Twinaxial cable

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Twinax connector

Twinaxial cables ( twinax cables ) consist of a pair of twisted copper wires (inner conductor) in a dielectric and a shield (outer conductor). They are used in computer technology for the low-loss transmission of symmetrical signals .

The twinaxial cable is related to the triaxial cable , the two conductors of which are not twisted but are arranged concentrically inside one another.

IBM twinax

Twinax cables were used by IBM for 5250 terminals and printers to connect to IBM midrange hosts ( AS / 400 , S / 38 , S / 36 ). Data is transmitted in half duplex at 1 Mbit / s, via a single, shielded 110 Ω twisted pair cable.

With Twinax, seven devices can be addressed, from station address 0 to 6.

Continuous twinax cables can be used up to a distance of 1.6 km. Twinax is a bus topology that requires termination . Most twinax T-connectors have automatic termination. Today, twisted pair cables of category 3 or higher are mostly used for building cabling. Baluns convert Twinax to twisted pair. Hubs can convert a bus topology into a star topology .

Twinax was developed to replace serial terminals over RS-232 . The main advantage is the high speed (1 Mbit / s compared to 9600 bit / s) and several addressable end devices per connection. The disadvantage is the proprietary twinax cabling.