My first PC was not a real IBM 5150/5160, it was a clone called the "American
PC".
It was a Taiwanese clone, and I got it from the company I worked for at the time which was
an American Dealer. He was a bit unscrupulous as he would replace the BIOS it shipped with
from Taiwan with home-blown IBM Bios chips.
My system had 640k, was a "Turbo" system, and I replaced the 8088 with a V20. I
still have the 8088 chip in my chip box. I also got it with two 360k drives, and two
ST-213 drives which were 10mb versions of the ST-225. I even had a 2400bps Modem for it.
It was in a case that looked like a 5150, but had a flip top like a car hood. It was a
pretty nice system.
I used it to run my BBS at the time, running TBBS software.
It had a Clone CGA card that I attached to a Composite Zenith Green Screen display.
I think this was circa 1983. I remember going to TCF and seeing the IBM 5150 Cassette
units there for about $1000.00US. I really wanted one of those. I think I ended up paying
about that for this one.
I ended up selling it when I built a 286 system a few years later. I'm kinda sorry I
did. It was a nice system for the time.
I have a 5150 board built into a clone XT case right now. It only has 256k, so I need to
configure one of the two RAM cards I have for it to bring it up to 640k. I put an 8bit OAK
Video card in it that does MDA/MGA/CGA/EGA/VGA. So, I can use any monitor I can find on
it.
I do still have the PC style keyboard from that first system. I loved it so much, I
couldn't part with it. Now, it will get use on this one.
I found a 40mg Hard Drive on a card that I will use in the system.
Al
Keansburg, NJ
Show replies by date