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geekhack Marketplace => Great Finds => Topic started by: Phaedrus2129 on Fri, 10 December 2010, 20:36:31

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Phaedrus2129 on Fri, 10 December 2010, 20:36:31

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815150153&cm_re=PS%2f2_card-_-15-150-153-_-Product

Get over it.



Now, if you're worried about the death of PCI... Well we just have to hope they make a PCIe version.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Soarer on Fri, 10 December 2010, 21:18:43

Probably consists of a USB chip, and a buggy PS/2 to USB adapter chip. Not ideal :-/

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: AndrewZorn on Fri, 10 December 2010, 21:49:26

Quote from: Phaedrus2129;261083

Get over it.

is all you needed to say.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: ch_123 on Sat, 11 December 2010, 02:57:21

That's basically a USB adapter that you have to open your PC to install. Probably isn't as good as the Belkin an' all.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: grilkip on Sat, 11 December 2010, 14:59:53

The only reason I use PS/2 is to be able to start my PC by hitting the space bar, which in the case of my mobo can only be done through the PS/2 port.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: quadibloc on Sat, 11 December 2010, 16:23:54

If it does convert to USB, doesn't that mean that going beyond 6-key rollover, the only thing a conventional PS/2 to USB adapter won't give you, is still not attained?

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sat, 11 December 2010, 18:18:58

PS/2 is still "standard" in all the major Super I/O chips (Winbond, and all those who follow it) ... I foresee the last vestige of floppy support dying before PS/2 gets cut.  Maybe I'll be able to finally use my A: and B: drives for something useful (like removable ATA flash or somethin') without BIOS conflicts.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Soarer on Sat, 11 December 2010, 19:02:41

I'm not paranoid, it really is out to get me... 8-|

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: kriminal on Sat, 11 December 2010, 19:13:44

i dont really care if ps\2 dies...
but pls stop placing floppy interfaces on my mobo plz..

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sat, 11 December 2010, 19:27:23

You could always program your own keyboard controller firmware.
 
Or just do what the Microsoft prototyping guys do and program a virtual COM port through USB interface, compatibility with the "legacy" limits of IBM's 8042 chip and scan code sets be damned. Mind you, this approach would only operate after your OS drivers are loaded up, so you'd still need a standard keyboard for POST and BIOS stuff.  And oh yeah, it'd eat up a little bandwidth from one of your USB hubs.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: HaaTa on Sat, 11 December 2010, 21:41:09

Until the true NKRO usb driver arrives on my hard disk (that works with PS/2 to USB adapters), PS/2 better be on my mobo.

That, and USB adapters are too flaky (converting from PS/2). There are really good ones (e.g. Blue Cube). But it's still not as compatible as a true PS/2 port.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sat, 11 December 2010, 22:12:09

In the case of USB the limits are indeed software based.  If HID were rewritten (assuming the keyboard itself packs a decent controller) then 6KRO would be a thing of the past.  HID can't be that hard to figure out, can it?

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sun, 12 December 2010, 01:30:32

Default scan code sets?  The PS/2-USB adapter is either just a dumb connector (passive) or has logic to convert between sets ... I suppose an ideal one would have switches (manual or autodetect) between (all 9 active, 1 passive) possible combinations.  Maybe the Germans just like to be difficult.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: grilkip on Sun, 12 December 2010, 01:32:15

Quote from: Konrad;261609

Maybe the Germans just like to be difficult.

That's a given.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sun, 12 December 2010, 11:24:46

No, Kishy ... what I was trying to say is that the 6KRO limitation is built into HID. A better HID could allow USB keyboards to easily exceed this limit. Even "Slow Speed" (1.5Mbps) USB can easily accomodate enough data for full keyboard NKRO.
 
But the keyboard itself must be electrically/logically capable of supporting >6KRO. The reason I mentioned this is simple: many keyboards today do not meet this specification. The best NKRO HID in the world won't help if the keyboard itself has only 2KRO.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Sun, 12 December 2010, 12:44:15

What do you mean: "meets the HID spec"?

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Soarer on Sun, 12 December 2010, 14:34:25

Complies with:
Device Class Definition for Human Interface Devices (HID)
Firmware Specification—6/27/01
Version 1.11 (http://www.usb.org/developers/devclass_docs/HID1_11.pdf)
In particular "Appendix F: Legacy Keyboard Implementation", which describes the Boot Mode that BIOS uses.

The trick is for a keyboard to use the good stuff for NKRO (that almost all OS's HID class drivers since about 2001 can do), without becoming non-compliant with the constraints of boot mode - even for BIOS that implement boot mode incorrectly.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Soarer on Sun, 12 December 2010, 14:48:18

The future wasn't built to last.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: woody on Mon, 13 December 2010, 06:05:53

Quote from: ripster;261799

I keep telling my son the future is in Biology, not Programming.

Neither progaming.
Biology and chemistry, like it was before.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: woody on Mon, 13 December 2010, 16:30:26

Quote from: ripster;262516

Kinda like getting rid of the Parallel port.

Luckily, chipsets support it and quite many motherboards have it on a header. Even more luckily, my last MB even has integrated connector on it. And a serial port. And an S/PDIF output. I was lucky on this round.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: Konrad on Mon, 13 December 2010, 16:35:51

I don't see how luck is involved if you're selective about which mobo you purchase, lol.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: woody on Mon, 13 December 2010, 16:45:40

Quote from: Konrad;262525

I don't see how luck is involved if you're selective about which mobo you purchase, lol.

Luck that somebody decided to produce such MB, luck that somebody here decided to import, luck that they actually had it in stock. Trust me, that was some luck. My previous MB had parallel port on header only.

I bet you don't know much about our market, but I'll hint you it's not big and we don't have Newegg.

Title: For those paranoid about the "fall" of PS/2
Post by: woody on Mon, 13 December 2010, 16:48:54

Quote from: ripster;262528

I find serial ports are no longer high on my priority list.

To each his own. Computers are tools, and I need some specific properties of my tools.