This picture has been going around 'the internet' for the last few days...:
What the photo is showing is a line from IBM under the banner of 5080 and was a graphics system or CAD (computer aided design) system known as either CADAM or CATIA, designed to be attached to a powerful mainframe.
The 5080 was made up of the 5081 Display, the 5085 Graphics Processor Unit (which also handled 3270 control to the mainframe) and 5088 Graphic Channel Control Unit ('channel' from the mainframe). Obviously the mainframe itself did all the hard computing whilst turning those sums into graphics were handled by the 5085. Optional user-controlled extras were the lighted Programmable Function (PF) key unit, graphics tablet & puck, mouse, dials, light pen and plotter. This was highly specialised hardware and very expensive, in a world where computers barely had graphics and nobody knew what a GUI or a mouse was. These workstations predated the 1984 Apple Macintosh 128k and by far other GUIs like OS/2, Windows, Workbench or X Windows for Unix systems.
Here is a doc outlining some of these input devices.
It was succeeded by the IBM 6090 but soon after workstations such as the RS/6000 could do all this and more, as well as x86 Intellistations.
There is another picture of one of these being marketed at the time, about 35% into this article.
So, what is the arrow pointing to? Well it's something I couldn't help picking up a few months back from Japan.
Well it was IBM Dials, used as a bunch of 8 configurable rotation wheels which could be used to manage CAD workstations. Each one could be assigned a function like roll, rotate, zoom, pan, tilt and so on. It was programmable by the software which was running on the machine and the dials don't have any labels, so really the 8 dials can do whatever the software is programmed to make them do!
I did see there were various similar 'dial' peripherals made by a variety of companies of the time - I think including HP and SGI.
The reason I was interested in this picture is because I already own a set of Dials from the later 6090 and I've included some close-up gallery pics below. My set are cream but they did also come in black. It's interesting how this design allows you to either twizzle the dials using your thumb and forefinger or use just a forefinger to run up and down the outer serrated edge of each dial.
This official description of the slightly earlier 5085 dials does a good job at describing them:
The IBM 5085 Dials Feature is a desktop unit with eight dials arranged in two rows of four dials. The Dials Feature is used to input analog positional information. The dials can turn completely around without any stops. The software uses the information provided by the Dials Feature.
The RT PC 5080 Peripheral Cable Kit is required to attach the Dials Feature to the IBM RT PC System Unit. The cable from the Peripheral Cable Kit attaches to the end of the Dials Feature cable. The Peripheral Cable Kit also includes a clamping device that encloses the connectors.
Note that on the label it does say "Manufacturered FOR IBM" which generally means they had lots of outside help manufacturing it.
Here is an older reddit post with some decent close-ups of some of these input devices. And another here where some clever guy has them working on a modern computer.
Due to the different IBM labs and companies developing IBM portables and the time period over which they existed before USB, there are a lot of different types of IBM floppy drive.
Whilst we're only covering external here, there are at least 3 types of connector:
26mm / fattest: Found on the 701c
21mm: Found on the PS/notes, 850, 7xx tablets. 360, 365
17mm / Thinnest: Found on the later models which favoured optical drives built-in such as the 755CD, 760, 600 and various 3xx series. Ultraslim floppy drive.
21mm
This early floppy drive 66G5069, also known as "UltraBay Diskette Drive enclosure" actually contains the original multibay floppy within it's large outer shell. There are also fixed standard external 21mm drives.
These ultrabay floppy drives came in various models from various manufacturers, so externally each 66G5069 drive may look the same, but internally it could be totally different.
TEAC FD-05HG
Here we have a TEAC FD-05HG drive, which has one eletrolytic cap, which as far as I know should only be replaced with an electrolytic. I have had drive read issues by replacing these with a solid capactor. It's a 100u / 10v capacitor seen below:
You can get away, like I did with a 7.7m through-hole capacitor with the legs splayed outwards:
Whilst it's open you may (or may not) want to clean the magnetic heads with a little IPA and check the corkscrew spindle which moves the heads forward and back across the diskette is moving smoothly.
Even though this 7.7mm tall capacitor is longer than the original surface mounted cap, it still just fits under the floppy drive chassis - although you cannot go any more than this.
Sony MPF720-2
And here is another 1.44Mb ultrabay floppy drive - the Sony MPF720-2 (weirdly suggesting it's a 720Kb drive, but it's a 1.44Mb drive):
This Sony drive is similar, but you do not need to remove the little PCB in order to replace the 47uf capacitor:
In this case, small 6mm through hole capacitors with the legs splade are a good replacement:
Very little is known about the origins of the IBM Thinkpad 130. Someone familiar with Thinkpads can smell a rat a mile off. The cheap plastic, the inferior keyboard, the 'multimedia' styling.... Oh my god, you turn it on and you're greated with "BIOS Utility".... aaaarrggghhh it's an Acer!
Yes, for some reason IBM re-badged one of their subbed out iSeries models for Japan - those with plastic that now snaps like a fortune cookie and famed for low reliability and sub-par displays.
IBM referred to it as the ThinkPad i Series 1200/1300.
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!