parallel transmission

In parallel transmission of data, all bits of a character or a byte are transmitted character by character at the same time. The transmission can take place on a transmission medium consisting of several physical conductors or parallel channels.

In parallel transmission, the digital signals are transmitted simultaneously in parallel over the channels. The number of conductors or channels is determined conceptually and can correspond to the character size of a byte, i.e. 8 bits, or a multiple thereof. With each clock pulse, the corresponding number of bits is transmitted, which corresponds to the channel number. Thus, with this type of transmission, considerably more information is transmitted per time unit at the same clock rate than with serial transmission. The advantage of parallel transmission is a higher data transfer rate; the disadvantage is the higher media technology effort.

Transmission interfaces for parallel transmission are printer ports, such as the Standard Parallel Port( SPP) or the Centronics interface.