Clearly you haven't had the wonderful experience of being tech support for a department which just got a shipment of Gateways with AnyKey keyboards

Actually I have...I was just trying to pointing out, that there is software involved, even if it is stored in the keyboard itself. Once you know the key combination to disable macros, they aren't too much trouble.

Except that I was replying to Bruno.

That would just lead me to believe that the software was on the keyboard. The logic had to be programmed in somewhere.

True. I think Bruno is just under the impression the keyboards relied on some software PC side to work.

That was a potential benefit of them, you could move the keyboard to another system and keep all your macros.

In the era of USB keyboards and cheep flash memory, I am suprised there hasn't been a new keyboard to do this. For people on a KVM, this could be really useful.

that there is software involved

It could be done entirely in hardware. A bunch of shift registers, some latches, some SRAM, a few other bits and bobs. It'd be pointless when a PIC is cheaper, but it could be done.

I don't know. The one I have came with a computer in about 1990 or so. That may have been too early for PICs, but my PIC knowledge is admittedly lacking.

about 1990 or so. That may have been too early for PIC

The first 1-chip microcontrollers (that were designed for - surprise surprise - keyboards and stuff) I worked with came out in the early '80's.