SONY NEWS is a BSD workstation with 68K/MIPS from late 1980s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_NEWSThis converter allows NEWS keyboard to be connected to modern PC via USB. It works with
NWP-5461 and
NWP-411A.
Limitations- Buzzer is not supported.
- LEDs on NWP-5461 is not supported.
- Mouse connection is not supported.
Notes- You might need to turn DIP switches.
FirmwareSource code is available at Github. See under sony_usb/ directory.
https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/tree/master/converter/news_usbHardwareYou can use
USB AVR family like ATMega32u4 or ATMega32u2 to make this converter. Use PD2(USART RXD) for keyboard data and give power with VCC and GND.

Preassembled
TMK Sony NEWS Converter is also available here:
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=72052.0
ProtocolNEWS keyboard protocol is a usual asynchronous serial communication. You can receive data from the keyboard easily with UART of micro controller.
- TTL level
- 9600bps
- 1-start bit
- 8-data bit
- non-parity
- 1-stop bit.
PinoutCnnector is an EIA 232 type with metric thread. This is a pic from NWP-5461.

NWP-5461
-------------
\ 1 2 3 x 5 /
\ 6 7 8 9 /
---------
1 VCC
2 BZ(Speaker)
3 Keyboard Data(from keyboard MCU TxD)
4 NC
5 GND
6 Keyboard Command?(to MCU RxD via two schmitt triggers of Z8 74LS14)
7 Mouse Data(from Mouse Ext connector)
8 Power switch(directly to the switch via diode)
9 FG
NWP-411A
-------------
\ 1 2 3 x 5 /
\ x 7 x 9 /
---------
1 VCC
2 BZ(Speaker)
3 Keyboard Data(from keyboard MCU TxD)
4 NC
5 GND
6 NC
7 Mouse Data(from Mouse Ext connector)
8 NC
9 FG
Scan CodeIts scan code is one byte which consists of 1-bit release(break) flag at MSB and 7-bit code.
For example 0x29 is sent when 'a' key is pressed and 0xA9 when released.
MSB LSB
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 bit
| | | | | | | |
| +-+-+-+-+-+-+-- scan code(00-7F)
+---------------- break flag: sets when released
SONY NEWS NWP-5461
,---. ,------------------------, ,------------------------. ,---------.
|Pow| | F1 | F2 | F3 | F4 | F5 | | F6 | F7 | F8 | F9 | F10| | F11| F12| ,-----------.
`---' `------------------------' `------------------------' `---------' | *| /| +|
,-------------------------------------------------------------. ,---. ,---------------|
|Esc| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9| 0| -| =| \| BS | |Hlp| | 7| 8| 9| -|
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |---------------|
|Tab | Q| W| E| R| T| Y| U| I| O| P| [| ]|Del| | |Ins| | 4| 5| 6| ,|
|---------------------------------------------------------' | |---| |---------------|
|Ctrl | A| S| D| F| G| H| J| K| L| ;| '| `|Return| |Clr| | 1| 2| 3| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |-----------|Ent|
|Shift | Z| X| C| V| B| N| M| ,| ,| /| |Shift | |PgU| | 0| .| Up| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |---------------|
|Alt |Gui |Alt | Space | |Gui|App|Ctrl | |PgD| |Tab|Lef|Dow|Rig|
`-------------------------------------------------------------' `---' `---------------'
,---. ,------------------------, ,------------------------. ,---------.
| 7A| | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 0A | | 68 | 69 | ,-----------.
`---' `------------------------' `------------------------' `---------' | 64| 65| 52|
,-------------------------------------------------------------. ,---. ,---------------|
| 0B| 0C| 0D| 0E| 0F| 10| 11| 12| 13| 14| 15| 16| 17| 18| 19 | | 6A| | 4B| 4C| 4D| 4E|
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |---------------|
| 1A | 1B| 1C| 1D| 1E| 1F| 20| 21| 22| 23| 24| 25| 26| 27| | | 6B| | 4F| 50| 51| 56|
|---------------------------------------------------------' | |---| |---------------|
| 28 | 29| 2A| 2B| 2C| 2D| 2E| 2F| 30| 31| 32| 33| 34| 35 | | 6C| | 53| 54| 55| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |-----------| 5A|
| 36 | 37| 38| 39| 3A| 3B| 3C| 3D| 3E| 3F| 40| 41| 42 | | 6D| | 57| 59| 58| |
|-------------------------------------------------------------| |---| |---------------|
| 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48| 49| 4A | | 6E| | 66| 5B| 5C| 5D|
`-------------------------------------------------------------' `---' `---------------'