Plug and play facts for kids
Plug and play is the name for a number of technologies used in computing. Technologies that support plug and play allow to connect new devices to a computer. After a short while, these devices can simply be used. When they are no longer needed, they can be disconnected again. Plug and play does not require the user to load a specific driver to access the device.
Plug and play is used to refer to both the configuration of devices at boot time, as well as to system that support adding a device later on. Examples for systems that support plug and play are USB and Firewire.
Images for kids
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A third-party serial interface card for the Apple II that required cutting and soldering to reconfigure. The user would cut the wire traces between the thinly connected ⧓ triangles at X1 and X3 and solder across the unconnected ◀▶ pads at X2 and X4 located at the center of the card. Once done, reverting the modification was more difficult.
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A NuBus expansion card without jumpers or DIP switches
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An MCA expansion card without jumpers or DIP switches
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An example of an ISA interface card with extremely limited interrupt selection options, a common problem on PC ISA interfaces. Kouwell KW-524J dual serial, dual parallel port, 8-bit ISA, manufactured in 1992: * Serial 1: IRQ 3/4/9 * Serial 2: IRQ 3/4/9 * Parallel 1: IRQ 5/7 * Parallel 2: IRQ 5/7 (There is no technical reason why 3,4,5,7,9 cannot all be selectable choices for each port.)
See also
In Spanish: Plug and play para niños
