2x AAUI combo Tranceivers for 10BASE-T and 10BASE-2 (Linksys MACT2T & LL8-LEENET-C), and one that is actually a 3 port hub (Farallon)

AAUI Tranceiver for 10BASE-T

Standard AUI connector. The AAUI connector above is less than one-half the size.

Apple Attachment Unit Interface (AAUI) is a mechanical re-design by Apple of the standard Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) used to connect Ethernet transceivers to computer equipment. Apple Inc, ( formerly Apple Computer Inc, is an American Multinational corporation with a focus on designing and manufacturing Consumer electronics 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 Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs A transceiver is a device that has both a Transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing AUI was popular in the era before the dominance of 10BASE-T networking that started in the early 1990s; AAUI was an attempt to make the connector much smaller and more user friendly.

AUI used a full-sized 15-pin D connector (model DA-15) that used a sliding clip for mechanical connections in place of thumbscrews. The D-subminiature or D-sub is a common type of Electrical connector used particularly in Computers Calling them "subminiature" was appropriate AAUI replaced these with a small 14-position, 0. 050-inch-spaced ribbon contact connector. The connector was locked into position using two clips on the side of the connector which automatically clicked on when plugged in, and could be removed simply by squeezing small flanges on the side of the connector housing. The connector may also have been changed to avoid confusion with the monitor port on early Macintoshes, which also used a 15-pin D connector. Macintosh, commonly nicknamed Mac is a Brand name which covers several lines of Personal computers designed developed and marketed by Apple Inc ^[1]

AAUI signals have the same description, function, and electrical requirements as the Attachment Unit Interface (AUI) signals of the same name, as detailed in IEEE 802.3-1990 CSMA/CD Standard, section 7, with the exception that most hosts provide only 5 volt power rather than the 12 volts required for most AUI transceivers. 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 IEEE 8023 is a collection of IEEE standards defining the Physical layer, and the media access control (MAC sublayer of the Data link layer, Year 1990 ( MCMXC) was a Common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar) An adapter containing a power supply to provide the required 12 volts was available from Apple to permit connection of standard AUI transceivers to an AAUI port - this facilitated direct connection to 10BASE-F (fibre optic) and 10BASE5 (ThickNet) Ethernet networks, for which AAUI transceivers were not available. Power supply is a reference to a source of Electrical power. A device or system that supplies Electrical or other types of Energy to an output load An optical fiber (or fibre) is a Glass or Plastic fiber that carries Light along its length

AAUI was part of a system of ethernet peripherals that tried to make connecting to Ethernet much easier. At the time, Ethernet systems usually were 10BASE2, also known as thinnet. Apple's system was called FriendlyNet. A FriendlyNet 10BASE2 system did not use BNC T-connectors or separate 50 Ω terminators. Electrical termination of a signal involves providing a terminator at the end of a wire or cable to prevent an RF signal from being reflected The AAUI transceiver had two BNC connectors instead of one and a cable was attached to each side. The BNC ( Bayonet Neill Concelman) connector is a very common type of RF connector used for terminating Coaxial cable. The transceiver would automatically terminate the network if a cable was not attached to one of the sides. Additionally, Apple cables would terminate the network if no device was attached to them. Thus the number of mistakes that could be made hooking up a thinnet network was reduced considerably. Since any of these mistakes would disable the network in an area this was a significant improvement. However, the FriendlyNet equipment was quite expensive. As 10BASE-T became ubiquitous it became difficult to justify the cost of an external transceiver and Apple abandoned the system and sold off the name.

Macintosh Quadra, Centris, PowerBook 500, Duo Dock II (for PowerBook Duo) and early Power Macintoshes had an AAUI port, which requires an external transceiver. The Macintosh Quadra series was Apple Computer 's product family of professional high-end Apple Macintosh Personal computers built using the Motorola Macintosh Centris was a set of three 1993 Macintosh models that were built around the Motorola 68LC040 and 68040 CPUs History It was introduced on 16 May 1994 with the expensive active matrix LCD PowerBook 540c and 540 with the passive matrix 520c and 520 soon after The PowerBook Duo was a line of small Subnotebooks manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1992 until 1997 as a more compact companion to the PowerBook Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a line of Apple Macintosh Workstation -class Personal computers based on various models of PowerPC A transceiver is a device that has both a Transmitter and a receiver which are combined and share common circuitry or a single housing Generally the transceivers cost a significant percentage of the cost of a low-cost Ethernet card on the PC. Later models included both an AAUI and RJ-45 port for directly connecting 10BASE-T; either could be used, but not both at the same time. A registered jack ( RJ) is a standardized physical interface — both jack construction and wiring pattern — for connecting telecommunications equipment (commonly a Telephone AAUI connectors were also present on some Processor Direct Slot Ethernet adapter cards used in Macintosh LC and Performa machines. Processor Direct Slot or PDS, was a solution (actually a whole number of different solutions introduced by Apple Computer, in several of their Macintosh The Macintosh LC (meaning low-cost color) was Apple Computer 's product family of low-end consumer Macintosh Personal computers in the early 1990s The Macintosh Performa series was Apple Computer 's Consumer product family of Apple Macintosh Personal computers from 1992 until 1997 when the AAUI had disappeared by the late 1990s, when all new Apple machines included only 10BASE-T.

The pin-out is:

See also

• Attachment Unit Interface (AUI)
• Hardware
• Computer network

References

1. ^ Apple's AAUI Ethernet Connector. 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 Hardware is a general term that refers to the physical artifacts of a Technology. A computer network is a group of interconnected Computers. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics Retrieved on 2007-11-19. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1095 - The Council of Clermont, called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land

This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing ( FOLDOC) is an online searchable encyclopedic Dictionary of Computing subjects The GNU Free Documentation License ( GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a Copyleft License for free documentation designed by the Free Software