IBM Displaywriter

From: Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com <(Philip.Belben_at_pgen.com)>
Date: Wed Feb 3 04:02:14 1999

> I picked up an IBM Displaywriter keyboard unit in a local thrift after
eyeing
> it for a couple of weeks and finally couldn't resist adding it to my
> living-space challenged collection.
> I remember seeing mention of it in an old 81 datamation mag and a 50s
> style picture of a dedicated secretary busy at work on one and other info
in
> possibly an old Byte. It was touted as being very popular to the point
that it
> was touted over the PC and that CP/M programs were being ported to it.
> I opened it up and it has only a small I/O board with a 15 pin connector
and
> takes it's power off that. It looks like an oversized C64.
> It obviously doesn't have enough electronics to be more than a keyboard
> terminal, but I don't recall seeing a box in the picture. I had
understood the
> displaywriter to be a stand alone machine. Did it have an additional box
or was
> it meant to connect to a CRT terminal hooked to a mainframe ?

Displaywriter system generally consisted of the following boxes:

System unit. PC-sized, half the case == power supply, other half == card
cage. Card cage contains system board with 8088 and other cards.

Keyboard. The thing you've got

Monitor. Very similar to IBM original (mono) PC monitor, I think

Printer. Daisywheel, EBCDIC, current loop.

Disk drives. Usually a dual 8" unit. Could be SSSD or DSDD iirc.


> At present it would seem to be about to join the 3270 monitor I have
(can't
> remember the model #) as interesting but unusable.
> Or could I get gadzillion bucks for it on e-pay ? Any info ?

My advice is: keep it against such time someone needs it...

Philip.
Received on Wed Feb 03 1999 - 04:02:14 GMT