Hardware Handshaking

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What Does Hardware Handshaking Mean?

Hardware handshaking is a communication process in which two devices or systems are connected. Two corresponding data signals are sent over different wires, cables or hardware elements to set up communication protocols.

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Techopedia Explains Hardware Handshaking

Different kinds of handshaking protocols can facilitate agreements for information and data transfer rates, troubleshooting, syntax and many others. A general way to think about hardware handshaking and other kinds of handshaking is as a set of signals that enable different types of communication or messaging. For example, handshaking can involve specific signals to either welcome or decline an additional message between devices or systems.

IT professionals contrast hardware handshaking with software handshaking, which uses specific sets of extra data in a data transmission stream. Basically, hardware handshaking is a more mechanical form of the handshaking protocol, where signals typically travel over different physical channels, unlike many kinds of software handshaking.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.