Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by userbinator on Monday November 24, 2014 @09:34AM
(#8652501)
It's probably more than powerful enough to emulate a C64... where the computer is literally inside the keyboard.
But with all the concern over malicious USB devices, I'll take a dumb and simple PS/2 keyboard with a mask-programmed 8048 over anything "smarter". Otherwise, his idea of requiring a special key combination to enter firmware update mode is also good - something like "unplug, then hold down X while plugging in" easily stops any malware attempting to do a silent firmware update.
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by niklasni1 on Monday November 24, 2014 @10:31AM
(#8652781)
Personally, I think we need more open source day-to-day peripherals like this: keyboards, USB hubs, card readers, everything. It all needs to be replaced with open, inspectable, blob-less, user-upgradable alternatives.
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by ericlathrop on Monday November 24, 2014 @11:47AM
(#8653198)
There's a growing open source keyboard community built around keyboards like the ErgoDox using the Teensy Microcontroller. Keyboards are surprisingly easy to build from scratch by hand.
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by cnvogel on Monday November 24, 2014 @11:10AM
(#8653002)
It's "cost effective" for a €150 keyboard.
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by dbcooper on Monday November 24, 2014 @04:39PM
(#8654890)
They are normally €100 (including shipping) in Europe, but the ISO layout models are out of stock everywhere.
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by digi_owl on Monday November 24, 2014 @09:05AM
(#8652369)
For his next trick, create a worm that can use these keyboards to hide a rootkit?
Re:Reverse Engineering a Keyboard to Play Snake
by frozenport on Monday November 24, 2014 @12:17PM
(#8653364)
Another view is that microchips are made of what is essentially sand.
I find it equally hilarious, scary and wonderful that it's now cost-effective to build a keyboard whose brain is a 72 MHz ARM Cortex-M3 with 127 KB of program space. Of course the manufacturer also proudly tells you this, that the keyboard is powered by an ARM. It's also fun that the firmware of the keyboard is protected (partly by the old-faithful XOR trick, even!) against IP theft.
Too bad they didn't include a hub in there, but I guess someone thinks doing so would introduce scary latency, or whatever. Gamers can be a sensitive bunch.