Hardware Requirements

Plug & Play support for parallel port devices will require that the device provide a parallel interface, which conforms to the IEEE 1284 specification. This interface may be 1284-I compliant (using 1284-A or 1284-B connectors), or 1284-II compliant (using 1284-C connectors).

It is also required that these devices minimally support nibble mode as described in the IEEE 1284 specification.

It is suggested that parallel port devices support ECP mode as defined by the IEEE 1284 specification in order to enjoy the improved performance benefits ECP mode provides.

Note that in order for a peripheral to receive "Plug & Play" certification from Microsoft, nibble mode support & reporting the minimal device ID key values, (as described in IEEE 1284), is required.