How Computers Work, Ninth Edition

Chapter 17. How Serial Ports Triumph

THIS book used to have one of those explanations that made so much sense, that clicked with our common perceptions so precisely, that they could only be called elegant. The explanation went like this:

Computers have two basic types of connections for sending data from here to there: serial connections and parallel connections. Serial connections were used with peripherals that are inherently slow, such as modems, which are themselves serial devices. Parallel connections invariably led to components such as hard drives, where components moved at breath-taking speeds to handle the enormous quantities of data. The ...