3 May
2022
3 May
'22
5:49 a.m.
The PC/RT was interesting in hardware design sense, as a "user" I
found it well, arguably "over" engineered. Big bold IBM solid feel.
Connectors which were 2x chunkier than they needed to be, but then you
looked at other systems with bent pins and broken latches and the IBM
stuff was grossly over-size, but just didn't break.
The screen was good, but somehow small. We had one at the same time as
Decstation 2100s and they were greyscale, but deliciously big
monitors.
The manual set was complete, and covered everything. You had to
understand how to walk the IBM structured dewey-decimal model of
thing-sub-thing-sub-sub-thing-sub-lettter but if you got to a
fictitious FRU-BCP-FRZ-J page, it described everything you needed to
know and had paste-overs or insert sheets about the -J variant.
It was the heaviest PC chassis I ever had to move. Other people
laughed at it, but I enjoyed using it for a year. I felt much the same
about the ICL Perq: very very heavy, but Olivetti-good cool design.
Just the right shade of Orange and Coffee for its day.
getting MBONE working on it was a joy.