31 Oct
2006
31 Oct
'06
11:39 a.m.
On 30 Oct 2006 at 20:53, Stan Barr wrote:
I was quoting from an advert in "Practical
Computing", April 1982.
I well remember the sharp intakes of breath at IBMs prices at the time,
but I imagine they dropped sharply if you bought enough machines.
They were certainly cheaper a year or so later when our firm bought
their first few.
Aroiund 1983, my business partner and I were setting up an operation
in India (outsourcing of programming isn't that new!) and wanted to
get a few PCs for use over there. So we went to the IBM sales
office (on Arques in Sunnyvale, IIRC) and asked about getting some
220v/50Hz "export" machines. We were told that they were on a
rather long backorder and we'd just have to wait our turn. And, yes,
the price differential was pretty staggering, especially when
compared to similarly-equipped domestic models.
We asked if the domestic models would run on 50Hz if a suitable
transformer was supplied to drop the line voltage to 120vac. We were
informed rather curtly that doing so would be viewed as a violation
of the warranty.
We considered getting an MG set, but eventually decided to push our
luck (the only mains-connected component other than the PSU itself
that I could find was the PSU fan) and ran the domestic PCs off of a
stepdown transformer. They worked just fine until they were retired.
Cheers,
Chuck