Hacker News Reader

jgb1984

Well, that's why I'm holding on to my decades old Cherry PS/2 keyboard. No polling, no latency, no ghosting, no key rollover issues. Unfortunately the PS/2 port is becoming rare, I'm limited to MSI for my upcoming AMD B550 motherboard because it's the only brand that offers it on a nicely specced ATX board.

View on HN

Apparently [1] PS/2 limited by a slower data rate than USB 2.0 which cancels out almost all the advantage of its lower initial latency to begin the transmission, making them both about equally capable in actual latency - at least in theory.

[1] https://youtu.be/wdgULBpRoXk?t=1953

Even if this conclusion is wrong, that video is a very pleasant and understandable explanation of the USB protocol.

I wonder how much CPU load changes the equation. I've experienced USB input locking up or stuttering as a result of high CPU load, which presumably wouldn't happen with PS/2.

There are PS/2 to USB converters but who knows what latency they add.

Unfortunately the inherent PS2 advantages disappear when you use such a convertor afaik.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com