On Sun, 12 Dec 1999, Rachel Polanskis wrote:
>
> On Sun, 12 Dec 1999, Anand Kumria wrote:
>
> > Anyone know if the Type6's can be connected to a PC? Or if Sun will
> > ever give up on their proprietry interface and just switch to USB?
[snip]
> I wonder though if USB will be the preferred implementation for critical
> applications in the SPARC environment or if USB will remain
> a domestic/commodity protocol? I don't feel too good
Commodity give you price advantages. USB is implemented on Apple's,
clone PCs and (some) SGI workstations. It'll be like PCI is, a lingua
fraca between different hosts CPUs and machines.
> implementing a USB based serial dialup service or, in the abscence
> of a serial port controlling a real time application via USB.
I am sure the `old' interfaces will be around for a few more years ...
> The other thing I note is the demise of the SCSI based scanner
> and other gear in recent advertising. I see that there's a lot of USB and
> parallel equipment around now and SCSI doesn't seem to be
> that popular. Is USB really that good it can do all sorts of
> protocols you needed disparate technologies for in the past?
Most SCSI scanners don't implement much beyond SCSI-I, which is
10Mbps. USB v1.0 handles that data capacity adequatly. USB does
nothing with the protocols, it merely standardises the electrical
interface amongst many different ones.
The only (real) difference between a keyboard port, serial port, etc.,
is the plug and socket they use. Plus (possibly) different
voltages. They all transmit data and have some mechanism that the
computer or device can indicate it can't transmit/receive any more
(CTS/RTC ala XON/XOFF).
> Is the compromise that USB is "dumb", ie the processing is done
> by the CPU rather than the interface card or peripheral? If so,
Protocol processing is always done is `software'. Especially mouse
protocols (there are so many of them). Other, more basic, protocols
like the keyboard stuff are sent to a keyboard controller but there is
plenty of code in the kernel to handle various types of them.
> it presumes that there are lots of CPU cycles available just like
> Winmodems. Is USB an open technology?
CPU cycles are, relatively, free. Most computers are idle 70-90% of
the time - naturally though - when you want CPU cycles you can never
get enough!
> > All I could find was this URL on how to build it yourself, do you have
> > any for companies that seel it? <URL: http://www.osk.ch/kbd5pc/>
>
> Have a look in dejanews in the comp.sys.sun.* news hierarchy and
> search for "PC Sun keyboard monitor"......
Thanks,
Anand
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