Yeah but try pressing more than 4 keys at once on the PS2 keyboard and get back to me
Nothing to do with the interface. If your keyboard can only do 4 it means that the manufacturer has cheaped out on diodes and couldn't even be bothered to stagger the matrix enough to make you not notice.
Preposterous, I've used emacs on a ps2 keyboard without issues.
I recall NKRO was the selling point on some of those keyboards, my old steel series mechanical will absolutely let you mash all the keys with a ps2 adapter.
USB: Many designs and revisions, none of them perfect
Nah, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 SuperSpeed is the best! And it took me only 30 minutes of reading articles and wiki pages to get that information! although I’m not sure what USB4 Gen 3×1 is, but it’s only x1 so can’t be that good, right?
although I’m not sure what USB4 Gen 3×1 is, but it’s only x1 so can’t be that good, right?
It's the initialisation mode of USB 40Gbps, luckily not something users will have to deal with
I know this is a shitpost, but what's interesting is that even though USB doesn't directly interrupt the CPU it's still faster. USB is able to get the entire packet sent before PS2 even sends one. It's very interesting. So if you ever see anyone unironically saying there is less latency call them out!
Are PS/2 ports still operating on hardware interrupts these days? I would expect these to be emulated as USB devices at this point, depending on whatever I/O chipset is in play.
The bit about USB asking the CPU is kinda true? My understanding is that it's a packet protocol of sorts, so it's really just writing post-it notes for each button press and leaves them on the CPU's whiteboard for later.
Yes, it's true the the USB protocol has to "wait" but it gets the message sent so much faster that it doesn't matter. Still interesting stuff though!
Love it
I haven't seen a device with those in a very long time.
A device, no. A motherboard? Yup.
I recently bought a motherboard with a N100 processor, that had two 3.0 USB Ports, two 3.1 USB Ports, an HDMI and a DisplayPort. Because of that I was surprised to learn that it had also two PS/2 ports for a keyboard and a mouse.
My mechanical keyboard came with a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, and I use that instead of the USB one. Feels good
I see them at work sometimes.
Same as VGA, shit just works, don’t need to worry about drivers or OS. So if your server shits the bed, you don’t need to worry about these things not working so you can can figure what went wrong.
In a server environment it's perfect. Have multiple baremetal servers in the rack?
No problem, all you need is a PS/2 + VGA KVM and you can control them easily without fiddling. No protocol handshake, no HDCP in the way.
PS/2?
I'm not completely sure but I'm pretty sure that at least the majority of our servers only have USB and no PS/2 port. And while our servers aren't very old some of them still have a few years on them.
I don’t know what server you’re running, but I have never had any issues with USB keyboards. They just work, including in the firmware. No drivers needed. Besides, a proper server motherboard will have IPMI so you can just remote into it.
I've had KVMs that don't like the 'fancier' USB keyboards with NKRO. It would work, but it wouldn't listen for its own 'switch to different console' hotkeys. Reconfiguring the keyboard to run in 6KRO-only mode addressed it, but not every keyboard can be configured that way.
You've just gotta dig out the mouse/keyboard combo that came with the Packard Bell you bought in 1996 from some dusty box in the attic / storage room at work
If there is a fault in the PS2 device it literally breaks the rest of the computer.
A little more than 15 years ago I had to fix my PS2 keyboard because it crashed everything. Not even a BSOD, just colors.
looks nervously at my 3070ti and ibm model m haha so was there any permanent damage or like
No. It was when I was younger and I smacked the keyboard at some point. The whole computer crashed with random pixels all over the screen. I tried rebooting many times. I came to the conclusion the cable inside of the keyboard must have been slightly disconnected and pushed it further back into it, and my PC worked again.
Computers are really resilient to permanent damage to be honest. I once dropped a screw into a running computer and it short-circuited with sparks and all. I was still able to boot it, but it was extremely slow. After a few reboots it was back to normal.
I think they just interrupt the CPU with input
My keyboard uses PS/2 and although I do have a PS/2 to USB adapter, i prefer using my computers PS/2 port because it means one more USB port can be used for something else.
30+ years old and it runs flawlessly.
Isn't almost any keyboard able to last that long?
I make sure any motherboard I buy has at least 8 USB ports, so I know I'll have enough. It does make sense to use the PS/2 port if you have the peripherals. What advantage does USB have over it anyway?
Isn’t almost any keyboard able to last that long?
In theory, yes. In reality... not so much. Bluetooth keyboards are a joke for longevity, and a lot of wired keyboards these days just have piss poor build quality.
I don't think PS/2 inherently has major advantages over USB but as someone who uses a small PC with few USB ports, I appreciate having a PS/2 port available.
