30 Jan
2023
30 Jan
'23
7:04 p.m.
On 2023-01-30 1:47 p.m., Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
The 5150 had a cassette port!
Diagnostics were supplied on cassette tape.
It was immediately adjacent to the keyboard port, and used the same 5
pin DIN connector, for the added convenience of being able to plug in
to the wrong one. THAT mimiced the TRS80 model one, which had Power,
video, and cassette in a group of three 5 pin DIN identical connectors.
THAT, and the keyboards of the Jr and Coco, were to show that IBM was
so big that it didn't have to learn from the misteaks of others.
Since the 5150 cassette connector was the same 5 pin DIN as the TRS80,
the source of cable for 5150 cassette was Radio Shack TRS80 cassette
cable.
There was an outfit that marketed a sorta network using the 5150
cassette port, for classroom distribution, etc.
Snip
The 5160 no longer had the cassette port.
The 5150 cassette sorta network immediately disappeared from the market.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com
The cassette port on the 5150 could also be used as a Telecommunication
Device for the Deaf (TDD) many years ago I made up a ISA bus card with
the same function as the cassette port for a gentleman that wanted to
move on from a 5150 but still needed the cassette port for a TDD device.
Paul.