Some interesting Nostalgia.

[Specter 0]

Here is some interesting nostalgia I dug up, helping a clan mate out here.

From the screenie you provided, that model only has 64K of memory, indicating that it is probably not the model 55SX, but a good deal older.

All the links provided should get you the info you're looking for, no matter the model.

Also note who was making the processors for the PS/2's.  Makes you wonder why IBM wasn't using their own Cyrix line of processors?  I guess IBM knew they SUCKED ! !

But below is some info on the 55SX.

Actually that model used a 80386SX processor, making that model a 32-bit machine.

Also, the MCA architecture used in that model also points to a 32-bit machine.

Just an FYI, the 80386SX means that there wasn't a math co-processor onboard the mobo, unlike the DX model processors.  The same holds true for the 486's as well.

Math co-processors werent made part of the actual processor until the Pentium line of processors came out along with their AMD and Cyrix counterparts.  Man, did the Cyrix's ever SUCK ! !

Below is a bit more info on the PS/2 IBM Computer:

IBM Personal System/2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Personal System/2 or PS/2 were IBM's second generation of personal computers, which were released to the public in 1987. The PS/2 line was created in an attempt by IBM to recapture control of the PC architecture within the business market and advance PC technology.

Technology

IBM's PS/2 was designed to remain software compatible with their PC/AT/XT line of computers upon which the booming PC clone market was built, but the hardware was quite different.

[edit]

Micro-Channel Architecture

The IBM Personal System/2 line introduced the Micro Channel Architecture (MCA for short) which was technically superior to the ISA bus and allowed for higher speed communications within the system.

The MCA bus featured many advances that would not be seen in other interface standards until several years later. Transfer speeds were on par with the much later introduced PCI bus standard. MCA allowed one-to-one card to card and multi-card to processor simultaneous transaction management which is a feature of the PCI-X bus format. Busmastering capability, bus arbitration, and true plug-and-play BIOS

management of hardware were all benefits to the MCA bus. The MCA bus was also a 32-bit based architecture, as opposed to ISA which was only 8-bit.

In spite of these technical advantages, the Micro Channel Architecture never gained wide acceptance outside of the PS/2 line due to IBM's anti-clone practices. IBM offered to sell a Micro Channel licence to anyone who could afford the royalty, but they would not only require a royalty for every MCA-compatible machine sold, but also a payment for every IBM-compatible machine the particular maker had ever made in the past.

Peripheral interface

Color-coded PS/2 connection ports: purple for keyboards and green for mice.

Enlarge

Color-coded PS/2 connection ports: purple for keyboards and green for mice.

PS/2 systems introduced a new specification for the keyboard and mouse interfaces, which are still in use today and is also called "PS/2". The PS/2 keyboard interface was electronically identical to the long-established AT interface, but the cable connector was changed to a 6-pin mini-DIN interface, as was (for reasons still unexplained) the PS/2 mouse interface. The design decision for identical but incompatible connectors would prove aggravating to consumers until the introduction of the USB protocol in 1996. To help alleviate this, PS/2 keyboard and mouse connectors were later color-coded: purple for keyboards and green for mice as defined by the Microsoft PC 97 standard.

Graphics

Other features were introduced by this new generation of IBM computer systems, such as the change over to the VGA graphics output standard over the previous EGA standard. VGA increased graphics memory to 256K and provided for 640x480 resolutions with 16 colors, and in low-res, 320x200 resolution with 256 simultaneous colors from a pallet of 262,144. The 8514 and later XGA were other computer display standards introduced by the PS/2 line. Although the design of these adapters did not become an industry standard as VGA was, their standard resolution (1024 by 768 pixels) and the "XGA" name have been influential on many newer graphics systems.

External Storage

Although 3.5" 1.44 megabyte floppy disks were becoming common in the industry by 1987, the PS/2s were the first IBM models to use them as standard. While the disk format itself was standard, IBM chose to use a non-standard form for the disk drives, resulting in very high repair costs as a standard drive could not be retrofitted to a PS/2. (The IBM part was functionally identical to but about five times more expensive than a standard 3.5" floppy drive.) Initially starting out with a 1.44MB capacity, by the end of the PS/2 line, these had standardized at 2.88MB capacity.

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Memory

The PS/2 introduced 72-pin RAM SIMMs, which became the de facto standard for RAM modules by the mid-90s in 486 and early Pentium desktop systems. These were 32 or 36 bits wide, and replaced the old 30-pin (8/9 bit) SIMM standard, which was much less convenient as they had to be used 4 or 8 at a time to match the bus width of a given system. 72-pin SIMMs were also capable of larger maximum capacities.

