Comptia A+ 1001 Cables & Connectors

DVI Dual Link

7.4 Gbps HDTV at 85 frames per second.

USB C

A connector type that is used on USB 3.0 and newer cables. an oval 24-pin connector that connects to either a computer or peripheral device. It is reversible, meaning that it may be inserted with either side up. It has two rows of 12 pins. Each row carries the same set of signals.

USB B

A square shape with a bevel on one edge; Designed to be plugged in for long periods of time.

crossover cable

A twisted pair patch cable in which the termination locations of the transmit and receive wires on one end of the cable are reversed. (568A to 568B)

straight-through cable

A twisted pair patch cable in which the wire terminations in both connectors follow the same scheme.

568B

A wiring color scheme more common than the older 568A

RJ-45 Connector

An eight-position connector that uses all four pairs of wires. It is usually used for network connectivity, referred to as ethernet connector

RG-59 coaxial cable

An older and thinner coaxial cable once used for cable TV. Cable TV coaxial cables are terminated with RG-59 connectors, cylindrical connectors with a threaded end to make a secure connection.

Thunderbolt Cable

Apple™-proprietary cable. It comes as either copper or optical cable. The maximum length is 3 meters for copper and 60 meters for optical cable. The connectors are based on the Mini DisplayPort standard, except Thunderbolt version 3 uses a USB-C connector on the peripheral end. It provides both data and power to peripheral devices, most commonly storage and display devices. There are three versions of Thunderbolt. Total throughput for Version 1 and 2 is 20 Gbps and Version 3 is 40 Gbps.

RG-6 Cable

Coaxial Cable used for connecting homes to cable networks. Larger conductor and higher frequencies than RG-59. Cable Internet coaxial cables are terminated with RG-6 connectors, cylindrical connectors with a threaded end to make a secure connection

coaxial cable

Coaxial cable is used primarily for cable Internet service and audio/video applications such as cable TV. It has a single copper conductor core surrounded by a dielectric insulator and one or more layers of shielding. The shielding reduces electromagnetic interference. The two most common types of coaxial cable are RG-6 for data and RG-59 for audio/video.

Shielded Twisted Pair (STP)

Ethernet cable uses two or four pairs of copper wire. It uses a foil or braided shield to reduce electromagnetic interference. Depending on the type of cable, each twisted pair may be shielded or a single shield covers all twisted pairs.

568A/B

Ethernet cables are terminated with RJ-45 connectors. The pin-out (which wire connects to which pin) of those connectors is defined in the EIA/TIA 568A & 568B Standards. The difference between 568A and 568B is that the transmit and receive pairs are reversed. This allows for two types of cables, straight-through and crossover.

Mini-HDMI

HDMI type C is usually referred to as mini-HDMI. It uses a 19-pin connector arranged in two rows, like the HDMI type A cable, but it is smaller and the pin-out is different.

HDMI

High Definition Multimedia Interface. It uses a 19-pin connector arranged in two rows. There are different types of HDMI cables. The most commonly used is type A but is usually just referred to as an HDMI cable with no type designation.

IDE

Integrated Drive Electronics is an older interface. The IDE cable is a 40-wire (34-wire for floppy drives) ribbon cable that is connected from the motherboard on one end to one or two drives on the other end.

Display Port

It uses a 20-pin connector arranged in two rows of ten pins.

Plenum

Refers to an air handling space, including ducts and other parts of the HVAC system in a building. & The area above the ceiling tile or below the subfloor in a building.

SCSI

Small Computer System Interface was designed to support a wide variety of device types, so there are different types of SCSI cables. They may be ribbon cables or standard round cables of 50, 68, or 80 wires. Up to 16 devices, including the motherboard or SCSI controller card, may be connected to one SCSI cable or daisy-chained together. The most common are rectangular or trapezoidal with 50 or 68 pins arranged in two rows.

Mini USB

Smaller USB connector often found on digital cameras. 5-pin connector that connects to a peripheral device. It is basically rectangular, but two corners are cut at an angle.

Micro USB

Smallest type of USB, commonly used for mobile Phones and tablets. 5-pin connector that connects to a peripheral device. It is basically rectangular, but two corners are cut at an angle on one side, and two tabs are on the other side.

SATA

The Serial Advanced Technology Attachment cable is the most commonly used hard drive cable. There are different SATA revisions. They all allow a maximum cable length of one meter. SATA revisions 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 3.2 support speeds of 1.5 Gbps, 3 Gbps, 6 Gbps, and 16 Gbps, respectively.

eSATA

The external SATA (eSATA) connector is a 7-pin connector that connects to an external SATA drive. It has basically a rectangular shape with tabs on the ends.

Molex

The most common is a single-row 4-pin connector used to provide power to disk drives. It has a basically rectangular shape with two corners cut at an angle.

568A

The older wiring color scheme

Unshielded Twisted Pair (UTP)

UTP Ethernet cable uses two or four pairs of copper wire. The twist in the wires reduces electromagnetic interference.

