14 Mar
1999
14 Mar
'99
11:31 p.m.
I've seen some 5150's from RI State surplus that had one drive and a
network card.
On Sun, 14 Mar 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
On Sun, 14 Mar 1999, James Willing wrote:
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852
"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
Sure 'nuff. The original configuration of
the IBM PC had no drives, and 4k
of memory. Diagnostics and a utility or two on Cassette (altho the
cassette player was optional?!?). BASIC in the ROM so it could be
programmed...
Back in the days when a single floppy drive and controller was a (apx. $900
option)
Frighteningly enough... I remember selling quite a few of them in that
(cassette only) configuration.
Ok, cool. Since I can't bear to let something even remotely odd slip thru
my fingers, I went back and got it. I'm start to amass quite an
interesting array of items related to quite possibly one of the most
uninteresting vintage computers around, the IBM PC. Aside from this, I
have the 5151 expansion chassis, the IBM PC joystick, the Diangostic
cassette, and other things I can't recall at the moment.
I opened this one up just now. I don't know why I missed the network card
before, but it seems like this may have been simply a diskless workstation
in an educational setting. It has the 64-256KB motherboard, with it seems
the full 256KB of socketed RAM (the first 64K being soldered of course).
It would have been more interesting if it had the original 16-64KB
motherboard, but the covers over the drive bays definitely are authentic
IBM as they are backed by a metal plate with brads that hold them in
place. The only other card it has is the Hercules graphics adaptor.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
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