>>From opening them they are MCA bus with 286, 1mb ram, 20mb? HD and 1.44
>floppy. They are complete with reference disk(utilities?). I didn't get
>a keyboard, mouse or monitor with them but they look like typical VGA and
>IBM miniplug nominal stuff. They are said to be working and look pretty
>clean.
Cool... At least you got the reference disk. Keep it around! You will need
it if the battery dies or if you change the configuration. You can also
download reference disks from one of IBM's FTP sites, I forget which. Go
check out comp.sys.ibm.ps2.hardware and it's FAQ.
>Questions, how fast were the 286s?
Let me think... The 286 chip was available in 10MHz and 12MHz IIRC, maybe
another speed too. I can't remember which speed the 50/50Z was.
>The hard disk is rather strange with what looks like a 50pin edge
>connector. Obviously some of the extra connections over normal are
>power. is the drive MFM, IDE or what?
Depends. My 50Z has an ESDI drive(and IIRC they shipped with that, too),
but any PS/2 drive with that connetor should work. What it is is that IBM
added an HD controller to the HD's main board, so that connector is an MCA
interface.
>What other oddities about these?
Don't you love the way the case comes apart, and that little tool
underneath the speaker to help take the rest of it apart? Defintley my
favorite part of the Model 50. I have three 50Z's, one working and two with
no FD/HD/RAM. I'm thinking of using one as a terminal or something, putting
in an ethernet card with a boot ROM or something wierd like that. The other
I'll probably use as a regular PC if I find some free or cheap PS/2 parts.
All three of the 50Z's were free, my 80 was $50, and the 55sx was free. My
30-286 will be gone soon, as I sold it for $10...
--------------------------------------------------------------
|
http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers |
|
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek |
| orham_at_qth.net list admin call sign coming soon... |
--------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Sat Mar 21 1998 - 00:07:07 GMT