Models

The PS/2 Models 25 and 30 (IBM 8530) were ISA-based (in other words, essentially IBM PC/AT-like systems in a different form factor). The machines had an ESDI hard drive interface and the drives were available as an optional part, however many of these entry-level machines were sold without hard drives due to the high cost. The Model 25 featured an integrated display to compete with the Apple Macintosh as a low-cost computer for educational environments.

The higher models were equipped with the Microchannel bus and SCSI hard drives. PS/2 models 50 (IBM 8550-021)and 60 (IBM 8560) used the Intel 80286 processor, the PS/2 models 70 (IBM 8570-81) and 80 used the 80386DX, while the medium-performance PS/2 model 55SX (IBM 8555-081) used the 16/32-bit 80386SX processor.

The PS/2 models 90 (IBM 8590/9590) and 95 (IBM 8595/9595/9595A) used Processor Complex daughterboards holding the CPU, memory controller, Microchannel bus interface, and other system components. The available Processor Complex options ranged from the 20 MHz Intel 80386 to the 90 MHz Pentium and were fully interchangeable. The IBM PC Server 500, which has a motherboard identical to the 9595A, also uses Processor Complexes.

The IBM PS/2E (IBM 9533) was the first Energy Star compliant personal computer. It had a 50 MHz 486SLC processor, an ISA bus, four PCMCIA slots, and an IDE hard drive interface. The environmentally-friendly PC borrowed many components from the ThinkPad line and was composed of recycled plastics, designed to be easily recycled at the end of its life, and used very little power.

Marketing

The PS/2's controversial hardware design was tied to a marketing strategy that was similarly unsuccessful. During the 1980s, IBM's advertising of the original PC and its other product lines had frequently used the likeness of Charlie Chaplin. For the PS/2, however, IBM augmented this character with a notorious jingle that seemed more suitable for a low-end consumer product than a business-class computing platform:

"How ya' gonna' do it?

PS/2 It!

It's as easy as I.B.M."

Another campaign featured the actors from the television show, M*A*S*H playing updated versions of their characters from the series.

The profound lack of success of these advertising campaigns led, in part, to IBM's termination of its relationships with its global advertising agencies; these accounts were reported by Wired Magazine (Issue 3.08, August 1995) to have been worth over $500 Million a year, and the largest such account review in the history of business.

Overall, the PS/2 experiment was a commercial disaster. With what was widely seen as a technically competent but cynical attempt to gain undisputed control of the market, IBM unleashed an industry and consumer backlash. The firm suffered massive financial losses for the remainder of the decade, forfeited its previously unquestioned position as the industry leader, and eventually lost its status as the largest single manufacturer of personal computers, first to Compaq and then to Dell.

For IBM, while the PS/2 experiment was a commercial disaster from a consumer perspective, the platform experienced exceptional success in the business sector where many people still lived with the moto "Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM". Many models of PS/2 systems saw a production life span that took them well into the late 1990s.

Quoted from Wikipedia, here.

You will also note that the IBM PS/2 never really took off in the mainstream, nor did some of the technology used in them, which is really sad, because back in the day, this "PC" was ahead of it's time with tech like MCA and 2.88MB FDD's.

But as you read, IBM got greedy and cut their own throat. This was the beginning of the demise for IBM in the "PC" market. NOTE: I said PC market, not the computer market, although things started slowing down for them in this marketplace also about the same time.

YOu will also note the memory that these machines used. The 30 Pin SIMM's(Single Inline Memory Module) were used in the early models, but the IBM PS/2, including your grandmother's, were the first to use 72 Pin SIMM's, which used a 32 bit data path. You'll also note that in the info it says that it used 36 bits. What this is, is for each 8 bits, it had a parity bit, which made it 9 bits, hence their reference to 36 bit, and also the reference to 9 bits for the first models of the PS/2.

I also dug this up:

Table 2-G. IBM PS/2 Models 55 SX-031/-061

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                            Suggested

                              Retail  Feature Part    Memory  Memory

Feature Name                  Price  Number  Number  Std. Max. Speed  Description

--------------------------- --------- ------- ------- ---- ---- ------ -----------------

IBM Personal System/2 2-8MB  $1795    #8286  6450609  2MB  8MB  85ns  Adapter

80286 Memory Expansion                                                  Uses #5212/#5213

Option

IBM Personal System/2 1MB      $695    #5212  6450603  1MB  1MB  85ns  Module for planar or #8286

Memory Module Kit - 85ns                                                Mix w/#5213 OK

IBM Personal System/2 2MB    $1395    #5213  6450604  2MB  2MB  85ns  Module for planar or #8286

