9 Feb
2001
9 Feb
'01
8:59 a.m.
There are many dozens of USB-dedicated microcontrollers by now. Intel has a
bunch, Cypress has a bunch ... Siemens has a bunch ... Philips has a bunch
... I could go on ...
These devices swap larger intelligence, bought at the price of silicon
(about $3/lbincluding packaging, etc.), for interconnection uniformity.
There's enough intelligence at the computer end to figure out what it is and
how to talk to it, and there's enough intelligence at the device end to
communicate in a regular way so that the system to which it's attached will
be able to figure out who/what it is. This is what they're giving us in
place of those expansion slots that newer PC's haven't got anymore.
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Ford" <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, February 09, 2001 3:29 PM
Subject: Re: OT? PS2<->USB
Possibly on
topic due to the year of introduction
of the PS2 serial mouse connection... I recently
picked up a new , fairly low cost mouse (Logitech
optical) without expecting anything but the PS2
connector and lo and behold the thing was native
USB... with a miniscule PS2 adaptor on the end.
My Q is this: is USB somehow an electrical superset
of PS2, IE the adaptor was passive. Or, did they fit
some electronics in that tiny thing?
John A.
The smarts are in the mouse. I have a couple devices like this, and they
must have some smarts inside that detects the type of connection, and
behaves correctly. Pretty common in a bunch of cheap devices really.
One caution, mark the doodad, as they may not be the same for different
devices.