USB

Universal Serial Bus cables connect to a wide variety of peripheral devices. USB 1.1 was the first version in common use. It uses a type-A connector on the PC side and a type-B connector on the peripheral side. There are also mini and micro connectors for smaller devices such as cell phones and cameras. It supports two speeds. Low speed supports data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps at lengths up to 3 meters. Full speed supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps at lengths up to 5 meters. It provides power, as well. The Type-A USB connector is a rectangular 4-pin connector that connects to a computer. The Type-B USB connector is a 4-pin connector that connects to a peripheral device. It is basically square, but two corners are cut at an angle.

VGA

Video Graphics Array. Connect older analog Video Graphics Adapters to a display. It uses a 15-pin connector arranged in three rows of five pins.

RS-232

a specification for serial communications that uses either a DB-9 or DB-25 connector. It has a trapezoid shape. The DB-9 is a 9-pin connector arranged in two rows of four and five pins. The DB-25 is a 25-pin connector arranged in two rows of 12 and 13 pins. RS-232 is most commonly used to connect to network devices' console or management ports.

DB-9

a trapezoid-shaped 9-pin connector arranged in two rows of four and five pins. It is used for serial connections to network devices' console or management ports.

Dielectric insulator

an electrical insulator that can be polarized by an applied electric field.

CAT-5 Cable

cable capable of 100 Mbps. Four twisted wire pairs (eight wires). Uses RJ-45 Connector

Cat 5e Cable

cable commonly found in wired Ethernet networks, designed for 100 MBps-wired Ethernet networks up to 1Gbps. Uses RJ-45 Connector

Cat 6 cable

cable supports data rates up to 10 Gbps up to 55 meters and 1 Gbps up to 100 meters.

DVI

cables connect a Digital Visual Interface interface to a display. DVI-D (-D for digital) supports only digital signals. DVI-I (-I for integrated) supports digital and analog signals. There are single-link and dual-link DVI cables. Single-link DVI supports 3.7 Gbps HDTV at 60 frames per second. Dual-link DVI supports 7.4 Gbps HDTV at 85 frames per second.

Cat 6a Cable

can also handle 10Gbps speed, but at longer distances (up to 100 meters)

Network Cables

connect devices to the network. The most common types are Ethernet, fiber, and coaxial cable.

BNC

connectors are used to terminate DS3 coaxial cables, used for wide area network connections. An older type of Ethernet network known as 10Base2 or Thinnet also used coaxial cable terminated with connectors. It is a cylindrical connector with a twist-lock end to make a secure connection.

Plenum Cabling

if you run cable in the plenum the area above the ceiling tile or below the subflooring make sure that cable sheath is plenum-rated and consult with local electric installation codes to be certain

Analog

information is translated into electric pulses of varying amplitude.

RJ-11

is the plain old telephone system connector. It is a single-row 6-pin rectangular connector to connect to a phone system or modem.

USB 2.0

maintains the characteristics of USB 1.1 and adds a high-speed data transfer rate of 480 Mbps at lengths up to 5 meters.

USB 3.0

maintains the characteristics of USB 2.0 and adds SuperSpeed data transfer rate of 5 Gbps at lengths up to 3 meters. The connectors are a bit different, adding pins to some connectors to support the higher transfer rate, as well as adding the type-C connector.

Lightning Cable

proprietary to Apple™. They are used to connect Apple™ devices to USB ports. The cable has eight wires and is terminated with a USB connector on one end and a Lightning connector on the other. It can carry both data and power to charge the device. This connector is reversible, so it can be plugged into the device without regard to which side is up. a rectangular 8-pin connector that connects to either a peripheral device. It is reversible, meaning that it may be inserted with either side up. It has a single row of 8 pins that are exposed on both sides of the connector.

DVI Single Link

supports 3.7 Gbps HDTV at 60 frames per second

DVI-I

supports digital and analog signals.

DVI-D

supports only digital signals

Digital

translation of information is into binary format (zero or one) where each bit is representative of two distinct amplitudes.

Ethernet

use twisted pairs of copper wire. It may be shielded or unshielded. Each category of cable has specific physical characteristics and a maximum data rate. Ethernet cables have a maximum length of 100 meters.

fiber-optic cable

uses light pulses to transmit data through a glass or plastic core. The cable consists of four layers. The core is surrounded by a cladding that refracts light back into the core. The other two layers are the outer sheath, the part you see, and a strength member or buffer to protect the fiber. Fiber is not subject to electromagnetic interference, since it uses light to transmit data. Transmission distances are longer and data rates are higher on fiber than they are on copper cable. There are two basic types of fiber, single-mode and multimode. Single-mode fiber carries only one light path, typically sourced by a laser. Multimode carries multiple light paths and is sourced by an LED. Single-mode has a much longer transmission distance than multimode.

Serial

usually refers to a specific type of cable that confirms to the RS-232 specification. Serial cables are most often used to connect a laptop to the console or management port of a network device, such as a switch, router, or firewall.