-
Optical cable
-
Flat cable
-
Ribbon cable
-
Patch cable
EXPLANATION
A ribbon cable (also known as multi-wire planar cable) is a cable with
many conducting wires running parallel to each other on the same flat
plane. As a result the cable is wide and flat.
A
ribbon cable (also known as multi-wire planar cable) is a
cable with many conducting wires running parallel to each other on the
same flat plane. As a result the cable is wide and flat. Its name comes
from its resemblance to a piece of
ribbon.
[1]
Ribbon cables are usually seen for internal peripherals in
computers, such as
hard drives,
CD drives and
floppy drives. On some older computer systems (such as the
BBC Micro and
Apple II series) they were used for external connections as well. The ribbon-like shape interferes with
computer cooling
by disrupting airflow within the case and also makes the cables awkward
to handle, especially when there are a lot of them; as a result, round
cables have almost entirely replaced ribbon cables for external
connections and are increasingly being used internally as well.