IBM Displaywriter

From: Unusual systems <kstumpf_at_unusual.on.ca>
Date: Sat Jan 30 06:02:02 1999

> 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 ?
> At present it would seem to be about to join the 3270 monitor I have (can't
>remember the model #) as interesting but unusable.

The Displaywriter system I have has the keyboard, a monitor, a monitor
base-unit, and a box that would sit besite the monitor, etc. It houses dual
8" diskette drives and the rest of the electronics. The cable that runs from
this box to the monitor, etc. is permanently attached to the box explaining
why you see only a connector. The printer plus form-feed attachment have a
footprint that matches the rest of the system, but is even higher than the
rest of the system. Early, unobtrusive office automation at it's best.

In keeping with the 3 states of computing (hardware, software, eveyware),
early IBM word processing technology elegantly passed through the first 2
states. In 1964 IBM coined the term word processing when it released the
Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter followed the the Magnetic Card Selectric
Typewriter and finally the Displaywriter product. This was the hardware
state since these products were huge, dedicated pieces of hardware. Then IBM
came out with the Displaywrite software series. The hardware melted into
software and the technology entered the second state. Now word processing
technology is everyware - fax, email, order entry, customer service...; it
dissolved from software into everyware. There.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Kevin Stumpf * Unusual systems * www.unusual.on.ca
+1.519.744.2900 * EST/EDT GMT - 5

Collector - Commercial Mainframes & Minicomputers from
 the 50s, 60s, & 70s and control panels and consoles.

Author & Publisher - A Guide to Collecting Computers &
Computer Collectibles * ISBN 0-9684244-0-6
.
Received on Sat Jan 30 1999 - 06:02:02 GMT