What is the difference between interface and connectors

Adelan1

Junior Member
Jan 21, 2015
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Can someone explain what an inteface and connector/formfactor is.

I thought an inteface is something like IDE , AHCI/RAID or NVMe.
Connector /formfactor is PATA, SATA , SAS , M2 , mSATA , PCIe ...
 
Feb 25, 2011
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Everything your post mentions is a signalling protocol, some higher-level than others.(AHCI & NVMe run on top of SATA and/or PCI-E, for example.)

Form factor
: Let's go back in time to the DIN-5.

din_5_180.jpg


Five wires. Depending on which pin had which voltages/signalling, and what it was plugged into, the same "connector" was used for all sorts of different protocols - everything from MIDI interfaces, to composite video output (TI-99/4A personal computers), to floppy drives, to keyboards.

That's form factor.

The protocol, however, varied. (That's which pins do what, at what voltages, and how that's interpreted by the computer/device on the end of the cable.) Which is why I couldn't plug a MIDI interface into my TI-99 and hear PacMan or something. The two devices didn't have a protocol in common to speak to each other.

An interface is... probably best thought of as another word for the protocol. (SATA and microSATA are different physically, but they're easy to wire to each other; it would be silly to think of them as different interfaces. Same for most USB varieties.) It's usually pretty easy to adapt one physical form factor to another if the protocols are the same (or similar).

Nowadays, the form-factors don't often get recycled for multiple protocols, so you don't really have to worry about the difference. Connector, protocol, interface, etc., are all basically the same thing now.
 

bryanl

Golden Member
Oct 15, 2006
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The DB-25 connector has been used for both the RS-232C serial port and the Centronics parallel printer port, but the interfaces are completely different, even down to the voltage levels.

IDE has at least two interfaces, PATA and SATA, and they use different connectors.
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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In this context, Interface is the designed meeting point in the circuitry of devices. Connectors are the physical links, i.e., the plugs.