

Question 25

Explain Thunderbolt storage cable characteristics.

Answer 25

1. Supports 40Gbps data transfer 2. Version 4 Thunderbolt is backwards compatible with USB C unlike the version 3 3. TB cable tends to be short (2ft)

Question 26

Explain Lightning storage cable?

Answer 26

Created by Apple for Apple devices

Question 27

Explain SATA storage cable?

Answer 27

1. Aka Serial Advanced Technology Attachment 2. Standard main method of connecting storage devices to the motherboard like a HDD 3. Unlike the USB and TB, SATA uses two cables to connect to a device one for power(15pin) and other for data transfer(7pin) 4. SATA v1 1.5Gbps, v2 3Gbps, v3 6Gbps 5. Limitations usually comes from the device being connected and no the SATA cable due to not keeping up with the transfer speed of a v3

Question 28

What is the acronym PATA/IDE and what does it do?

Answer 28

1. Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment or integrated drive electeonic interface - IDE renamed to PATA 2. Series of parallel cables that can connect up to two storage devices at a time

Question 29

Name two legacy storage devices and what makes them unique if anything?

Answer 29

1. Molex power connector: 4pin cable connecting directly from power to storage device 2. SCIS(scuzy): aka small computer system interface allows multiple devices to be Daisy chained together/ narrow scis supports 7devices wide supports 15devices