PS/2, serial and parallel ports being phased out?

[videobruce]

I understand the newer MB's do not have PS/2, serial and parallel ports anymore.

I thought USB wasn't accessible in safe mode.

Has something changed in 2k and XP that I don't know about?

 

[MWink]

That's news to me! :Q I don't know what I would do without those ports. How would you connect keyboards without a PS/2 port? USB keyboards are very rare and expensive (I looked into them a few months ago). Most people still have parallel printers (I think). And a few people (like me) still need serial ports. I really hope you are wrong!

BTW, USB IS accessible in safe mode if the motherboard supports it.

 

[bozo1]

USB keyboards are very rare and expensive

Huh?

 

[zzzz]

It was only some models from ABIT that didnt have those ports. Almost all new mobos have support for usb through bios now so you dont really need them.

 

[MWink]

I went looking for a USB keyboard a few months ago when my friend (MajesticMoose) got his laptop that did not have a PS/2 port. The best deal I was able to find was $30 for a Logitech Cordless keyboard.

 

[ViRGE]

Key word there: phased. As USB keyboard production get ramped up, the prices will drop to a negligable difference; near the end of that cycle, motherboards will start shipping without legacy ports. No matter how things go, the days of legacy ports are numbered, there's just too much of a benefit to a standardized connector that will only be sucking 1 IRQ and associated resources instead of 3, not to mention the fact that USB is pinless(no external pins to bend), hot swapable, and will lead to a slightly easier setup for computer newbies(you can't get the PS/2 port for the mouse and keyboard mixed up, for example).

 

[DeschutesCore]

I sell brown box 109-key USB keyboards for $9.00 in two of my stores. My cost (obviously) is even lower. No, they aren't rare, or expensive.

DC

 

[ViRGE]

On another sidenote, here's something I just remembered. All of Microsoft's currently shipping keyboards that feature USB,* support using USB only to run the keyboard. Some of these keyboards simply say that they have a USB hub built in(such as the Internet Pro), but actually have USB controls built in, seemingly for the Mac market. There's mixed results on use, since it's not an official "feature" for Windows on some of the keyboards, but for those who are having problems, it's just Windows not recognizing the ability of the keyboard's USB to provide control. If you set your BIOS to control the keyboard(instead of the OS), you're fine.

A good number of people use MS keyboards according to the Systems Rig page, so when PS/2 is phased out, you should still be able to keep your keyboard.

* Only the MS Internet Keyboard(non-pro) and Wireless Desktop lack USB

 

[Floydian]

I like ps/2 and serial/parallel ports, mainly because I like 200hz ps/2 (compared to 125 hz, its hardly noticable, but I gotta find some reason to support ps/1) Serial/parallel ports are good for easy LCD hookup -> no need of a USB adapter/extra PCI cards

 

[McCarthy]

Abit put up a trial balloon towards legacy free with their IT7. None of the ports mentioned. A bit of lively discussion about that board took place at the time of it's launch. The IT7-Max2 brings back the PS/2 ports which I for one am glad of. Though I agree it's time to phase out serial and parallel, given the board space required and userbase of PS/2 components still in service it appears earlyt to me to remove them. Now when that's the last thing requiring the old ISA stuff to be in the chipset, by all means, bye bye.

I think within the next year motherboards you'll find as many without parallel and serial as with. Of course if you really need them you can pick up a PCI IO card with the serial/parallel ports on it which should last you until the end of the PCI bus. There are also some PS/2 to USB adapters around, maybe if they were in the $10 range instead of 50 I'd be ready to say it's time to be rid of it as well.

But yeah, it's coming. Get ready and by all means only buy peripherals with Firewire/USB connectivity, not parallel/serial.

 

[Wingznut]

"PS/2, serial and parallel ports being phased out?"

I hope sooner rather than later.

Good riddance, Legacy! :|

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: Wingznut PEZ

"PS/2, serial and parallel ports being phased out?"

I hope sooner rather than later.

Good riddance, Legacy! :|

lol! That reminds me back in '97 or so when PnP, PCI, and Win95 were becomming common. Not having to configure the IRQ on that damn modem was a godsend.

 

[Mday]

old news, i hope to never have such bulky ports ever... adapters exist for these devices for usb... so there is no point in keeping them. if you shop online, you will fine cheap usb peripherals, you ppl shop in the wrong places if the cheapest usb keyboard you find is $30.

The only legacy device i use is the parallel port. my periphs are all usb, i dont even have a gameport device being used. all my serial ports are disabled in the bios...

too bad the only legacy connection free solution is abit...

hell, i'd get a mobo without a floppy controller too. i'd just get a ls120 drive or something which can read floppies, or create bootable CDs...

 

[Vinny N]

Now when that's the last thing requiring the old ISA stuff to be in the chipset,

That's close to my sentiment of an all or nothing approach.

I just hope that all those PS/2->USB adapters work with my keyboards. It'd suck if I can't use my good old IBM Model M tactile click keyboard, or this spiffy looking SGI keyboard and mouse, and my good old Zenith datasystems keyboard that has to go through an AT->PS/2 adapter has enough probs with PS/2 as is, I'd hate to imagine it going through a USB adapter too. Can you tell I hate win keys or just about any current/new/modern keyboard?

and I don't even want to think of USB power issues screwing up optical mice and gamepads once you've got everything plugged into the USB ports. I would expect that any power that might have been diverted to the PS/2 ports, etc would be directed towards the extra USB ports.


edit:

just as a note, on most of the newer systems at home, both serial ports and the parallel port are disabled, and some/all of the IDE controllers in a few cases but the serial port has found use on one of the systems. Those dexdrives better start coming out in a cheap USB version (USB powered would be cool). I'd hate to someday have to buy a PCI card just to tack on ISA blehs for a couple of old ports.

 

[McCarthy]

Model - M here too

 

[jaeger66]

The sooner PS/2, serial, and parallel ports disappear the better. I haven't used any of them, or a floppy drive, in 2 years, and I can't believe Abit wimped out and put the PS/2 ports back on the Max boards. I was thinking of buying one, but not now.

 

[Booster]

PS/2, serial and parallel ports being phased out?

[Yoda]Not ... yet[/Yoda].

 

[Adul]

i am glad to see thost ports die.

 

[ai42]

Well PS/2 wont die quite so quickly.

The Abit Max board (KT333 I think) was the first board to do this. However there is a second revison where they put the PS/2 ports back in as well as 4 pic slots instead of 3. As far as wasting IRQs they still do. These connections are built into the chipset and therefore the computer still thinks these ports are there even though they don't. Until a chipset maker does away with these ports in the chipset (which won't happen very soon but it's getting there) then we still will have legacy products.

Also the hardcore computer engeneers use serial ports all the time to flash EPROM chips etc. And these same computer engeneers design this kind of stuff, so they don't want to make it a huge problem for them either.

 

[videobruce]

These PC2000 ans PC2xxx standarsd, what anw where are they from?
Where can I find out more about these?

Are all these ports (PS/2, serial, parallel) tied into the southbridge or a single chip?

USB is ok but in my 4 years of experiance more problems that the benifit of being hot-pluggable. The tech support people of a couple of printer manufactures pretty much concured that USBV isn't all the great, at least as far as the speed of the printer.

Other than USB camersa and a USB mouse one time in 98SE I have had no need for USB connections. I would rasther have a decicated connection for a mouse and keyboard anbd let anything else share USB, all of which is secondary including a printer.