Do not look at your keyboard as a simple input peripheral for the PC, there are many technologies that today are essential when it comes to gaming. Today we will see the two main ones that have the greatest fame as they are N Key Rollover and of course Anti Ghosting on keyboards. This is how they work on your gaming keyboard to save us from the following problems.
As is often the case, to understand the solution to the problem, you must first know the problem and, above all, what is causing it. technologies N Key Rollover and Anti Ghosting are used for different things, but one of them shares a problem with the monitors, although each one in its own field and therefore they should not be confused, so we will start with it.
Ghosting on keyboards and Anti Ghosting technology
Keyboard ghosting has the same determination as gaming monitors, and is nothing more than a ghosting effect on the peripheral in question. On screens it is a wake that is left when each frame changes, while on keyboards it is blocked because it cannot record more keystrokes than those allowed by its matrix.
Actually calling it Ghosting and blocking is not correct, since the keyboard is the one that is blocked to avoid the effect, it is a reaction to prevent the real problem. The problem actually has to do with the matrix and the keystrokes, since when such a keystroke is registered an electric current is generated that the keyboard controller registers, but if two keys are pressed on the same grid then an error can occur. countercurrent effect and logically it ends up registering a keystroke that it shouldn’t due to the click of another adjacent one.
Let’s imagine this effect by pressing many keys: a total lock of the keyboard. The solution was not simple and it is effective in most cases, but it requires a more advanced matrix called a switching matrix. Here we must differentiate between two different technologies where one has ended up cannibalizing the other: Multi-Key Rollover and N-Key Rollover.
The first was limited to a number of keys that each manufacturer defined, while N-Key Rollover went a step further and that is why it has ended up triumphing worldwide in all manufacturers.
Why is N-Key Rollover so famous today?
NKRO or N-Key Rollover has a very clear advantage: more bytes available per clock cycle thanks to two protocols that work together: startup and report. This translated into the physical and electrical matrix of the keyboard means an independent registration and scanning in real time for each key, which logically increases its final price for the user.
To achieve such a feat, a low-power processor is needed to control and manage all the information, and for this reason, now the mid-range gaming keyboards integrate a 32-bit ARM chip that is also accompanied by a memory that works in two directions. different: support the chip and at the same time can save software profiles.
What is achieved is evident: a keystroke no limit and no locks, allowing the player to perform any macro, however complex it may be, and freeing the keyboard from locks. A step forward that we have been enjoying for many years in our setups.
