On 16.09.2008 21:10, Joseph Smith wrote: > On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:17:36 +0200, Peter Stuge <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Joseph Smith wrote: >> >>>> Joe, I remember you were interested in crazy hardware hacks. >>>> Would designing a floppy->parallel port interface (or >>>> floppy->serial) fit your bill? >>>> >>> That would be a crazy hardware hack. I don't think it would be too >>> dificult considering floppies are basicly serial devices. I'll do >>> some research. >>> >> These are the signals: >> >> http://hardwarebook.info/Internal_Diskdrive >> >> >> >>> I think the hardest part would be a driver/software able to >>> manipulate the floppy port for serial. >>> >> Not so hard, it will just be bit-banging the signals. I would suggest >> using 8 output signals, one strobe out and one ack in to increase the >> transfer rate. >> >> The drawbacks are that timing and thus transfer speed will differ >> with CPU speed and that it is relatively impractical to drive >> communication like this. >> >> >> I'd like to also nominate PS/2 for consideration, it already comes >> with a serial transceiver (odd-8-1) and once the superio is >> configured, writing one byte should need just a few io instructions. >> >> http://hardwarebook.info/Keyboard_%286_PC%2C_PS/2%29 >> http://hardwarebook.info/AT_Keyboard/Mouse_protocol >> and the PORTS file from >> http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~ralf/files.html (search for K-P0060) >> >> 10-16.7 kHz it's kind of slow, but.. >> >> > My vote is for PS/2 also. There's a data and a clk line, so simple. The > question is, newer motherboards are not coming with PS/2 ports, only USB > (especially BTX). So Carl-Daniel how many of those boards have PS/2? Here > is my favorite site to find out what devices have what signals (and pin > outs): http://pinouts.ru/ >
All of them have PS/2. However, some only have one PS/2 port which is either a pure keyboard or a combined keyboard/mouse connector. The latter may pose challenges regarding pinouts and/or electrical interfaces (multiplexing?). Guys, have you noticed how similar this idea is to the often-derided USB flash key plugged into a USB<->PS/2 converter? That's a great thing! It means we'll attract all sorts of crazy hardware hackers. Regards, Carl-Daniel -- http://www.hailfinger.org/ -- coreboot mailing list: [email protected] http://www.coreboot.org/mailman/listinfo/coreboot
