Plug and play

USB supports plug and play
6-pin firewire plug. Firewire also supports Plug and play

Plug and play is the name for a number of technologies used in computing. Technologies that support plug and play allow to connect new devices to a computer. After a short while, these devices can simply be used. When they are no longer needed, they can be disconnected again. Plug and play does not require the user to load a specific device driver to access the device.[1][2]

Plug and play is used to refer to both the configuration of devices at boot time, as well as to system that support adding a device later on. Examples for systems that support plug and play are USB and Firewire.

References

  1. The PC Guide - Plug and Play
  2. "plug and play Definition". Archived from the original on 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2021-09-22.