Talk:IBM Personal System/2

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Contents 1 Important things are missing 2 Contrast to USB 3 Serial? 4 Simms vs Dimms 5 Models 6 PS/2 85xx series vs the 95xx series?

[edit] Important things are missing

You should also mention the later models like Server 95, M77, P70, Laptops, and so on. So everybody thinks that the 386 is the upper end of the PS/2 models. And a picture of some computers is missing!

• I'm working on it. :) - Thatdog 20:56, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Datasheets for a 2 common ICs used in PS/2 mice, I'll link them shortly. Also the bits I've added on coms will be in much greater detail than 'computer-engineering.org'. At least it will be presented more clearly :D - Bsodmike 07:52, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Contrast to USB

PS/2 mouse/keyboard interface is not powered, is it? What other distinctions are there with USB? ---Ransom --208.25.0.2 19:13, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

PS/2 keyboard/mouse most definately is powered, but thats probablly about the only similarity it has with usb. ps/2 is a very simple slow clock+data interface, USB is a high speed interface with differential transmission and complex signaling. Plugwash 19:16, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

PS/2 is also not safely hotpluggable. That is, in many instances you can hotplug PS/2 devices, however there is reportedly a risk of shorting components on some motherboards (depending on which pins of the connector happen to connect to the socket first). USB is, of course, designed for hotplugging. --Bk0 (Talk) 20:00, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

do you have any evidence of that? from my knowlage of how ps/2 works i can't see how hotplugging it could cause any damage. Plugwash 20:30, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

From http://www.computer-engineering.org/ps2protocol/ ("The PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Protocol"):

The keyboard or mouse should not draw more than 275 mA from the host and care must be taken to avoid transient surges. Such surges can be caused by "hot-plugging" a keyboard/mouse (ie, connect/disconnect the device while the computer's power is on.) Older motherboards had a surface-mounted fuse protecting the keyboard and mouse ports. When this fuse blew, the motherboard was useless to the consumer, and non-fixable to the average technician. Most newer motherboards use auto-reset "Poly" fuses that go a long way to remedy this problem. However, this is not a standard and there's still plenty of older motherboards in use. Therefore, I recommend against hot-plugging a PS/2 mouse or keyboard.

--Bk0 (Talk) 21:25, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

hmm i can't see how hotplugging would create any more of a surge than powering up the whole system at once. Plugwash 21:09, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

I've never had a problem with my modern machines, but I've heard anecdotally from people (repair techs and such) that at least in the past customers blowing fuses due to this was not an uncommon problem. --Bk0 (Talk) 00:07, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Serial?

Is a PS/2 port a type of serial ports? 13:17, 7 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Simms vs Dimms

Someone noted in a comment "hmm i seem to remember it being most of the pentium era but our dimm article and pentium article have very little in the way of dates" (I don't feel like digging up the history to see who) ... and there it really depends on how you define the "Pentium era" - if it's only to the release of the Pentium Pro in 1995, then you're absolutely right.

There were plenty of Pentium systems selling through to sometime in 1998 when the Celeron finally was cheap enough to kill it (although arguably it really took the 300A - a bit later - and the various Super Socket 7 chips to really kill it), which was more what that might have been about.

Fast page mode DIMMs were really rare outside of the Macintosh world (which was late to adopt EDO). EDO memory was more readily available in SIMMs and mostly used in DIMMs in higher end systems -- I remember seeing a fair number of motherboards that had both sorts of sockets. It was probably the switch to SDRAM which finally pushed things over the edge to all DIMMs; there may well have been SDRAM in 72-pin SIMMs, but I don't recall ever seeing it or an ad for it. Nate 08:56, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Models

Is anyone good with making wikicharts/tables? The section with all the model numbers would be much easier to comprehend if it was in table form instead of a bunch of disjointed sentences. /Blaxthos 23:30, 11 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] PS/2 85xx series vs the 95xx series?

There was basically two generations of PS/2 models. The first generation 85xx models and then the 95xx models that were known as "Premium" models. I believe the IBM logo changed colour, and the 95 series used IML partitions as compared to the 85 series which used floppy-based reference disks. Also, the premium models used SCSI and IDE, were more modern looking, and were supported at least through 1994. I'll have to dig through my specs, but I think the two generations are significant enough to mention. There was also a IBM PC 700 series desktop (6885 or 6886) that had both PCI and MCA slots as well as a few IBM PC servers (720 or 701?) that had MCA slots, but were not listed as part of the PS/2 family.

NTD 28dec06 03:02EST