--- title: IBM 5100 categories: - Computers types: - Professional Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1975' cpus: - IBM circuit module params: name: '5100' company: /companies/ibm company_name: IBM specs: - label: NAME value: '5100' - label: MANUFACTURER value: IBM - label: TYPE value: Professional Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: September 1975 - label: END OF PRODUCTION value: '1978' - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: BASIC or APL or both - label: KEYBOARD value: Full stroke 74 keys with numeric keypad and arrow keys - label: CPU value: IBM circuit module - label: SPEED value: 1.9 MHz. - label: RAM value: 16 KB to 64 KB by 16 KB steps - label: ROM value: 32 KB to 64 KB - label: TEXT MODES value: 64 chars. x 16 lines - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: None - label: COLORS value: Monochrome - label: SOUND value: No sound capabilities - label: SIZE / WEIGHT value: 24 Kg. - label: I/O PORTS value: 5103 printer and 5106 external tape drive unit - label: BUILT IN MEDIA value: Built-in 204 KB DC600 tape drive - label: OS value: APL or BASIC - label: POWER SUPPLY value: Built-in power supply unit - label: PRICE value: From $8975 (BASIC 16 KB) to $19,975 (BASIC+APL 64 KB) tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - links photos: - title: FRONT VIEW subtitle: '' text: |- BASIC only model (no APL) with no tape drive. Thanks to redrum76 for this picture image: null - title: FRONT PANEL subtitle: '' text: |- A close-up of the controls. **(1)** Brightness adjustment\ **(2)** Power switch\ **(3)** Display left 32 cols, all 64 cols, or right 32 cols\ **(4)** Process Check Led\ **(5)** In Progress Led\ **(6)** Display reverse switch\ **(7)** Tape cartridge door\ **(8)** Restart switch\ **(9)** Display Registers switch image: null - title: MEMORY DUMP subtitle: '' text: Memory dump in hexadecimal form. image: null - title: DISPLAY CLOSE-UP subtitle: '' text: Thanks to redrum76 for this picture image: null - title: DETAIL subtitle: '' text: Thanks to redrum76 for this picture image: null adverts: - title: STRAPPING MAN! subtitle: '' text: |- Advert said: A compact problem-solving add for engineers, statisticians, scientists and financial and business analysts. image: null hardware: - title: 5103 PRINTER subtitle: '' text: 132-column bidirectional dot matrix printer with tractor feed. 80 characters per second. image: null - title: 'ESSENTIAL ACCESSORY #1' subtitle: '' text: '' image: null - title: 'ESSENTIAL ACCESSORY #2' subtitle: '' text: '' image: null links: - title: Eric's Eccentric Emporium of Egregiously Effervescent Effluvium, Etc - 5100 page url: http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/5100/ text: Détailed page with interesting info - title: IBM 5110 page url: http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev/ibm_5110/technik/en/ text: Very complete information here ! - title: oldcomputers.net url: http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html text: Nice article with good pictures - title: Wikipedia - IBM 5100 article url: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100 text: Nice article comments: - author: Larry (Indonesia) date: Wednesday 5th June 2019 text: In reference to ''John Titor'' and the 5100 - the "IBN 5100" had a leading role in the time travel anime series "Stein$s gate" where the 5100''s APL code was needed to translate the evil ''SERN''s time travel logs. Really good anime BTW. - author: Alvin Ginsburg (United States) date: Friday 4th September 2015 text: Last time I looked the Smithsonian had the development prototype of the 5100. It was called Scamp or Mercury, depending on the phase of development. The one at the Smithsonian was made of wood and had a nine inch screen. It was given to them by Dr. Paul Friedl, one of the early inventors at the IBM Scientific Center in Palo Alto, California. - author: Fliver (United States) date: Sunday 1st June 2014 text: This is the computer time traveler John Titor claimed to have retrieved in 1975 traveling back from his time in 2036 to help rebuild their world. - author: Alvin (usa) date: Tuesday 19th February 2013 text: Some asked about PALM. It stood for "program all logic in memory." I recall it as an 8 bit machine, though. - author: Vicki Davisson (Phoenix, Arizona) date: Wednesday 30th August 2006 text: |- Wow, I worked on one of these in 1982-83. It was unused at the time. It had been bought by the lumberyard where I worked when they were flush with cash after the snows of 1978-79 caused a garage building bonanza. I taught myself BASIC programming on this thing and wrote an inventory system. I never could get used to GW BASIC after using IBM's powerful code (GW BASIC was crap, as far as I was concerned). The original cost of the system: $17,000 in 1979 money, about $48,000 today. The machine had 32K of memory total, for both the BASIC program and my code, two 8" disk drives and a 132 column dot matrix printer. Amazing... - author: Marcus (Earth) date: Saturday 19th August 2006 text: a blast from the past. I used one of these to score a golf tournament, borrowed from the now defunkt IBM training centre in West London - author: Pharoah (United States) date: Thursday 24th November 2005 text: Wow, does the PALM mean that this is a 16 bit computer. It looks a little too primitive :) - author: Chuck Kaufman (Southern California) date: Thursday 11th November 2004 text: I remeber using a IBM 5100 at UCLA in 78. They had it set up in an office in the engineering building (Bolter Hall). Originally, the restricted for staff use only but no one in the engineering dept used it. By May 78 I was only a couple of us freshmen were using it. It was the only free computer on campus that support APL. I still have the tape I used, I wonder it is still any good. - author: Brian Bagnall (Winnipeg, Canada) date: Tuesday 22nd April 2003 text: There is an article titled "Welcome, IBM, to personal computing" in Byte Magazine, December 1975. This is very reminiscent of the "Welcome, IBM" full page ad taken out by Apple when the IBM PC was released. It probably would have been more appropriate for IBM to welcome Apple to the personal computer industry. - author: John Bajak (White Plains, New York) date: Tuesday 1st April 2003 text: I used a 5100 back in 1978 as part of a High School interneship (I was 16 years old) with IBM and now I am 40 and I really want and need a 5100 with APL to play with to reengage my old adolescent pubescent memories related: - /museum/ibm-5120 oc_id: 795 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230405101343/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=795 date: '2023-04-05' --- In September 1975, IBM announced its smallest and first portable computer (If you consider a 28 Kgs. computer portable, that is), the IBM 5100, no bigger than one of IBM's typewriters. Developed in Rochester, it used the same operating system as IBM's /370 line of main frames. Thus it could accommodate the same APL interpreter, permitting the use of APL programs. A BASIC interpreter was also available, depending of the 5100 version chosen. This was the first widely marketed and supported personal computer, and definitely the first useful all-in-one, portable computer system. However, it was a very primitive machine that was largely unsuccessful due to its high price tag (basic version costed $8,975) and limited expansion capabilities. It had a built-in tape drive and a small 5" 64 character display. A special display mode allowed the user to select right or left bigger 32 chars. of each line.\ The tape drive used a 1/4 inch DC300 tape cartridge and stored 204 KB of data.\ The 5100 didn't feature a microprocessor chip, but a card called PALM (Put All Logic in Microcode) which acted as a 16-bit microprocessor. Notice that the 5100 is the first serial number of IBM "Personal Computer" range that will later include the 5110, [5120](/museum/ibm-5120/), [5150](/museum/ibm-pc-model-5150/) (IBM-PC) and [5160](/museum/ibm-pc-xt-model-5160/) (PC-XT).