I've often thought this about older or less generally useful ports, but then it just keeps coming back to the fact that, if I had the same number of spare ports, plus one more USB that I useD for this keyboard instead of a dedicated PS2 or an old USB 2, I'd be in the same situation but with at least one more useful and fast USB that maybe I might for some reason want to use without my wired keyboard plugged in.
It makes sense in terms of cost, because the older more narrowly useful port is hopefully cheaper, but otherwise it's just unnecessary and more limiting than the same overall number of ports where all of them are the most widely useful and fastest possible throughput.
Better than my old Razer Blackwidow. Did get almost a decade out of it, though.
I actually use a keyboard with that connector with a converter ( to USB ). It works pretty well.
Fyi, I’m using a very old happy hacking keyboard my father gave me
Here’s the picture of the keyboard I found on the Internet:
Same here, still rocking my $1 Model M 7 years strong now
Model-M from 1992 checking in, with all its PS/2 to USB adapter glory. Works great, and is heavy enough for home defense, removing unwanted fingerprints from walls, and smashing produce.
Control in the right place! I always have to use registry hacks to get caps lock to be Control in Windows.
That’s… odd
Hahaa.. laughed at this, checked my computer only to see my keyboard is using this... It didn't at all bothered me all these years, so.. Long live
cause its good
Old reliable!
I'm glad to have it. I have to keep my old PS/2 keyboard plugged into that slot so I can get into the BIOS. My USB keyboard isn't recognized until it's too late to interrupt the boot process.
I had the same problem until I learned motherboards tend to prioritize the top usb slots or specific ones for the boot process. Switching to those fixed it for me. Any such luck?
I did try that but unfortunately it didn't work on my system. There is also an option for the systemctl reboot command that I haven't tried yet but plan to next time I need to get into the BIOS. IIRC it's
--firmware-setup. It's supposed to reboot you into the BIOS, but whether it works or not depends on if your hardware supports it.
I had to mess with an old laptop the other month, and the built in keyboard didn't activate until after the deadline for getting into the BIOS.
But plug in a USB keyboard, and away it goes.
Like, who designs this shit?
We asked our Dell sales guy this question years ago now, when they had been removed one year and quickly added back the next year.
They are there mostly for government builds, and other places with high security requirements. Usually the requirement is that they need to prevent any unauthorized USB devices from being plugged in. With the PS2 m&k ports they can disable the USB ports entirely in the BIOS.
That makes sense! The convenience of USB means that this single point of entry is now a critical security risk.
So you want to connect your mouse and keyboard, but all your usb slots are taken? I got your back, fam!
I used a ps2 mouse until about a year ago. If it ain't broke...
What show / movie is this meme template from?
Sonic I think? Never watched it but the boots in the bottom picture look like Sonic
Sonic for sure
Yes, it's from the Sonic movie. Original
Aren't they?
I have not seen one in years. maybe a decade
lol it's on my gaming rig
Isn’t the latency lower on ps/2 than usb?
Not necessarily, modern having keyboards can operate at upwards of 1khz polling speed. The main difference is, that usb needs polling in the first place, whereas ps/2 is interrupt based.
That essentially means that ps/2 tells the computer "hey a key was just pressed" instantly and usb waits to be asked whether a key was pressed or not. If the latter is done often enough the difference becomes negligible.
Afaik PS2 juat injects inpits straight to the CPU
but the protocol is slow. with high speed usb and fast polling rates, even though ps/2 starts sending instantly, usb will often have had time to poll and send its whole packet before ps/2 has finished sending.
Not necessarily. Even though PS/2 operates with a superior protocol, latency-wise, the clock speed is atrocious, resulting in an effective polling rate of about 1500hz, give or take. We could account that it doesn't need to wait for request to send keystrokes like USB keyboard do, effectively doubling it even more, but then we'd have to account for whatever delay Super I/O chips introduce and I'm not qualified to talk about that. But, if your keyboard is not from a dollar store shelf then it probably runs on at least 1000hz, at which point we are talking about sub-millisecond differences which would be quite hard to notice. 4000hz keyboard definitely beats PS/2 though.
I'm currently using a PS/2 Dell AT101W while I procrastinate fixing my AT Leading Edge DC-2214
NGL I literally still use a PS/2 port for my decent yet extremely old membrane keyboard from circa 2007.
I meant to upgrade to a customized mechanical keeb a few years back, got a bunch of sample key caps and switches, got really overwhelmed by the choices, and never bought anything permanent.
In my dream scenario this choice pays off when some fed agency tries to install a hardware keylogger and can't because I'm the last idiot still using a PS/2 keyboard in 2024.
Went to Disney recently and had a lot of time to wait in line. I found a ton of old tech recycled into decorations in their Star Wars area. I got to explain circuits, hard disks, and old connectors to my kids.
