• dan@upvote.au
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      edit-2
      9 months ago

      PS/2 still works the same as it always has. No changes there. It’s not really possible to change how PS/2 operates because it wouldn’t be backwards compatible with old keyboards or software.

      Legacy stuff sticks around for a while and generally doesn’t change, since it needs to retain backwards compatibility. Modern x86 processors also still have a “real mode” with 1MB RAM, like what the 286 versions of DOS and Windows 3.0 used to use.

      You can buy industrial PCs and motherboards today that not only have a PS/2 port, but also other legacy stuff like parallel and serial ports, ISA slots, etc. There’s actually motherboards that have ISA, PCI, and PCIe all on the same board. There’s 25+ year old machinery that’s still in use and extremely expensive to replace, so it’s not uncommon to have new computers with legacy connectors/ports in industrial environments.

      • TwanHE@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        9 months ago

        Enthusiast motherboards still have the ps/2 ports as well. Usually because the usb controller is the first thing to stop working when the bclk gets too high or you’re going sub 0 cooling.

        • dan@upvote.au
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          PS/2 keyboards are more likely to support n-key rollover, too (USB is maximum 6-key rollover by default).

        • dan@upvote.au
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          9 months ago

          Apparently some enthusiasts still use PS/2 keyboards because they have slightly faster response times / lower latency, and better support for n-key rollover.

        • zzx@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          9 months ago

          Recently did OSDEV on my machine running an ryzen 5 series. I was rolling my own bootloader and I still had to enable the A20 Line

    • AMDIsOurLord@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      9 months ago

      The absolute lowest level of computers haven’t changed much, we still fuck around with interrupts. However, USB peripherals are a LOT more complicated than this, and if I’m not mistaken they’re polled by the connection master