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by rasz 53 days ago
https://blog.smallshire.no/blog/what-is-a-bus-mouse/

tldr: Ball mouse containing only optical encoders and no other electronics. Very popular in late eighties. Atari ST, Amiga 500, Acorn Archimedes (the ARM computer) all used this type of mice because of price.

Bus Mouse controller card used special Alps Electric 64H101 quadrature decoder and counter chip converting raw encoder outputs to neat X Y coordinates computer can read in just a couple of IO operations, much easier and quicker than serial or PS2 mouse.