13 Oct
2006
13 Oct
'06
3:19 p.m.
On 10/13/2006 at 10:36 PM ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
IIRC, tweaking this trimmer is documetned in the
Hardware Maintenance and
Service manuals, as a way to correct missing colour on a composite
monitor.
Probably. I think the 14.3/4.77 MHz clock and cassette tape interface go a
long way toward explaining the original intent of the 5150--basically a
home entertainment box driving a TV set, much like the Atari 400/800
boxes. And it also explains that when I tried to order a 5150 for export
(50Hz 220v), the IBM sales office told me that it "would be a while yet".
Given price point of the PC, it would have been a very difficult sell
against the Atari and CBM machines had IBM not changed its marketing focus
a bit.
Given the (somewhat needless) complexity of the MDA. I get the feeling that
it was an afterthought type of product to turn the PC into a desktop
computer.
So IBM just "stumbled" into the desktop market, it seems. If they were
truly aiming for it from the start, their box might have been an 8 MHz
8086.
Cheers,
Chuck