Why does the Amiga One have legacy ports?

[Myra]

Seriously? Its an all new platform which will only run old programs under emulation, why does one need those things like PS/2 and serial and parallel ports? Apple doesn't have them for 5 years.

[Joshua]

Myra wrote:
Seriously? Its an all new platform which will only run old programs under emulation, why does one need those things like PS/2 and serial and parallel ports? Apple doesn't have them for 5 years.

Considering the age of the "classic" machines, I would think many users probably have peripherals which they'd like to use with the AmigaOne that require the legacy ports.  Over time, as the user-base begins to take advantage of newer hardware that is compatible with the AmigaOne (which was not compatible with their classic systems), I would expect these ports to eventually fade away.

[Linchpin]

Why not?

Seems a good idea to me, lots of hardware out there uses it.

[Tomas]

ps/2 is way more compitable this days, and more stable than usb.

Its not like windows is going to be on that box.

[mikeymike]

Seriously? Its an all new platform which will only run old programs under emulation, why does one need those things like PS/2 and serial and parallel ports? Apple doesn't have them for 5 years.

They're part of the standard ATX spec.  As cases aren't being supplied as part of the AmigaOne by default, then users and resellers have to make do with currently available hardware.  You could design a custom header board to fit into an ATX case so that the motherboard headers match the holes in the case, but that's an extra, totally unnecessary expense.

Also, AFAIK no proper USB printers have yet been designed, the only ones I've heard of are "software" printers, like "software" modems.

USB is an evolving standard still, and IIRC not 100% backwards compatible.

[lempkee]

usb is slow and eats cpu + the userbase needs to get aquianted with such standards!...

they have all this wonderfull old stuff and well not everyone can afford brand new gear.

and the last note is, which usb stuff do you want to buy?  everyone sane knows that usb mouse's is slow and can even lag windows on a highend cpu (inside a game / powerapp)

cheers

pps:and last time i checked there was no amiga keyboards/mouse for usb

[mikeymike]

usb is slow and eats cpu

My friends say this too, but on USB 1.1 machines I've tested this on recently, I have seen no discernable CPU overhead (watching CPU monitoring utilities as well as various types of system call).  One of the machines was a K6-2 350, and generally was low spec, including a crap graphics card, still no discernable CPU usage when using a USB mouse.

In short, "I'm not convinced you're right about that"

USB 1.1 is "only" 11Mbit/sec.  That should suffice for printer, mouse and keyboard though.   A scanner would get impeded though.

USB IMO does get horredously misused, like for example ADSL over USB is such a stupid idea, when a network card is far more suited to the task, and much cheaper.  The only reason why USB was chosen is so that ISP engineers don't have to open machines for ADSL installation.  Oh, the hardship of installing a network card.

[xeron]

The parallel port is still very useful for some people. What if I wanted to borrow an EPROM emulator from work? What if I wanted to make a cable to connect a C64 disk drive?

etc. etc.

[Tomas]

What if i just wanted a printer that works stable everywhere?  :-)

Most usb devices is only restricted to windows, due to lack of drivers.

[Kronos]

@mikeymike

Häääääääähhhh ??

The ATX-standard does NOT force any layout tothe port!!!

ATX just defines a rectangular space for IO,and the metal-plate to fit
in is supposed to come with the mobo.

Yes, I know that realitymay differ a bit, but A1 (all versions) and Peg
allready feature non-standard port-layouts,and atleast the Peg comes
with a fitting IO-panel.

[amigamad]

why does one need those things like PS/2 and serial and parallel ports? Apple doesn't have them for 5 years.

I like to have them legacy free is crap as one of my mates found out on his pc .Anyway who is stupid enough to buy an apple when there is not much software available and expansion means throwing it away and buying a new one. :-?  :-?  :-)

[KennyR]

Serial - any low level coder worth his salt needs this for debugging. Other uses include UPS, serial links, and generally anything that you don't want to waste a USB slot on.

Parallel - 95% of printers.

PS/2 - 95% of keyboards and mice. Being able to use your keyboard and mouse before the USB stack has actually started is also a great advantage.

[Kronos]

@Tomas

TurboPrint does support quite a wide range of USB-printers, and
it should work out of the box as long as the USB-stack has a working
virtual par-device (like Poseidon).

[ritty]

sorry i asked

 

[mikeymike]

Does Amiga One mobo come with all the I/O ports needed for a graphics and animation system?

I don't know... what are all the I/O ports needed for a graphics and animation system?

Note that the A1 SE/XE don't have integrated graphics.

and are there any drawbacks to cordless keyboards or mice ...ie: loss of speed

Security is one problem.  The transmissions can be picked up by even monitoring devices outside the house the cordless keyb/mice are in.  Another is weight of the mouse, and another, I would expect, is that the devices' responsiveness wears down as the battery wears down.  And what about when the battery starts getting old?  We're not talking about the technology of battery you'd find in a mobile phone.

why would anyone want to use USB ports anyway ...?

I used to be anti-USB.  Now I'm only anti- stupid uses of USB, such as ADSL over USB.

ill the Amiga One mobo had a fast scsi port and can you get a mobo with a scsi HD?

No and no.  A SCSI PCI card is necessary.