12 Dec
2008
12 Dec
'08
7:34 p.m.
On 12 Dec 2008 at 13:05, Jules Richardson wrote:
Well... there was presumably a change in the internal
keyboard layout to
accommodate a 102 (rather than US 101) key design. If that fab was done by IBM
outside of the US then it seems entirely possible that they retained important
bits (s/n, p/n and "IBM" text) but that the "Model M" name became
lost somewhere.
Wandering around the clickykeyboards site, it's quite apparent that
for the keyboards manufactured in the UK, the "Model M" labeling is
missing. US-manufactured ones seem to all have the "Model M" tag,
regardless of 101- or 102-key-edness or date of manufacture.
See, for example, the Spanish examples here:
http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm/fa/categories.main/parentcat/
11067/endrw/12
I suppose we could say that keyboards manufactured in the UK are not
"real" model M's, but that would open another can of worms...
Cheers,
Chuck