Memory Module Kit - 85ns                                                Mix w/#5212 OK

IBM Personal System/2          $600    #7259  1497259  0MB  8MB 120ns  Adapter

0-8MB Expanded Memory                                                  Uses #3397/#7833

Adapter/A

0.5MB Memory Module Kit        $215    #3397  30F5348 512K 512K 120ns  Modules for #7259

                                                                        Mix w/#7833 OK

2MB Memory Module Kit        $1295    #7833  30F5360  2MB  2MB 120ns  Modules for #7259

                                                                        Mix w/#3397 OK

NOTES:

* The 8555-031 comes with two system board memory spaces which are

  occupied with replaceable 1MB modules.  These 1MB modules can be replaced

  with the 2MB modules, Feature #5213.

* The 8555-061 comes with two system board memory spaces, one of which is

  occupied with a 2MB module.  The free system board space can be filled with

  either the 1MB Feature #5212 or the 2MB Feature #5213.

* Using the above-referenced planar expansion options, adapters, and

  kits, up to 14MB of additional extended memory can be configured.  Any

  memory above 640K can be configured as expanded memory using the DOS 4.00

  drivers XMAEM.SYS and XMA2EMS.SYS.

* There are three 16-bit Micro Channel slots available for adapter

  expansion.  One slot incorporates the video extension interface that

  allows the addition of an advanced video graphics board such as the IBM

  8514/A in order to upgrade video function without duplicating the

  built-in VGA circuitry.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Found it here.

Check out those 1989 hardware prices for that bad boy(Table 2-G) ! ! 1400.00US for 2MB of RAM ! ! And 85NS at that ! ! And we used to think that was frickin' amazing ! !

At that site, also note the drive size, technology, and prices in table 4.

On the drive technology:

ESDI

ESDI (Enhanced Small Device Interface) is a hardware interface for a computer disk drive based on the ST-506 standard, an early industry and later ANSI standard based on the Seagate disk drive. ESDI improved storage capacity and data transfer rates. It was used in IBM's higher-end PS/2 computers.

ESDI has generally been supplanted by the Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics (EIDE) interface and the Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI).

DASD

DASD, pronounced DAZ-dee (Direct access storage device), is a general term for magnetic disk storage devices that has historically been used in the mainframe and minicomputer (mid-range computer) environments. When used, it may also include hard disk drives for personal computers. A recent form of DASD is the redundant array of independent disks (RAID).

The "direct access" means that all data can be accessed directly in about the same amount of time rather than having to progress sequentially through the data.

While looking at that drive table, note the seek times and drive sizes: 30MB, 60MB, and 120MB max. In that day, these drives were huge ! ! And they needed to be for a 1700 dollar replacement or upgrade cost.

NOTE:This was about the time, or shortly thereafter Uncle Bill was quoted as saying that you would never need more than 1MB of RAM, and that you'd never see HDD's in personal computers.

One other note: The chances of you finding parts for that machine that actually work is almost nil. It won't take an EIDE drive. These drives used (1)34 pin common control cable, and (1) 20 pin data transfer cable. However you may still be able to run it on two floppies, if you can run down a version of DOS old enough. ESDI was the tech that introduced us to the world of SCSI.

ESDI enjoyed popularity in the mid-to-late 1980s, when SCSI and ATA were young and immature, and ST-506 just wasn't fast or flexible enough. ESDI could handle data rates of 10, 15, or 20 megabits per second (as opposed to ST-506's top speed of 7.5 megabits), and many high-end SCSI drives of the era were actually high-end ESDI drives with SCSI bridges integrated on the drive.

By 1990, SCSI had matured enough to handle high data rates and multiple types of drives, and ATA was quickly overtaking ST-506 in the desktop market. These two events made ESDI less and less important over time, and by the mid-1990s, ESDI was no longer in common use.

If you follow this link, it gives you versions and directions on installing Linux on this machine. If you want to play, I may have Linux files old enough and of the right versions for you that shouldn't take long to transfer to you.

Here is an excellent resource for you. Man, I wish I could get my hands on that baby ! ! Well hell, I'd be as happy as a pig in ###### if I could get a Pentium mobo and proc that works.

The OS's of the day that ran on the PS/2 were/are: PC-DOS: recommended, MSDOS(lacks certain diagnostic features), OS2, Win3.11, Novell UnixWare, and an oldie but a goodie that I trained on in school in 1989, System V Release IV.

Any more help I can be, just ask.

Want to talk about a serious reality check. Just look how far we have come in the short 20 years or so that the Personal Computer has been around.

NOTE: I said Personal Computer, not Computer.

Edited August 24, 2005 by Phantm