PS/2 vs USB keyboards: performance and energy consumption

Posted by Mister Smith on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Mister Smith
Published on 2012-09-10T08:07:36Z Indexed on 2012/09/10 9:40 UTC
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As far as I know, PS/2 keyboards are interrupt driven, while USB are polled. Typically a PS/2 keyboard was assigned IRQ_1 on Windows.

I'm no hardware expert, but at a first glance seems like the PS/2 keyboards are more efficient. So here are my questions:

  1. On modern day computers, are PS/2 keyboard better (or faster), and if so, would it be noticeable at all? (e.g.: in gaming)
  2. Since they don't need polling, do PS/2 keyboards save energy compared to USB? (notice I'm not talking only about the peripheral here, but about the overall computer energy consumption).
  3. In case PS/2 had any advantage over USB, would adding a PS/2 adapter to my USB keyboard make the device as good as an actual PS/2 keyboard? Conversely, would adding a USB adapter to a PS/2 make it as bad as a USB KB?

Thanks in advance.

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