Attachment Unit Interface
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:AUI Connectors.jpg An Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) is a 15 pin connection that provides a path between a node's Ethernet interface and the Medium Attachment Unit (MAU), sometimes known as a transceiver. It is the part of the IEEE Ethernet standard located between the MAC, and the MAU. An AUI cable may be up to 50 metres long, although frequently the cable is omitted altogether and the MAU and MAC are directly attached to one another.
An AUI connector is a 15-pin D-connector. It has a sliding clip in place of the thumbscrews normally found on a D-connector to hold two connectors together. This clip permits the MAU and MAC to be directly attached to one another even when their size and shape would preclude the use of thumbscrews. This clip is however frequently found to be awkward and / or unreliable.
AUI connectors became rarer from the early 1990s. This was because it became more common for computers and hubs to incorporate the MAU, particularly as the 10baseT standard became more common and use of 10BASE-5 (thicknet) and 10BASE-2 (thinnet) declined. The electrical AUI connection was still present inside the equipment. By the mid-1990s AUI had all but disappeared as fast ethernet, which has no direct equivalent of AUI, became more common. Gigabit ethernet and 10 gigabit ethernet have respectively the GBIC and XAUI standards which are equivalent to AUI.
A modified form using a smaller connector called the AAUI was used on Apple Macintosh computers in the early 1990s.
The pinout of the AUI is as follows:
| Pin | Circuit | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | DO-A | Data Out Circuit A |
| 10 | DO-B | Data Out Circuit B |
| 11 | DO-S | Data Out Circuit Shield (not used) |
| 5 | DI-A | Data In Circuit A |
| 12 | DI-B | Data In Circuit B |
| 4 | DI-S | Data In Circuit Shield |
| 7 | CO-A | Control Out Circuit A (not used) |
| 15 | CO-B | Control Out Circuit B (not used) |
| 8 | CO-S | Control Out Circuit Shield (not used) |
| 2 | CI-A | Control In Circuit A |
| 9 | CI-B | Control In Circuit B |
| 1 | CI-S | Control In Circuit Shield |
| 6 | VC | Voltage Common |
| 13 | VP | Voltage Plus |
| 14 | VS | Voltage Shield (not used) |
| Shell | PG | Protective Ground |
See also
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.