IBM 5161

From: Kevin Handy <kth_at_srv.net>
Date: Wed Apr 2 19:08:01 2003

Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:

>>>incompatible, and they had a giant surplus of serial (RS232 and current
>>>loop) cards that nobody wanted, so they provided a "FREE" serial card to
>>>
>>>
>
>On Thu, 3 Apr 2003, Tony Duell wrote:
>
>
>>Why did 'mobody' want them? A serial port is a very useful thing to have...
>>
>>
>
>Because they occupied an entire slot (out of 5 on the PC), and other
>companies sold "multifunction" cards that could use the same slot for
>serial, parallel, clock, and memory. Most of those were marketed as SIX
>functions - how many people remember what the other two functions were?
>
floppy, game port

>
>However, the IBM "Async" card could ALSO do current loop, which most of
>the after market cards could NOT.
>
>
>
>
>>One of the most stupid things IBM ever did was in the 5155 PortablePC.
>>
>>
>
>It has my nomination for the silliest design. (particularly when compared
>with the comparable Compaq machine which has all slots usable)
>
>--
>Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Wed Apr 02 2003 - 19:08:01 BST