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SERVSWITCH™ AND SERVSWITCH ULTRA™
4.1.2 M
OUSE AND
K
EYBOARD
When you power up your ServSwitch system, make sure that your CPUs, mouse
(mice), and keyboard(s) are properly cabled to the Switch (or to the appropriate
master or submaster unit). When you boot up your CPUs, the master(s) and/or
submasters to which they are connected should already be ON. Unless it’s
absolutely necessary, don’t disconnect and reconnect a mouse or keyboard from a
ServSwitch while the Switch is ON; if you have to do this, issue the Reset command
([CTRL] R—see Section 4.3.13) after you reconnect the mouse or keyboard.
Though the ServSwitch can convert any supported keyboard or mouse protocol
to any other, this is not enough to overcome all of the vast differences between
input devices. If all of your CPUs are of the same type, we recommend that you use
the corresponding type of keyboard and mouse. If your CPUs are of different
types, certain limitations tend to favor the use of certain keyboard and mouse
types:
Standard PC keyboards have 101 or 102 keys; PC keyboards designed specifically
for Windows 95/Windows 98 have 104 or 105 keys; standard Apple keyboards have
105 keys; and standard (Type 5 or higher) Sun keyboards have 118 keys as well as
keyclick and beep features. We have mapped several of the Apple and Sun keys to
the PC keyboards (see Table 4-1 on page 34), but many of the Sun keys simply
cannot be mapped to IBM or Apple keyboards. Similarly, standard Apple mice
have one button; standard PC mice have two or three buttons; and standard Sun
mice have three buttons. At this time there is no way for a one- or two-button
mouse attached to the ServSwitch to emulate a mouse with more buttons.
For these reasons, we recommend that you use Sun Type 5 or higher keyboards
and Sun mice for mixed-platform applications that include Sun CPUs. For
applications that include IBM and Apple CPUs but no Sun CPUs, we recommend
that you use IBM keyboards and mice, because the IBM keyboard can emulate all
of the Apple keyboard functions, but the one-button Apple mouse simply can’t
effectively operate IBM applications that lean heavily on the center or right mouse
button.
Other concerns:
• The ServSwitch supports a variety of IBM PC type mice; for more details, see
Section 4.3.7.
• Because the ServSwitch currently only supports “stream mode” (continuous)
mouse data but the IBM ThinkPad has to handle mouse data in “prompt
mode” (burst-on-request), don’t try to attach any ThinkPad computers to the
Switch, either directly or through docking stations.