IBM On-Line Note - 5499-002
In my quest to try and collect 'everything' IBM made which was portable, we have this strange curiosity - the IBM On-Line Note - model 5499-002. It's most notable 'claim to fame' is the fact one article from 1989 called this IBM's 'first' notebook computer - as in their first notebook-format computer WITH a battery. There was an earlier portable form factor machine called the 5535M (which was also developed by Ricoh but was completely different, bigger and looked a bit like an evolution of the IBM Convertible) - but that definitely wasn't notebook-sized and it didn't have a battery.
The 5499 is actually is a pretty 'dumb' piece of hardware as it simply has an 80186 CPU, ROM, RAM and no real storage whatsoever (besides what's stored in ROM and volatile RAM) - it is expected to be hooked up to a mainframe such as an AS/400 either via it's 1,200bps modem, it's infra-red port or via it's com port. There were two models of this machine. With the 001 you got 1,200/128k and with the 002 you could 'upgrade' to 2,400bps modem and double the RAM for $1780. It seems its purpose is really like that of a modern day chromebook - where, without network connectivity, it can be fairly useless. Also in the fact it has no real software as everything was provided by the mainframe you were connected to.
The machine was developed externally by Ricoh and it has a mono LCD screen and can display 640 x 400 and the battery could last for up to 3 hours. Needless to say, as far as I know, hardly anyone bought one.
This is the 'upgraded' model with the 2,400bps modem and 256kb of memory - however there are no IC cards in this unit. It's in fabulous condition - I don't think it's ever been used, but when you power it up, it beeps and flashes light and dark. I couldn't get my head around the PSU, which is definitely original. It says it's supposed to output 9.4VDC but actually kicks out exactly 16VDC. But also on the PSU label under the AC input voltages it does say 16VA. Then the base of the notebook itself says 6v! So I took my chances and powered it up for just a few seconds only.
It's a shame the PSU connector is completely unique because otherwise I could easily test it with a pure 6VDC. Not sure what I could do with it even if it did power up....
It's possible to imaging the also-weird PCradio was a similar, but different machine for remotely working in the field.