IBM Industrial Computer: $10, 000 PC from 1985
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Date: 2022-04-14
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Comments and reviews: 10
Jip
Love it. The FIRST thing I thought of upon seeing this beast was. Kings Quest?
Love it. I remember my friends dad (who was very scary) had in his parents bedroom a giant of a machine. I'm not sure it was this or simply a 5150 but he had THE LOT. I'm talking hard drive. Color screen. Plotter. this dude was either CIA or just stole all this shit. But me and this kid would sneak in their with permission, yes, sneak with permission, and play Kings Quest. Let me tell ya it was like seeing a book come to life. The graphics. so realistic; -) The sound (beeps) amazing. The adventure of it all, being able to type in commands to this. machine and having it spit out replies. wow. This shit was incredible and only possible via this gargantuan machine. in our child minds. that had a plotter connected to it! A plotter I say. magic hands ffs. Memories.
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Love it. The FIRST thing I thought of upon seeing this beast was. Kings Quest?
Love it. I remember my friends dad (who was very scary) had in his parents bedroom a giant of a machine. I'm not sure it was this or simply a 5150 but he had THE LOT. I'm talking hard drive. Color screen. Plotter. this dude was either CIA or just stole all this shit. But me and this kid would sneak in their with permission, yes, sneak with permission, and play Kings Quest. Let me tell ya it was like seeing a book come to life. The graphics. so realistic; -) The sound (beeps) amazing. The adventure of it all, being able to type in commands to this. machine and having it spit out replies. wow. This shit was incredible and only possible via this gargantuan machine. in our child minds. that had a plotter connected to it! A plotter I say. magic hands ffs. Memories.
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ZKH
does it (unlike normal pc/xt's) boot without a keyboard tho: P biggest error in ibm design. you can nicely stack xt's together but they won't boot without at least a bios modification or keyboard emulator: P (and 10 cent pic controllers weren't a thing yet back in 1980; ) lol. (and with that, along with desoldering a rom that's socketed and reading it out with leds when the ibm can perfectly well read out it's own bios either with rom basic or debug and print it out - (and even if not. people would know how to jam together some logic chips to make an adder register and a latch for a printer port or led segment displays; ) plus the listing being in the technical reference guide - that (xts without keyboard) being a huge error in 'halt and catch fire' lol; )
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does it (unlike normal pc/xt's) boot without a keyboard tho: P biggest error in ibm design. you can nicely stack xt's together but they won't boot without at least a bios modification or keyboard emulator: P (and 10 cent pic controllers weren't a thing yet back in 1980; ) lol. (and with that, along with desoldering a rom that's socketed and reading it out with leds when the ibm can perfectly well read out it's own bios either with rom basic or debug and print it out - (and even if not. people would know how to jam together some logic chips to make an adder register and a latch for a printer port or led segment displays; ) plus the listing being in the technical reference guide - that (xts without keyboard) being a huge error in 'halt and catch fire' lol; )
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lazygamereviews
We don-t even have any industrial computers where I work. We honestly probably need a couple but we are using just off the shelf HP -podium- style desktops and since they operate in an industrial environment (that environment being mainly coal and coal dust) they are filthy, and I-m honestly surprised they have lasted as long as they have I guess time will ultimately tell, I-m sure static from the dust will end up frying one of them
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We don-t even have any industrial computers where I work. We honestly probably need a couple but we are using just off the shelf HP -podium- style desktops and since they operate in an industrial environment (that environment being mainly coal and coal dust) they are filthy, and I-m honestly surprised they have lasted as long as they have I guess time will ultimately tell, I-m sure static from the dust will end up frying one of them
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animedudevid
God. memories. I had to work a job where this pc was still in use. It ran an edging program for a really really old razor blade wire machine. The Company had 10 machine and all they did is keep the machines going. I did this job in 2007 and this is a blast from the past. Those IMB Industrial is still working to this day. I know they've update stuff in them but still.
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God. memories. I had to work a job where this pc was still in use. It ran an edging program for a really really old razor blade wire machine. The Company had 10 machine and all they did is keep the machines going. I did this job in 2007 and this is a blast from the past. Those IMB Industrial is still working to this day. I know they've update stuff in them but still.
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ldchappell1
I don't think theres anything that's gone down in price as much as computer storage. In September 1981, Apple began selling its first harddrive, the Apple Prodrive. A 5mb harddrive for $3, 499. That's equivalent to $715, 776. 00 per gigabyte. Now in 2022 a gigabyte can be had for as cheap as 2 cents.
Now _that's_ a price reduction! --
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I don't think theres anything that's gone down in price as much as computer storage. In September 1981, Apple began selling its first harddrive, the Apple Prodrive. A 5mb harddrive for $3, 499. That's equivalent to $715, 776. 00 per gigabyte. Now in 2022 a gigabyte can be had for as cheap as 2 cents.
Now _that's_ a price reduction! --
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Richard
Try giving the monitor a firm, substantial tap in the centre of the screen with a spoon. This MAY restore the blue gun. I had a TV once that kept losing the blue gun and used to flick a coin at it. If it's the filament at the back, the shockwave of you flicking something at the middle of the front sometimes swings it back into place.
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Try giving the monitor a firm, substantial tap in the centre of the screen with a spoon. This MAY restore the blue gun. I had a TV once that kept losing the blue gun and used to flick a coin at it. If it's the filament at the back, the shockwave of you flicking something at the middle of the front sometimes swings it back into place.
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Alan
Hello, can anybody explain how it is that companies paid 10, 000 dollars for this at a time when there were PCs available for under 1000 such as Commodore and Amstrad? Were these insanely powerful computers or had IBM found a way to print money? I'm enjoying these videos a lot, and would be grateful if someone can enlighten me!
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Hello, can anybody explain how it is that companies paid 10, 000 dollars for this at a time when there were PCs available for under 1000 such as Commodore and Amstrad? Were these insanely powerful computers or had IBM found a way to print money? I'm enjoying these videos a lot, and would be grateful if someone can enlighten me!
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Cris
I have what used to be the most expensive computer my company had ever bought. It was used for CAD work. New technology came along, so I got the computer for free, used it to record music by my band for a while. Then it died. Now it's a door stop on my porch. It's amazing how technology looses value so fast.
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I have what used to be the most expensive computer my company had ever bought. It was used for CAD work. New technology came along, so I got the computer for free, used it to record music by my band for a while. Then it died. Now it's a door stop on my porch. It's amazing how technology looses value so fast.
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Matt
As soon as you said Salem Nuclear I started cracking up. I do radio maintenance for the entire county of Salem and just put the retro equivalent of radio system back into use. When the plant closed, we got all the Motorola Quantar stations as spares. Awesome to see other tech from the plant being reused!
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As soon as you said Salem Nuclear I started cracking up. I do radio maintenance for the entire county of Salem and just put the retro equivalent of radio system back into use. When the plant closed, we got all the Motorola Quantar stations as spares. Awesome to see other tech from the plant being reused!
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Evan
You got pretty far diagnosing that monitor. The pot is almost assuredly a standard part. I'd bet the blue circuit has a single broken solder joint somewhere. Shouldn't be too hard to trace with an oscilloscope. If you had it at VCFmw I could have done it onsite for you.
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You got pretty far diagnosing that monitor. The pot is almost assuredly a standard part. I'd bet the blue circuit has a single broken solder joint somewhere. Shouldn't be too hard to trace with an oscilloscope. If you had it at VCFmw I could have done it onsite for you.
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