The transmission of information from computer to computer or from computer to peripheral device one bit at a time.
Serial communications can be synchronous and controlled by a clock, or they can be asynchronous and coordinated by start and stop bits embedded in the data stream. The sending and receiving devices must both use the same baud rate, parity setting, and other communication parameters.
See also 1394; asynchronous transmission; High Speed Serial Interface; RS-232-C; RS-422; RS-423; RS-449; RS-485; RS-530; Serial Storage Architecture; synchronous transmission; Universal Serial Bus.