Cherry has announced a new addition to its keyboard technology lineup in the shape of Cherry Realkey, which it promises will bring ultra-fast response times to its keyboards.
The idea behind the technology is to reduce the circa 20ms delay between a user pressing a switch and the command being sent to the computer.
This delay is down to an allowance by the controller for what’s called debounce, which is a delay to allow for any false signals from the key switch due to it bouncing slightly when pressed. Normal digital controllers have a debounce time of around 20ms but RealKey uses an analogue controller that shortens this delay to as little as 1ms – essentially as fast as USB can respond.
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Another benefit of the controller is that it can uniquely identify the analogue signal of each key combination and so ghosting is inherently not a problem. So no matter how many keys are pressed at once, the keyboard will register them all properly.
Although normally known for providing its technologies to other keyboard manufacturers, such as with its new MX RGB key switches as feature on the Corsair K70 RGB, for RealKey it is delaying licensing the technology, instead bringing to market its own keyboard, the MX Board 6.0.
As well as RealKey, the MX Board 6.0 features a 108/109 key layout, an aluminium housing and a magnetically detachable wrist rest. It will be available this spring for $219.
