D-sub connector

Updated: 08/02/2020 by Computer Hope
Computer serial port

A D-sub connector, also called a D-sub miniature, is an electrical connector commonly used in computers. D-sub connectors feature parallel rows of connector pins, surrounded by a metal shield. The shield is shorter on one side, resembling the D English letter.

D-sub connector types

D-sub connectors vary in size and pin configuration.

The pins of a D-sub connector are arranged in (at least two, and at most five) parallel rows. The space between the pins is called the density of the connector. The three densities of D-sub connector are normal, high, and double.

Density Row spacing Pin spacing
Normal 2.84 mm (0.112 in) 2.76 mm (0.1087 in)
High 2.0 mm (0.078 in) 2.3 mm (0.090 in)
Double Unspecified Unspecified

The following list is each D-sub connector type, pin configuration, and density.

Note

The number in the type name indicates the number of active lines in the connector, and not necessarily its number of pins.

D-sub type Pin layout Density Notes
DE-9 5–4 Normal Commonly used for a computer's serial port. The DB-9 connector is sometimes used for token ring adapters. DB-15 connectors may also appear on tick coaxial cables.
DA-15 8–7 Normal Used for VGA (video graphics adapter) connections, 10BASE5 (thick Ethernet, or "thicknet"), serial ports, and some NICs (network interface cards).
DE-15 5–5–5 High
DB-19 10–9 Normal Connection for monitors and disk drives, used on early Macintosh and NeXT computers. Also used for ACSI (Atari Computer Systems Interface) data connections on some Atari computers of that era.
DE-19 6–7–6 Double
DB-25 13–12 Normal Used for parallel port connections.
DA-26 9–9–8 High
DA-31 10–11–10 Double
DC-37 19–18 Normal Used on some Cisco, Nortel, SMC, et al., network appliances. Also used in various models of sensors, switches, satellite antennas, control systems, video hardware, security control systems, etc.
DB-44 15–15–14 High
DD-50 17–16–17 Normal Legacy SCSI (small computer system interface) connections.
DB-52 17–18–17 Double
DC-62 21–21–20 High
DD-78 20–19–20–19 High
DC-79 26–27–26 Double
DD-100 26–25–24–25 Double
DF-104 21–21–21–21–20 High

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