The Intel 8279 is a Keyboard/Display Controller is specially developed for interfacing keyboard and display devices for the Intel 8085, 8086 and 8088 microprocessors. Its important features are:
Simultaneous keyboard and display operations.
Scanned keyboard mode.
Scanned sensor mode.
8-character keyboard FIFO.
Right or left entry 16-byte display RAM.
Programmable scan timing.
source: wikipedia