English term (edited): crossover / straight through

Depending on the exact system requirements cables may go straight through, so that (say) pins 1...9 connect to pins 1...9 at the opposite end, or else crossover, so that (say) pin 1 gors to pin 9, pin 9 goes to on 1, and so on.

This is a natural result of differing technical philosophies for different types of equipment; for example, a given pin may ALWAYS be sued as an input, and another ALWAYS an output; hence when a cable is required to connect from the output of one piece of equipment to the input of another, the wires in the cable need to 'cross over' (aka 'mirror cable') — this is the case with things like the SCART connecting system, for example, or the obsolete DIN 5-pin etc. audio connectors. Certain other systems, however, allow connector pins to be assigned according to their function on the specific equipment; so pin 1 might be an output on a piece of equipment designed to feed another, while be an input on the equipment designed to be fed; thus a straight-through cable is required. This is the case on things like RS-232 interfaces and, when conencting 2 pieces of equipment together that are not designed to connect together, results in the need for a 'mirror', 'crossover', or 'null modem' adaptor cable.