The bus mouse was a PC mouse popular in the late 1980s, using a dedicated plug and socket design. It lost popularity to the PS/2 system, which became the standard for most of the 1990s before being replaced by the USB mouse. Confusing the bus mouse with the PS/2 mouse could cause problems.
A bus mouse was a specific form of PC mouse that was primarily used in the late 1980s. Its connector was the same shape as the more common PS/2 mouse connector, but it had a different set of pins. It should not be confused with the universal serial bus mouse or USB mouse, which was the most popular form of mouse connector as of 2011.
The bus mouse became popular in the late 1980s, at a time when IBM PCs didn’t have a built-in connection to computer mice as standard. This has led to the development of two ways to connect a mouse. The first was through a serial port, which was then a standard way to connect all peripherals to a computer. The major disadvantage of the serial port was that a computer could only receive information through one serial port at any one time, which could slow down the use of connected devices.
The second major method was the bus mouse. This used a dedicated plug and socket design. The design was also known as the Microsoft InPort®, after a specific brand of mouse made by the software giant.
Over time, the bus mouse lost popularity to the PS/2 system. This name refers both to a range of computers manufactured by IBM and to a specific set of keyboard and mouse ports designed for the range but adopted by many other PC manufacturers for compatibility reasons. While the PS/2 range didn’t continue to dominate the PC market as IBM had hoped, keyboard and mouse ports became the closest thing to a standard in PCs for most of the 1990s.
The similarities between the bus mouse and the PS/2 mouse could potentially cause problems. Both used a circular plug and socket with a diameter of 5/16 of an inch. However, the pins used in the plugs were different; the PS/2 had six pins, roughly in a circle, while the bus mouse had nine pins in a shape resembling a mushroom toadstool. This could cause problems for users who confuse the two designs and attempt to insert the wrong plug into an outlet.
By the 2000s, the bus mouse had all but disappeared and the PS/2 mouse had also become popular. Both have largely been replaced by the USB mouse, which plugged into a USB port. This eliminated the need for dedicated mouse ports, which was a useful space-saving measure in laptop computers. It also enabled a device to be powered, which enabled the design of optical mice that didn’t need batteries.
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