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Most hard drives have a set of pins next to the pata or sata port to place jumpers to do things such as designating it a slave or master. What is the name of those set of other pins? Hard drives are a common place to see them, but they also appear on motherboards, and even other consumer electronics, such as a television set or television remote. I've always just called them "the pins where you put the jumpers." Do they have a proper name?

EDIT: I realize that they are physically the same as a header, but since a header is used to attach a new component, I would not consider it to be a header since jumpers are not a new component being attached.

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  • I have seen these called "option pins" before, though that may be slightly more specific that what you are aiming for as it only really applies to pinstraps.
    – Vality
    Nov 24, 2014 at 13:27
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    I call it "the place where you put the jumpers". (I don't think there's a formal term -- some will say "header", some "jumper block", some will use some other term.) Nov 24, 2014 at 22:42
  • Why is a jumper not a component?
    – localhost
    Nov 25, 2014 at 5:29

3 Answers 3

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While they are the same physical part as a header, generally with PCs 'headers' are pins you attach leads to. Say, the HDD LED or the Power Switch leads.

Pins specific to jumpers are refered to as "Jumper Pins" and are arranged into "Jumper Blocks".

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  • I've also seen the collection of pins referred to as a shorting block or shunt block when the jumpers are used to make selections by shorting specific pairs of pins. A more general term that also covers formats other than pins is terminal block.
    – fixer1234
    Nov 24, 2014 at 18:57
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They're just called "headers".

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  • Headers seem more like something you would plug something into, like a usb header.
    – chiliNUT
    Nov 24, 2014 at 7:13
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    @chiliNUT They are precisely the same. Look closely at them. Nov 24, 2014 at 7:54
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    Physically they are the same, but their functions are different enough that I would not consider them to be the same thing.
    – chiliNUT
    Nov 24, 2014 at 15:12
  • @chiliNUT the thing you are plugging in is the jumper. So it is connecting a jumper to the hard drive. I don't see that as being much different to connecting another more complicated device to the drive.
    – localhost
    Nov 25, 2014 at 5:25
  • Its not another device. Its modifying the configuration of something already connected, its not something new
    – chiliNUT
    Nov 25, 2014 at 5:36
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I'd probably call them "connectors".

But I wouldn't stress too much about the semantics, I have heard IT professionals use every one of these terms at some time or another.

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