Available: IBM desktop "System/23 Datamaster"

These were small business DP systems. Hardware-wise, the line included a desktop model, a deskside model, a shared hard-disk unit, several printers, a network option in the megabit range that utilized thick twinax cable and (iirc) a star topology, a serial communications (for a modem) option, and likely other things. Screens were high persistence green phosphor, with at least two intensities for text. I don't remember point addressable graphics. Keyboards were IBM-style buckling spring; as I recall the layout was slightly unique. Floppies were 8", fairly capacious, reasonably quick, quite reliable. Printers were big, fast, dot matrix, top mounted tractor feed. I think at least one model included a multi-pass NLQ mode. Draft mode was IBM-esque, with dotted zeros and an odd diagonal 'S' character. Construction is pure IBM, with reliability and serviceability in spades. I haven't seen electronic stuff online. I have paper docs for a couple of models and some of the options, as well as not-yet-imaged floppies containing diagnostics. I do intend to get them scanned/imaged eventually, I swear. Strong need and urgent pleas for specific things may add motivation. :) No boot disk is required. A fair amount of the available software was actually written in BASIC. At least a few utilities were compiled or assembled binaries, but as far as I recall, even those were not booted The BASIC is an extremely capable business type, with forms, file/disk handling, ISAM type functionality, etc. It was even possible to do serial communications over a modem with it reasonably well, other than some limitations in keyboard handling. I'm not sure if adding the network and remote disk added code on adapter cards to support those things, or if the support was in the base unit firmware. IBM offered the usual AR/AP/GL/Inventory/etc packages. I'm sure there was a word processing tool, though I can't seem to remember anything about it. There was an application generator tool called BRADS (business rapid application development system or thereabouts, I think). The "rapid" part was ironic; while it was certainly faster to build some sorts of simple applications with it than to write them from scratch, BRADS itself was pretty slow. I'm sure IBM had other offerings. I think I also recall seeing a directory of third-party applications, though for the life of me I don't recall anything about what was on offer. I don't believe there was a customer option to write code in anything other than BASIC. The weight of 90 lbs for the desktop unit is not a joke. Besides being built like an IBM product, those 8" floppy drives are stout, and constitute a significant chunk of the mass. I've not dug far enough into my desktop unit to read the markings on the CPU chip, but a few bits like register layout shown in the maintenance documentation match the 8085. I'm pretty sure these systems use a paged memory layout, at least for the firmware. It's the only way they could provide all the functionality that's in there. De