These are located on the backside of the motherboard and are used to connect external devices. There are 3 types of ports:
A. Legacy multifunction ports
B. Standard single function ports
C. Modern multifunction ports

A. Legacy multifunction ports:
1) Serial Ports:

· It comes in 2 types à 9 pins and 25 pins.
· These ports are not used by latest devices.
· It supported devices like mouse, label printers, external modem, etc.
· Now-a-days we might have 9 pins serial port on the motherboard.

2) Parallel Port:

· This is also known as printer port.
· It supported devices such as printers, scanners, external/hard disk, CD Drives etc.
· Not used anymore.

4. Audio port

5. Modem port

Modems are devices used to connect to dial up internet or VPN network using our telephone line. Modems have 2 ports line-In and Line-out.

6. Network Port:

These ports are found on network cards and are used to create a computer network.

C. Modern multifunction ports:
1. USB (Universal Serial Bus)
· All latest devices connect to the USB port.
· It supports a wide range of devices such as printer, scanners, digital cameras, pen drive, external drives, mouse, keyboard, mobiles etc.
· There can be 2 or more USB ports on a motherboard. Also we can use USB HUBS to increase our ports.
· USB also supports Hot-swapping. (hot swapping; we can connect or disconnect at any time even when running a computer)
· USB can supports daisy chain connection, USB can support up to 127 devices through daisy chain.

2. Fire wire (1394)
· Fire wire is the advancement of USB and can support much faster speeds.
· It also supports devices such as USB.
· It supports Hot Swapping and daisy chain of up to 63 devices.