hardware An interface from a computer system where data is
transferred in or out in parallel, that is, on more than one
wire. A parallel port carries one
bit on each wire thus
multiplying the transfer rate obtainable over a single wire.
There will usually be some control signals on the port as well
to say when data is ready to be sent or received.
The commonest kind of parallel port is a
printer port, e.g. a
Centronics port which transfers eight bits at a time. Disks
are also connected via special parallel ports, e.g.
SCSI or
(1995-01-24)