Physical Configuration of Devices Attached to a Parallel Port

This section describes the typical physical configurations of devices that are attached to a parallel port.

The following figure shows a parallel device attached a parallel port.

Microsoft Windows supports one parallel device attached to a parallel port, which can be a legacy device or a Plug and Play device that complies with the IEEE 1284 standard.

The following figure shows IEEE 1284.3 devices and an end-of-chain IEEE 1284 device that are simultaneously attached to a parallel port.

The IEEE 1284.3 standard specifies that up to four daisy chain devices and an end-of-chain device can be simultaneously attached to a parallel port.

The following table specifies the number of IEEE 1284.3 devices that are supported by each version of Windows.

Windows version	Maximum number of daisy chain devices	IEEE 1284.3 device IDs	Comments
Windows Me	zero	N/A	Not supported by system-supplied drivers.
Windows 2000	four	from 0 through 3	To ensure reliable operation, Microsoft recommends at most two devices.
Windows XP and later	two	0 or 1

For more information about supporting IEEE 1284.3 devices, see:

Parallel Device Interfaces, Internal Names, and Symbolic Links

Selecting and Deselecting an IEEE 1284 Device Attached to a Parallel Port