On Thursday, August 3, 2023 at 3:46:31 PM UTC-5, IBMMuseum wrote:
Richard Sapper design
https://richardsapperdesign.com/products/mod-5140/
Someone at IBM felt that the external appearance of the 5140 should carry over to the PS/2 line - as far as an intended 'Model 40', I think that is nothing more than a coincidence (and even '5140' vs. '8543'). However, the PC Convertible does have a
number of components from Seiko-Epson, which are prevalent in the 8086-based Model 30 (and later the Model 25 'XT'). Then we go down the rabbit-hole of whether the Model 30 was even an IBM design (Epson Equity 1e being a Model 30 clone down to the hidden
I/O registers).
Huh, I hadn't considered the possibility that the PC Convertible was just them genuinely trying something new (which influenced the PS/2 line in turn). Had a hunch there was a close relation between the two, but was unclear on the exact details.
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