[ The PC Guide | Systems and Components Reference Guide | Keyboards | Keyboard Construction and Operation ]

Keyboard Operation

Having now looked at the keyboard's subcomponents in considerable detail, it's time to turn our attention to how the keyboard actually works. As I've hinted at, the actual operation of the keyboard isn't quite as simple as one might expect given the relatively innocuous appearance and history of this component. (This is often the case in the PC world: there's a lot going on "behind closed doors".)

In this section I discuss how the keyboard works internally. I start by talking a bit about keyboard power, and then move on to discussing the circuitry used to detect keypresses and generate the scan codes. Then, I describe the actual keyboard interfaces used on the PC, as well as the signals that go over the interface.

Next: Keyboard Power

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