Time to dump Parallel, Serial PS/2?
- Thread starter Dave Baumann
- Start date
hoom
Veteran
Yup, I vote to keep legacy.
The reason its still there is because it hardly costs anything & it saves loads of trouble from users complaining that they can't get <old device x> to work/can't even find anywhere to plug it into.
Floppy drive controllers/winxp/mobo bioses still contain legacy support for 5.25 inch drives for example.
Oh, & there's a legacy I'd really like to see Nvidia bring out: 3dFx.
I'm sure it would make for a fairly tiny chip at 110nm.
Mind you, Zeckensacks' Glide Wrapper kinda makes it a moot point.
The reason its still there is because it hardly costs anything & it saves loads of trouble from users complaining that they can't get <old device x> to work/can't even find anywhere to plug it into.
Floppy drive controllers/winxp/mobo bioses still contain legacy support for 5.25 inch drives for example.
Oh, & there's a legacy I'd really like to see Nvidia bring out: 3dFx.
I'm sure it would make for a fairly tiny chip at 110nm.
Mind you, Zeckensacks' Glide Wrapper kinda makes it a moot point.
Definately dump it.
It would save me the bother of disabling them in the bios anyway.
Also, I agree with the previous posts about dumping PS2 ports in favour of USB ones. If everyone had to do it, bios support for USB keyboards would have to be implemented properly and there wouldn't be a problem.
Plus, aren't the PS2 ports connected to the antiquated ISA bus??
Surely it's about time that was dumped.
It would save me the bother of disabling them in the bios anyway.
Also, I agree with the previous posts about dumping PS2 ports in favour of USB ones. If everyone had to do it, bios support for USB keyboards would have to be implemented properly and there wouldn't be a problem.
Plus, aren't the PS2 ports connected to the antiquated ISA bus??
Surely it's about time that was dumped.
oddfellow said:
Small point, but BIOS Boot Block Programming only has sufficient memory space to output display to an ISA video card. Not that any one has ISA slots or cards these days of course....
And serial ports are still used to connect up diagnostic hardware for POST errors, etc. The serial port is still used by people to interface specialistic hardware. I guess the question is whether it should still be supported for the small minority of people that still use it or not?
P69
arrrse said:
Huh, what? What do you want nvidia to do with 3dfx? Produce an old 3dfx chip(which I don't think nvidia bought the rights to), shrink it down, and put it on a future nvidia card? And as you said, glide wrappers kind of make it a moot point.
3dfx tech doesn't really bring anything to the table anymore. The superior 16bit color is useless as every game now runs in 32bit, nvidia has their own form of sli, and generally people don't think that RGSS is worth the performance hit for the quality it gives. Too bad there is no way to determine what textures need alpha and just applying RGSS to them. The t-buffer effects can now be done with pixel shaders, glide as a language is too outdated and nvidia has basically made opengl its own glide, and the only thing 3dfx may have to worth offering is gigapixel's tech. Nvidia + 3dfx does not compute.
Well it's not like all computers would instantly lose their outdated ports, those people can keep their old equipment with their old computers. For new computers they'll have to buy USB hardware or things to convert their old hardware to USB.
thegrommit
Newcomer
The longer PS/2 ports hang around the better. I have yet to find a USB keyboard that's as nice to use as my clicky Dell "Quiet"key circa 1999.
Phantom69 said:
Couldn't serial expansion cards be used for legacy use?
Fox5 said:
At work we use serial ports on very up-to-date PC's ;-) MATLAB is very useful for interfacing with hardware through the serial ports but still requires some serious processing power.
However, DaveBaumann is right that we could use serial expansion cards (provided they produce PCI-e versions before erradicating the PCI slot!)
P69
Wtf, you can keep an old POS PC so you can have your precious serial ports, nobody ACTUALLY needs serial ports for anything anymore. Death to all that legacy sh!t, serial, parallel, ps/2, floppy. Death to all of it. There's USB-to-serial adapters to be had if it's absolutely needed.epicstruggle said:
What's the point of screendumping text from DOS these days, wtf are you doing running DOS anyway? That "environment" was rotten fifteen years ago and it certainly hasn't aged with dignity since then.
On my PC I have 4 USB 1.1 ports connected to the chipset, then one 5-port USB2 board, plus one USB2/FW400 board with 3 external and 1 internal port. One of those connects to my monitor's hub with another 4 USB1.1 ports. I have most of these filled with stuff... I love USB!
(Except the connector design is terrible, very difficult to insert when reaching behind a computer. The ones responsible for the plug design ought to be SHOT. )Well i'm still using an old mouse from not sure 2000-2001? That's still on ps2 on my new comp, and i don't mind if the mainboard makers decide to kill off all the legacy stuff parrallellport, serial, ps2 though. As long as the alternatives work as flawless as the legacy has i don't mind, though i've always wanted them to kill off those annoying serial and parallell ports.
How is it bothering anyone if they keep the legacy stuff?
epic
epic
For one, it takes up precious space on the back panel that could house more USB ports instead, thus not making USB ports take up extra slot place, which is a must if we're ever to move away from bulkish full ATX designs. Also, it's generally better to have only the absolute necessary amount of different bus protocols in any given system design (on a similar note, I'd oust FDD support from future chipsets as well).epicstruggle said:
[rude]
NEED LEGACY PORTS? USE AN OLDER COMPUTER.
EOD.
[/rude]
Yes, I'd like to see FDD's gone as well. I think this is another area where BIOS and motherboard manufacturers need to brush up a little as wel though - we need to ensure that people can effectively boot from a USB key drive.
First, take a chill pill. Then take another, cool off.anaqer said:
Your pc is made up of tons of legacy parts, from the OS/software, to the motherboard/hardware. Got that. Simple. Now why so much legacy stuff? Because the market is huge for one legacy item to the next.
Im glad the hardware vendors cater to my needs. 8) Long live serial ports.
epic
DaveBaumann said:
i posted this over at sfftech.com 2 years ago:
http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=32681&highlight_key=y
epic
One would think those tags should have prevented such misunderstandings. :?epicstruggle said:First, take a chill pill. Then take another, cool off.
I'm not particularly angry or anything, it just boggles the mind why we HAVE to live with (and pay for) features that are superfluous for 90% of the population. I can't help but think about how the PC wasn't meant to be sprinkled with all these obligatory various ports in the first place. You had an ISA bus and that's about it - if you wanted serial / parallel / etc. ports, you could install a relatively inexpensive card and the matter was taken care of. It's pretty much the same idea that's behind replacing PCI&AGP with PCI-E, and I think it's a very sound one.
Maybe my initial post was poorly worded... PS/2 and it's kind can exist till kingdom come for all I care - as ports on an expansion card or USB breakout box. Keyword : optional.
source please.anaqer said:it just boggles the mind why we HAVE to live with (and pay for) features that are superfluous for 90% of the population.epicstruggle said:First, take a chill pill. Then take another, cool off.
epic
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