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The 'note' was a series of around 11 machines over around 3/4 years, and this timeline sits inbetween IBM's first Laptop - the PS/2 L40SX and the release of the Thinkpad 700C alongside IBM's decision to outsource their 'Value System' notebooks. They were mostly developed in Japan. This was also a point in time where 'standout feature' acronyms were being thrown around all over the place in model naming convention.
At first, the notes were just notes. Then they adopted the 'N' for 'note' followed by the last two digits of the model type (such as 23 from Type 5523 or 33 from Type 8533). Then they replaced N with a C or M for Colour or Monochrome (as they were all 'N'otes). Then we had a T for tablet and CL for Color Laptop. And often a model might recieve a suggestion of what CPU it was rocking as a suffix. For example SX is for 386SX, SL is for 386SL and SLC is for 486SLC.
Note: The 5499 On-Line note isn't really part of the brand note family. Whilst it's certainly a notebook, it's a weird dead end portable terminal which has very little use unconnected to a maintrame.
PS/55 note (5523) - The PS/55 was a range of Type-55xx computers for only Japan. They're based on the PS/2 but ISA bus and with special Japanese localisations supporting the more technically difficult languge to display on screen and type on a keyboard.
The 'note' branding was devised for the Notebook versions and within Japan all had to be in the 5523 model range (as opposed to 5535 for laptops).
The original (or 1st Generation) 12Mhz PS/55 Note was the 386 5523-S0x model with sandwiched planars and room for either a FDD or HDD. The case badge was simply a blue (for monochrome) IBM oval with PS/55 note labelling.
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