In message <20000807215406.B11570@goldberry.poofy.goof.com> "Aaron J. Grier" writes:
: while writing PS/2 keyboard drivers at work a few days ago, I thought up
: an interesting project which hpcmips hackers might be interested in: a
: PS/2 to (RS232) serial convertor.

This has been done.  You have a PIC that has a UART built into it
(extreme versions do all the uart things themselves) with a MAX232
chip to raise the levels from 5V to RS232.  Search altavista a while
and these things pop up all over the place.

: print console text onto the LCD, and take input from a keyboard plugged
: into your palm-sized PC.  (could wscons be coaxed to handle this?)
: 
: the PS/2 to RS232 conversion could probably be handled by a small
: microcontroller, and would likely not take much power.  (I imagine the
: microcontroller in the keyboard itself would probably take more.)
: 
: perhaps this has already been done by somebody?

Yup.  Lemme see if I can find it in my links.  Hmmmm, I must have lost
them.  Back when I was looking at a way to get a keyboard on a
Libretto 50CT, I ran across the Newton Keyboard (yes, from the defunct
computer of the same name).  It was a much easier solution. I used
newtkb that I wrote a while ago to translate it into X events (or hack
together a driver so it would work with the console).
	http://www.village.org/~imp/newtkb-1.0.tar.gz
It is known to work with the Libretto 50CT running FreeBSD and a
Sparcstation 5 running Solaris 2.5.  If you port it to some place
else, and it needs changes, lemme know and I'll update it.

You'll also need an adapter for the keyboard to serial.  I just got an 
apple serial adapter at the local gadget shop and it just worked.  For 
the Everex Assocaite A-10, I needed a NULL modem too to make it work,
but I never did make it work with NetBSD/hpcmips.  There are also
WinCE programs that will allow you to use it too.  Altavista is your
friend here.

: the idea of a battery-powered DECStation that fits in my pocket (even if
: it needs an external keyboard) is very ticklish to me.  (I can't think
: of any other way to say it.)

Well, the MobilePro line is a battery powered DECstation that does
have a decent keyboard given its size. :-)  And a screen twice the
size of the palmtops, plus two slots (1 CF and one PCMCIA, at least in 
the 780 I have) which helps a whole lot if you want disk and network
at the same time...

Warner