this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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I got that reference. Fuck, I'm old.
Please explain? I get that the chubby bird is speaking assembly, but I'm sure there's more to it than that?
PS2 keyboards use interrupts rather than polling in USB, meaning every time a key is pressed the CPU stops what its doing to process it.
Cool! I had no idea it was deeper than just a physical interface change.
I didn't know the PS2 had a keyboard
I know you're probably being facetious... but the PS/2 port is what's shown in the OP image.
that said the Playstation 2 had USB ports, you could just plug a regular keyboard into it
I'm this old
The ol' RS232?
Big keyboard jack, serial for mouse, parallel for printer
Don't forget the serial input for gamepads and joysticks in the dedicated sound board for some reason
Except that wasn't a serial port, it was midi, and the reason it was on the sound card was because the input was analog.
Your joystick was just two fancy potentiometers, and your soundcard decoded the voltage on the middle legs into a position.
Soundcards handled joysticks because they had the fastest ADCs.
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_port
The 15-pin D-sub connector itself was apparently a combination of analog and digital. It had to be, since MIDI is digital (it's right there in the name: Musical Instrument Digital Interface). TIL it wasn't all digital.
Wow, 30 years later and I'm just learning this now. Thank you
huh, i thought it was just because "owning a sound card" and "likely to play games" was the biggest overlap of the Venn circles.
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Early PC only had 5 card slots, and the only jack on the motherboard was the keyboard. One slot is going to be used by a video card, one’s probably being used by a hard drive controller, one’s probably used by a parallel + serial card. Soundcards also included controller ports to try to save a slot.
I thought sometimes they called them game ports (for the joystick.)
I reasoned if you are installing a sound card, you are probably doing some gaming, so it made sense to sort of bundle those together.
Its on the sound card because it's a midi port. Its designed for connecting a keyboard (as in electronic piano). Most people used it for gamepads but that's not what it was there for.
And because the PC only have 1 serial port, you disconnect the printer and use a parallel to serial adapter.
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In my day, the RJ-11 jack was for connecting the keyboard, not the phone line.
Okay that's something I had no idea about hahaha
I remember those days.
What kind of connector is this? I remember seeing them on 1970s audio equipment, maybe for mic in?
It's an AT/ XT keyboard connector.
And back then if we did have a mouse, it was square, and used a 9pin serial port
My keyboard still uses a PS/2 port via adapter. 1986 Model M, still clicky.
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I raise
edit, actually, it might have been on the back...it's been forever since I touched one
Ooh, I had a serial mouse (9 pin) from Microsoft of all companies, in the 90's.
Damn good mouse.
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You guys had keyboards? 
"do you know what ps/2 ports are?"
"holy cow, PlayStation 2? you must be AT LEAST 25!"
[dying inside intensifies]
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"how old are you?"
TURBO!!!
The "Turbo" function was a masterstroke of marketing.
The actual function of the turbo is to slow the machine down, so it can be compatible with older games and software that ran too quickly on those newer systems.
Of course calling it a "slow down" button wasn't very sexy, so just flip the function around and label it turbo instead!
I'm this old.
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