2 Feb
1999
2 Feb
'99
8:02 p.m.
I picked up an IBM Displaywriter keyboard unit in a
local thrift after
eyeing
it for a couple of weeks and finally couldn't
resist adding it to my
living-space challenged collection.
I remember seeing mention of it in an old 81 datamation mag and a 50s
style picture of a dedicated secretary busy at work on one and other info
in
possibly an old Byte. It was touted as being very
popular to the point
that it
was touted over the PC and that CP/M programs were
being ported to it.
I opened it up and it has only a small I/O board with a 15 pin connector
and
takes it's power off that. It looks like an
oversized C64.
It obviously doesn't have enough electronics to be more than a keyboard
terminal, but I don't recall seeing a box in the picture. I had
understood the
displaywriter to be a stand alone machine. Did it have
an additional box
or was
it meant to connect to a CRT terminal hooked to a
mainframe ?
Displaywriter system generally consisted of the following boxes:
System unit. PC-sized, half the case == power supply, other half == card
cage. Card cage contains system board with 8088 and other cards.
Keyboard. The thing you've got
Monitor. Very similar to IBM original (mono) PC monitor, I think
Printer. Daisywheel, EBCDIC, current loop.
Disk drives. Usually a dual 8" unit. Could be SSSD or DSDD iirc.
At present it would seem to be about to join the 3270
monitor I have
(can't
remember the model #) as interesting but unusable.
Or could I get gadzillion bucks for it on e-pay ? Any info ?
My advice is: keep it against such time someone needs it...
Philip.