13W3 Video Pinout



13W3 Style Connector

The 13W3 connector pinout is listed in the table below. The term 13W3 is not a bus standard, it's a style of connector.
Not all monitors use the same type of 13W3 connector. So when purchasing a cable be sure the 13W3 side mates with your equipment.
The other end of the cable should mate with out issue, and may be BNC cables, a VGA connector, or another 13W3 connector.
I believe that the 13W3 connector pin out is a proprietary standard, so the pin out listed for SGI may be different on some other piece of gear.





13W3 Connector Pinout


13W3 Connector PinOut and Signal names
Pin Number Signal name Level
A1 Red Analog
A2 Green
A3 Blue
1 Serial Read TTL
2 Vert Sync
3 Sence 0
4 GND Ground
5 COMP Sync TTL
6 Horiz Sync
7 Serial Write
8 Sense 1
9 Sense 2
10 GND Ground




13W3 Connector Background

The 13W3 connector is used with other gear and is a standard connector.
The term 13W3 means 13 total connector pins, with 3 pins being larger analog pins [A1, A2, A3].
The 13W3 connector is incompatible with any of the new video connector styles, so this would be a legacy connector.
A legacy connector in regards to being used as a video cable, other wise this is a valid cable interface.
Recall that all of the current video standards use a digital interface, and no longer hold the three analog signals;
As in the Red, Green or Blue signals shown in the table above.

Editor note; there is nothing wrong with this type of connector per sa, but in regards to the pinout, the 13W3 style is out-dated.
A number of different connector styles are produced almost identical to the 13W3 connector, with more or less pins.
The primary usages for this connector style is to carry normal logic signals in combination with power or RF signals.
Of course the regular size pins [1 to 10] carry the logic signals, while the larger size contacts are used to carry either the power or RF signals.
The power contacts are larger because they need to handle more current than a regular digital logic signal.
In regards to an RF signal the larger contacts become another embedded connector, as in an SMA type connector.

These cables are still being sold, but like any computer cable, they don't provide a pin-out, just the unit the cable is made to work with:
[IBM compatible, SGI compatible or SUN compatible and so on].
One-to-one video extension cables are available using both a male 13W3 connector and female 13W3 connector.
There are also adapters to convert a 13W3 connector, on one side, to a HD15 connector on the other side.

Basically the 13W3 connector is a style of connector and not an interface, sometimes referred to as a Power/Signal/Coax Combination.
There are many other common styles, including; 5W1, 7W2, 17W2, 25W3, 27W2 and on and on.
Because of the general shape of the connector shell these connectors are called D-Subminiature Connectors [not to be confused with a normal D-sub].

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Modified 7/17/2015
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