Ps/2 keyboard and mouse - amazing how IBM got people to use that standard then became completely irrelevant in the PC space - other than gouging PC makers to pay for patents they owned
Had a project where they were using legacy serial on a HW device. They were insistent - none of the USB-Serial adapters worked consistently (talking 50% of the time NOT working)
Reached out to the HW vendor for the device and found they had a retrofit USB board and drivers :)
Certain gaming mobos keep it even now because a handful of gamers believe that they can feel a performance improvement with interrupt driven keyboard i/o.
I once had someone ask for my help to connect up multiple Parallel connected devices to a single port using similar switches.... it was.... interesting.
I was keying programs into the front panel switches on a PDP-11, then I blinked and 5 millennia passed.
I still have my slide rule, paper tape, punched cards.
I wish I had some write rings for 9 tracks...they were fun to play with.
I have a coworker that has this model but like two years newer with USB I/Os. Uses it to switch one monitor to a fully off network device to double check websites and what not before diving into troubleshooting a web filter issues. 🤣
I had one of those, then later the fancy 4-way one that used hotkeys to select which system was active and cycled through them every few seconds if you wanted (which my multi-sync monitor just loved, let me tell you)
I was *struggling* to explain these to a coworker the other day.
The hardest part was explaining the overall importance and competition for desk space amongst devices.
He has never even worked at a desk.
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Whippersnapper.
Reached out to the HW vendor for the device and found they had a retrofit USB board and drivers :)
I still have my slide rule, paper tape, punched cards.
I wish I had some write rings for 9 tracks...they were fun to play with.
and these may still be used to switch over a multitrack computer playback system should the A machine fail
just need to wire up adpaters
The hardest part was explaining the overall importance and competition for desk space amongst devices.
He has never even worked at a desk.
Then I had the Belkin adapter module that let me use one position with an ADB Mac and still map everything right.