--- On Fri, 12/10/10, Todd Brayer <[email protected]> wrote:
How feasible is it to get USB on older macs? I know most of the later PowerPCs
could do it, what about the early ones or 68K machines? Mostly in reference to
memory stick drives to I can transfer data.
--
It's only possible to add USB on Macs with PCI slots. Mac OS 9.2.2 and older do
not support USB 2.0 due to Apple and the aftermarket refusing to write drivers.
OS 8.1 had the first Mac USB support (for the original iMac) but good support
didn't happen until 8.6.
DO NOT use a PCI USB card with a VIA brand chip in a Mac. Even though they're
supposedly OHCI compliant they don't work with much of anything other than mice
and keyboards. NEC or ALi brand USB chips are better.
It would be possible to create a USB card for NuBus Macs, though nobody has
bothered to even begin investigating what would be required for the hardware,
or if the USB drivers for OS 8.6 and later on PPC would work with a NuBus card
with an OHCI compliant chip.
I guess the lack of a NuBus USB card goes hand in hand with the apathetic
response to doing USB 2.0 drivers for OS 8.6 through 9.2.2. Seems odd to me
when 'homebrew' USB cards have been made for many other computers with much
smaller production numbers.
--
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