page_title: Software protection dongle
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Software protection dongle / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Back side of the PCB of an early Rainbow Tech parallel port dongle
context_page_description: A software protection dongle is an electronic copy protection and content protection device. When connected to a computer or other electronics, they unlock software functionality or decode content. The hardware key is programmed with a product key or other cryptographic protection mechanism and functions via an electrical connector to an external bus of the computer or appliance.
  In software protection, dongles are two-interface security tokens with transient data flow with a pull communication that reads security data from the dongle. In the absence of these dongles, certain software may run only in a restricted mode, or not at all. Apart from software protection, dongles can enable functions in electronic devices, such as receiving and processing encoded video streams on television sets.
context_section_description: The Merriam-Webster dictionary states that the "First known use of dongle" was in 1981 and that the etymology was "perhaps alteration of dangle."
  Dongles rapidly evolved into active devices that contained a serial transceiver (UART) and even a microprocessor to handle transactions with the host. Later versions adopted the USB interface, which became the preferred choice over the serial or parallel interface.
  A 1992 advertisement for Rainbow Technologies claimed the word dongle was derived from the name "Don Gall". Though untrue, this has given rise to an urban myth.
caption: A Rainbow Tech parallel port dongle PCB, back side
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