Originally posted by: UTFan81
usb ports only use cpu cycles when something is plugging into them you morons. therefore it is in a sense.
Time for you to learn something today! From another thread:
"The PS/2 port is on the legacy keyboard controller, which is an 8 MHz, 8-bit, entirely PIO-driven ISA device. Yes ISA. Even in today's systems.
How that should be in any way faster than the bus-mastering, beyond-PCI bandwidth device that is the USB root hub completely escapes me."
I should think also that the USB controller brings its own brain, and any CPU cycles used for it are executed much faster than what PS/2 hardware can do.
EDIT: And:
"Besides, USB is the much faster connection as far as packet handling, bus bandwidth and interrupt latency are concerned. This should be noticeable with a quality [mouse/keyboard]"
"USB is better - it's a modern controller on a fast chipset connection, unlike the PS/2 mouse port which is on the ancient keyboard controller, an 8-bit ISA device that needs to be polled very oftenly for smooth operation. On USB, it's smooth without eating too much into system bus bandwidth."
"The PS/2 mouse port is actually the AUXiliary port of the legacy keyboard controller, the oldest and slowest piece of silicon in the entire PC. Data travelling there travels all busses all the way down to the remains of 8-bit ISA (!) maintained for the KBC alone, blocking all other system activity meanwhile. And the KBC isn't a bus mastering device either, meaning you need the CPU to poll the controller at a high frequency for smooth mouse operation.
USB in turn is on a chipset internal connection faster than PCI (how's that comparing to 8-bit ISA?), plus USB controllers are bus mastering, delivering data to the system as they come, no CPU activity required for fetching the data."
On top of that, the people who patented the PS/2 controller get royalties everytime a motherboard is built with it. So the sooner we can eliminate those ports and their corresponding chips, the cheaper our motherboards will become. Why do you think OEMs like Dell, HP, etc. are hardly putting them on at all anymore?