Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!mcs.anl.gov!sirius.mcs.anl.gov!winans
From: winans@sirius.mcs.anl.gov (John Winans)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: Re: PC (XT) keyboard & XT/286 m/b
Message-ID: <1990Aug24.194929.25595@mcs.anl.gov>
Date: 24 Aug 90 19:49:29 GMT
References: <25345.26d502c6@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>
Sender: news@mcs.anl.gov
Reply-To: winans@sirius.mcs.anl.gov (John Winans)
Organization: Argonne National Laboratory
Lines: 33

In article <25345.26d502c6@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu>,
michal@kuhub.cc.ukans.edu (Merlin The Magician) writes:
|> Is there any way to get an 84-Key Keyboard to work with an AT
|>Motherbaord ? Before you answer, here is the scenario:
|> I own a True Blue XT/286 Box with True Blue 101 AT Style Keyboard.
|>It all works well. For reasons not to obvious, I would like to
|>get this box to work with a True Blue 84 PC (yes!) keyboard. 
|> When the system boots with the PC keyboard plugged in, an error
|>message is displayed (System Options not set, F1 to continue) and
|>an annoying repetative beep is heard, which cannot be made to go away.
|> IBM local dealer says the two keyboards use a diffrent scan and you
|>CANNOT use an XT (PC) keyboard on an AT m/b. But then the rep also
|>flatly denied the existance of an IBM XT/286. 

A different "scan" huh??  I always thought the word was protocol.  Mr. IBM 
local dealer is correct in that it is different, but "scan" is the term I'd
expect from a car salesoid...

(insert your favorite flame here)

The keyboards are not interchangable.  They communicate with the computer
with a serial protocol a whole lot like that of the "COM" ports.  Except
there is a different number of bits used on them.  If U want to know more
about it, there is a nice discussion of how they work in one of the 1990
issues of "Circuit Cellar" (I think it was around April).

I would think that if one exists, one of the Digi-key/Jameco type places 
(that advertise in the back of BYTE) would probably have one.

! John Winans                       Advanced Computing Research Facility  !
! winans@mcs.anl.gov                Argonne National Laboratory, Illinois !
!                                                                         !
! The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away -- Tom Waite    !