Recently I came across a minor mystery—the model numbers of the original IBM PC. For such a pivotal product, there is remarkably little detailed original information from the early days.
↫ Michal Necasek
Count me surprised. When I think IBM, I think meticulously documented and detailed bureaucracy, where every screw, nut, and bolt is numbered, documented, and tracked, so much so in fact this all-American company even managed to impress the Germans. You’d expect IBM, of all companies, to have overly detailed lists of every IBM PC it ever designed, manufactured, and sold, but as it turns out, it’s actually quite hard to assemble a complete list of the early IBM PCs the company sold.
The biggest problem are the models from before 1983, since before that year, the IBM PC does not appear in IBM’s detailed archive of announcements. As such, Michal Necasek had to dig into random bits of IBM documentation to assemble references to those earlier models, and while he certainly didn’t find every single one of them, it’s a great start, and others can surely pick up the search from here.
really, i’m wondering whether this kind of articles has its place here: there’s no mystery, no big pictures, no insight on some particularly interesting parts of computing history.
Not all parts of computing history are exciting or glamorous. However i think this does have it’s place as an interesting bit of lost forgotten information that has absolutely no right to be a mystery given it’s place and origin in computing history.
Fascinating read! It’s a shame that such detective work is needed to document this era of computing.
It’s amazing just how much information has been lost. If a company such as IBM doesn’t have documented evidence of model numbers of it’s systems, what hope do we have for systems from smaller/older manufacturers like Northstar or Data General? I own a machine from RCA, which can’t exactly be deemed a small manufacturer, which whilst suprisingly well documented (software and manuals preserved), it’s basically extinct bar my example.
Small volume machines from lesser known manufacturers are basically lost to history. Many people won’t deem them interesting due to no nostalgia, or no knowledge of them, so they get scrapped and disappear.
The amount of low volume computing systems that we just forgot existed must be a non-zero amount
The123king,
Reminds me of the giant computer warehouses that house tons of obscure equipment. A few years back Computer Reset in Dallas were liquidating inventory prior to permanently shutting down. Patrons paid a door fee and could take home anything they wanted… a sort of computer buffet. Anything that remained was to be scrapped.
It’s just amazing how much stuff there is/was even with things that weren’t very popular, We invent so much, but only a very tiny sliver of it will remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvM82T3C2Ik
Its crazy how many minute variations large companies have, and fail to document. a trend that has continued over the years.
I have an obscure version of a lawn mower that is very difficult to get exact parts for, its only manufactured by the largest manufacturer of lawn mowers.
I had an obscure variant of a mass produced car that who’s existence wasn’t very well documented, leading to repairs taking hours instead of minutes by the dealerships own mechanics.