Why weren’t all cable ports designed to be plugged in either way?

225 views

One of the best things about USB C and lightning is how you can connect them both ways. Why aren’t all cables like this? HDMI, Ethernet, display port, USB A, etc. Why weren’t these ever designed to go in both ways from the get go? It seems like a simple thing.

In: 2

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Many of the older ports that were digital were parallel ports. Meaning that each wire corresponded to a bit in a digit. If your flipped them, the order of the digits flip.

Some of the older displays were analog. So the wires were different colors, which posed the same issue flipping.

You are viewing 1 out of 8 answers, click here to view all answers.