Digibarn Collection ➔ IBM 5110
Physical Object
2021.11.08.92.db
This is the second edition of IBM's 5100 line of "personal" (single user) computer sytems launched in 1975 (the same year as the vaunted MITS Altair). This system was upgraded for a dual 8 inch floppy drive instead of the tape cartridge of earlier machines. Announced in January 1978, this system precedes the IBM 5120 by just a few months. From IBM's pages on the 5110:
The next "personal computer" out of the gate was the IBM 5110 Computing System, announced by GSD in January 1978. Unlike the 5100 — which met the needs of professional and scientific problem-solvers — the 5110 was offered as a full-function computer to virtually all business and industry. Using new system and programs, a business could use the 5110 to automate such applications as general ledger and accounts payable. In addition, the 5110 system could be programmed to provide a variety of reports to help management analyze sales, schedule resources, reduce inventory cost and plan future growth.
The 5110 featured a desktop unit, which housed a central processing unit, a keyboard and a 1,024-character display screen. Main memory held 16K, 32K, 48K or 64K bytes of data, depending on the unit. Offering either magnetic tape or diskette storage, the Model 1 could store as much as 204,000 bytes of information per tape cartridge or 1.2 million bytes on a single diskette; the Model 2 allowed only diskette storage. Up to two IBM 5114 diskette units, each housing a minimum of two diskette drives, could be attached to the 5110 for a total online diskette capacity of 4.8 million bytes.
See Also:
IBM's pages on the 5110 and Wikipedia's entry on the 5110
Our pages on the IBM 5120 (also called 5110 Model 3)
Our special story on the 25th anniversary of the launch of the IBM PC
See the Digibarn's page on the IBM PC model 5150
