Computer Busses

10

Games Port, Keyboard and Mouse

10.1 Introduction

PCs have traditionally been difficult to connect to and set up, for reasons such as:

• Different connectors – there are so many different types of connectors for many different types of devices that connect to the PC. For example, the keyboard uses a 5-pin DIN plug, the parallel port uses a 25-pin D-type connector, the primary serial port uses a 9-pin D-type connector, the video adaptor uses a 15-pin D-type connector, and so on. The future is likely to bring a standardisation of these connectors, possibly with the USB port.

• Different configurations – typically different peripherals required assigned interrupts and I/O addresses. For example, the keyboard uses IRQ1 and I/O ports at 60 h and 64 h. ...