• dan@upvote.au
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    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
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      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
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        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
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        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
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        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