Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:13:33 -0500 From: Jim Battle Yes, but this goes back to the question of "What was this machine intended for?". When one examines it in retrospect, and particularly with a view toward the competition, it's pretty clear that it was intended as a "home" computer for the kids to play educational games on and the adults to balance checkbooks and perhaps write letters on. Given its price, I can certainly appreciate the lack of enthusiasm say, Tandy, at the same price, it would have met with a much cooler reception. In case of point, a couple of friends had a garage business manufacturing high-end bicycle racks. They needed a small office computer. I had just gotten my 5150 and showed it to them. Underwhelmed, they went out and bought a Morrow (MD2? MD3?) for less cash that was loaded with WordStar and (IIRC) Supercalc. It was ready to go right out of the box. Indeed, there were many other competitors for the "home office/small business" market that offered a much better price point and ease of setup when the whole package was figured in. Eagle II and III boxes come to mind in particular. Eagle used to hold competitions to see who could get from packing box to working system in the smallest amount of time--and I think it was measured in seconds. I think the 8086 caught on sooner in Japan. Mitsubishi and NEC both had offerings before the 5150. The NEC APC, in particular, was a very noteworthy design. Perhaps the need for manipulating Kanji was part of the picture. I suspect that if IBM was considering another CPU, it probably was the 8085. Nice reliable supply (Intel and second sources) and already used in the System 23 box. Given the market IBM appeared to be shooting for, there was no chance of a 68K PC. In marketing's eyes, it would have been overkill. Cheers, Chuck