• dan@upvote.au
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    10 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 max, 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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      10 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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        10 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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        10 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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        10 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