Also known as: GPIO
GPIO (general-purpose input/output) are pins on a single-board computer or microcontroller that your code can read or switch on and off to talk to sensors, lights, motors, and other electronics.1
Overview
A GPIO pin can be configured as an input (read a button or sensor) or an output (drive an LED, relay, or motor). It is the most basic form of input/output a board offers, and richer interfaces are often layered on top of the same header. Code reads and writes pins through simple library calls.
Where it fits
GPIO is the bridge between software and the physical world — it is what sets an SBC or MCU apart from a sealed PC or phone. The Raspberry Pi header and the extensive pinout of the BeagleBone are common examples; on the microcontroller side, boards like the Arduino expose the same idea.
Sources
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General-purpose input/output — Wikipedia, on what GPIO pins are and how they are used. ↩