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IBM PCradio

The  PCradio  was released in late 1991. Designed primarily for mobile workers such as service technicians, salespersons and public safety workers, the PCradio featured a ruggedized build with no internal hard disk drive and was optioned with either a cellular or ARDIS RF modem, in addition to a standard landline modem.

I had been looking for one of these for a while and this one showed up in Italy. It took a lot of effort to get the seller to ship this item, but we got there in the end and it arrived in perfect condition, but missing it's power supply.

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IBM Tablet 7344

This tablet is actually some sort of industrial control computer from Japan. Instead of just being a screen to a computer build-in to some kind of machinary, this is an entire 486 computer with it's own hard drive and ports. Originally the screen was vinegarised but impossible to replace - so I de-vinegared it with IPA and managed to find polarisers which were suitable to get a good colour image.

Also doing it without damaging it or the touch controls was no easy feat!

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IBM / Panasonic 2435 Tablet

This funny little beast is, as far as I know a Japan-only unit made for sale directly to large corporate customers, possibly as a point of sale device. Mine is a 2435-A01

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3xx and 7xx Interposers

I was trying to work out what displays are interchangable and a part of that is what interposers are interchangable.

This is a good picture - essentially showing how similar the 755c and 370c interposers are and how different the 755CE/CX/CD interposers are:

370C at the top

755 CX in the middle

755C at the bottom

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  1. Rare IBM Portables
  2. 4851 Point Of Sale Terminal
  3. Comparing the G41 and G50
  4. IBM Workpad Transnote

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Translating PS/55 note Japanese keyboard to English keyboard mapping

If you connect a western keyboard to the earliest PS/55 and PS/55 N23 SX notes, the keyboard mappings are all messed up. Here is a rough map of what key is mapped to what real keypress:

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IBM 5535 Multistation

IBM Japan had a range of Kanji-character-enabled desktop computers, called the Multistations. This was part of that family with the addition of a greyscale LCD display. Although 5535 is the 'laptop' range of machines, With the sheer size and weight (7kg), I think you would consider it more like a 'space saving desktop', much like the IBM Convertible. It has a sibling called the 5535-S which has a slightly different design and is 'less boxy'.

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IBM PS/Note N45 SL (Zenith)

This is one of three N45 SL machines I have in a box. I previously gave up a day and ended up with one complete boxed one, a second unboxed one as a nice working companion and a third 'parts' machine. The N45 came in two models sporting different CPUs - the SL and SX.

You'll notice the case badge has similarities to both the 2141 (a PS/1 type) PS/note 182 and the PS/1 case badge - unlike the other PS/note and IBM Thinkpad oval badges, you'd think it is architecturally closely related to the (same year) PS/Note 182. However this machine feels Zenith-made through and through - much like the Thinkpad 300 which usurped it as the 2615. It shares a similar case plastic, power brick, display, keyboard and battery. Perhaps IBM were briefly marketing the N45 as the low-end (outsourced) notebook and the N51 as the high end (IBM-built) notebook, which eventually became the Thinkpad 300 as low-end and 700 as high.

Putting it another way, IBM were obviously toying with what to do about the cost-reduced 'low end' and had the 2141 "Lexmark Lexbook AR-10" PS/note and the Zenith-made N45 SL then "Zenith Z-Note 433Lnc+" 300 all coming out at once. You'll find some very reputable sites not even acknowledging the 2141 or 261x machines because they do not follow the 'true bloodline' of the IBM notebooks. The N45 SL may well have a Zenith step brother, but I haven't found a reference to it.

My first machine amazingly has a i387 upgrade chip (a maths coprocessor for the 386) fitted.

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IBM PS/2 Model CL57 SX

This is a massive, stange, outlier in IBM's journey into portable personal computers. CL for 'Color Laptop' and 57 for....... fuck knows.  The type is 8554 and it runs MCA bus. It's almost completely unique although it shares a look similar to that of the possibly-vaporware, Japan-only PS/55 Power (PC) Laptop EWS - which also feels like a skunkworks project.

Some sources state this machine started as a Model N27sx - a 'for fun' IBM Japan design for domestic japanese market. I can't find much source material that this is true though. Apparently, the CPU was downgraded from a 486 to a 386 so as to not compete with other PS/2 machines. Supposedly there are some hidden clues on the machines that despite it's international 85xx model designation, the plant ID is 97 which is IBM Japan Entry Systems factory in Fujisawa.

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PS/2 Note N51 SX and SLC

After the successes of the original note (1st Gen), the N23 (2nd Gen) and the N33 machines, two machines share the third generation space - the still-monochome MCA N51 and TFT Colour, ISA C23V.

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