Ports

A port serves as an interface between the computer and other computers or peripheral devices. Physically the port is a special outlet on a piece of equipment which is a plug or cable.
There are a various amount of shapes such as

Round- PS2
Rectangular- Fire ware
Square- Telephone modem

The most common used peripherals these days are is the USB, which stands for Universal Serial Bus, this is used for the person to store data directly from the computer to the USB and use on a different computer, or to keep a back up of the work.

Serial Ports:
Serial ports allows the computer to share information with the outside world, the term serial refers to the data send via a single wire. The bits are sent one after another.

The data can be sent at random intervals, meaning there is no time limit of synchronization signal or clock is required.

Serial ports are normally built into the motherboard behind the casing. Serial connectors generally have 9 or 25 pins.

Parallel Port:
Parallel data transmission involves sending data at the same time on several wires. The parallel ports on personal computer can send up to 8 bits (one octel)

The first two parallel ports are allowed for speeds of 2.5mb/s.
Enhanced parallel ports have been development however to achieve higher speeds:

The EPP: Enhanced Parallel Port, which are designed to accomplish speeds of 8 to 16 Mbps
The ECP: Enhanced Capabilities Port, which are developed by Hewlett Packard and Microsoft.

This has the same character as the EPP with in addition a plug and a play feature, which allows the computer to be familiar with the connected peripherals.

Parallel ports like serial ports are built into the motherboard, and permit connection to an exterior element such as a printer.