There’s a cause costly motherboards nonetheless have this 39-year-old port
For all the trendy tech we all know and love, outdated tech nonetheless retains every little thing operating.
Your motherboard with USB4, Wi-Fi 7, multi-gig Ethernet, and all the opposite mod-cons is a superb piece of expertise, however you won’t have ever had use for the small, spherical, six-pin port that IBM launched in 1987.
The PS/2 port is 39 years old, and whereas it is not on each high-end motherboard as of late, some hold it round for very important causes.
What is a PS/2 port?
A bare-bones connector that boots together with your PC
PS/2 is not a bizarre abbreviation of PlayStation 2 you have by no means encountered. It refers back to the outdated six-pin mini-DIN connector for keyboards and mice, named after IBM’s Personal System/2 computer systems the place it was first launched.
Under the hood, PS/2 is comparatively easy, which is why it nonetheless hangs round even on fashionable motherboards. It’s a serial reference to two important sign traces, one which runs the info, and one which runs the clock. It’s that straightforward.
You sometimes discover it as a single port as of late, too. On a lot older motherboards, you’d have a separate PS/2 port for the mouse and keyboard, however you are much more more likely to encounter a mixed PS/2 port on fashionable models. The mixed port is dealt with by a single microcontroller, referred to as the Super I/O chip, and it is tremendous low cost to maintain round.
It’s undoubtedly nonetheless round, although. For instance, the Gigabyte B850M Force launched in 2025 shipped with a PS/2 port, as did the ASUS TUF B850M-E and ASRock X870E Taichi, amongst loads of different examples.
Oh, there may be one other key distinction between PS/2 and USB peripherals: PS/2 sometimes must be plugged in earlier than you boot the PC. It wasn’t designed as a hot-swappable commonplace like we’re very a lot used to with USB units, and that may be complicated if you have not used it earlier than.
If it is solely used as a uncommon backup, why do some motherboards nonetheless ship with it?
It’s nonetheless helpful, mainly
The PS/2 port is significant for an additional cause: it has near-universal BIOS compatibility. That means whenever you boot a PC and your USB keyboard and mouse fail to work as a result of their drivers have not loaded but, a PS/2 keyboard and mouse will nonetheless work on the vast majority of machines — as long as there’s a port.
Now, that is much less of an issue on fashionable motherboards that come outfitted with generic USB drivers that help numerous peripherals. Manufacturers noticed the issue and corrected it. But within the interim, having a backup PS/2 keyboard and mouse was completely very important, because it might imply the distinction between fixing your PC and sitting there doing nothing.
Because imagine me, USB help will disappear whenever you least count on it, and you will be glad you had a backup accessible.
That’s not the one cause the PS/2 port sticks round
Lock down the USB ports
Beyond “it really works with most BIOS configurations,” there are different causes you would possibly discover a PS/2 port on a contemporary motherboard.
One fascinating cause is that some places of work desire the PS/2 port for safety. If each machine is utilizing an older PS/2 port relatively than USB, the safety crew can lock down the USB ports on each machine. It appears pretty draconian, but it surely means no potential threats from USB drives and different devices.
In some industries, PS/2 is remitted for safety for precisely this cause.
Some players suppose it is sooner
Another cause why PS/2 nonetheless options on high-end motherboards is that some players truly desire it over fashionable USB enter units. There is a technical cause behind this, even when the precise numbers do not fairly stack up.
Some players imagine that as a result of PS/2 peripherals are interrupt-driven and ship knowledge the second one thing wants reporting, they ship higher response occasions than polled USB peripherals. That means they ship a response if there’s something to report, however are checked on a schedule.
However, the numbers do not add up. An ordinary PS/2 peripheral sends knowledge at a default of 100Hz, or 0.01 seconds (or 10 milliseconds) per cycle. Now, whereas that sounds quick, most USB peripherals default to 125Hz, which is the equal of 0.008 seconds (or 8 milliseconds). Not solely that, however most USB peripherals have extra polling charges, pushing that quantity a lot, a lot increased.
For instance, I was recently using an Asus ROG Falcata gaming keyboard, which has an adjustable polling price as much as 8,000Hz — equivalent to a interval of 0.000125 seconds (or 125 microseconds). It’s unbelievably quick and registers the tiniest key impression, and is 80x sooner than a PS/2 peripheral.
There can be a small argument for PS/2’s N-key rollover. The older commonplace helps any variety of key presses without delay, whereas a USB keyboard can solely obtain the identical by software program. But any decently high-end USB keyboard can have help.
Should you trouble utilizing the PS/2 port?
Only if it’s essential to
I nonetheless hold a PS/2 keyboard and mouse round, simply in case. I’ll admit that it has been a extremely very long time since I’ve wanted them, as my motherboard is one which comes outfitted with generic USB drivers; my mouse and keyboard all the time work, even in occasions of hair-pulling computer-pain.
Still, PS/2 is not one thing it’s essential to swap to anytime quickly. If it is there in your motherboard, benefit from the truth you’ve got an additional backup management technique versus fashionable boards with out it. But in any other case, it does not get in your approach, devour any further system sources, or in any other case — it is simply there, ready to avoid wasting you on the proper time.
