PC Keyboard to a microcontroller

Mosfet said:

There is a company called Semtech www.semtech.com which sells keyboard interface ICs.
I haven't used them but they bought a company called Usar, whose chip I used to interface the common PC keyboard to any serial port on a microcontroller. I have a 8052 micro with a 4 line LCD that I can program directly typing on a spare IBM keyboard.
Semtech has several keyboard interface chips, maybe one could help you. Regards.

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Hey what chip is that? And will it work with a PS/2 keyboard? I want to build a program for my Rabbit Core 2000 that will read the input for a PS/2 magnetic card reader and unlock a door. Everything is pretty simple, except for getting the data from the card reader. I figured I'd just have to decode the PS/2 output, but I haven't really thought about it because of other projects. Thanks!

Like I said USAR isn't in existence any more and Semtech bought them out back in 1999.
The chip was a USAR Systems UR6HCPCS-P version 1.2.
It was a 40 pin chip that let me hook up a standard PC keyboard, the little 6 pin or big 5 pin connector.
Both are the same actually just a different connector.
It decoded the odd-ball IBM keyboard signals to standard serial.
Perfect for my 8052 microcontroller with it's serial input.
I mounted the 8052 & LCD in a kids metal lunch box and borrowed a PC keyboard wherever I went.

The Semtech page for keyboard encoders is:
**broken link removed**
It appears the new chips even handle USB keyboards.

Weren't old Apple II keyboards serial?