website/content/museum/ibm-5120.md

title, categories, types, origins, years, cpus, params

title	categories	types	origins	years	cpus	params
IBM 5120	Computers	Professional Computer	U.S.A.	1980	IBM	name image company company_name specs tabs forum_thread photos hardware links related oc_id source 5120 /media/museum/photos/ibm_5120_system_1.jpg /companies/ibm IBM label value NAME 5120 label value MANUFACTURER IBM label value TYPE Professional Computer label value ORIGIN U.S.A. label value YEAR 1980 label value BUILT IN LANGUAGE APL, BASIC label value KEYBOARD Full stroke 73 keys with numeric keypad label value CPU IBM label value SPEED Unknown label value RAM 64 KB label value ROM 64 KB label value TEXT MODES 64 chars x 16 lines label value GRAPHIC MODES None label value COLORS Monochrome label value SOUND Beeper label value SIZE / WEIGHT 45 Kg. label value I/O PORTS Parallel and Serial label value BUILT IN MEDIA 2 x 8'' 1.2 MB floppy drives label value POWER SUPPLY Built in power supply unit label value PRICE $13500 photos hardware links 775 title subtitle text image 5120 WITH PRINTER Thanks to **Michael Lewis** /media/museum/photos/ibm_5120_system_s2.jpg title subtitle text image PROMOTIONAL PICTURE /media/museum/photos/ibm_5120_prm-pic_1.jpg title subtitle text image 5103 PRINTER 132-column bidirectional dot matrix printer with tractor feed. 80 characters per second. /media/museum/hardware/ibm_5120_printer5103_1.jpg title subtitle text image PRINTER CONNECTOR The massive connector of the 5103 printer. Two parallel and one serial ports are used to transfer data's to the printer! Why not make things really complicated! /media/museum/hardware/ibm_5120_printer5103connect_1.jpg title url text Eric's IBM 5100 Portable Computer page http://www.brouhaha.com/~eric/retrocomputing/ibm/5100/ Detail information title url text IBM 5110 page http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev/ibm_5110/technik/en/ Very complete information here ! /museum/ibm-5100 794 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230608091256/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=794 2023-06-08

The 5120 integrated system was the last evolution of the 5100 and 5110 portable series, and the last 'heavy desktop' computer made by IBM.

The 5120 was an intermediate system between the IBM mainframes and the future 5150 PC. Actually, it was the first desktop Personal Computer made by IBM.

Basically, The 5120 technology remained the same as the 5100 model: same custom processor and same IBM typical hardware profile inspired by the mainframes technology.

The system featured a 9-inch monochrome moniteur (many 5100 users asked for a larger display) and two 8" floppy drives.

The system was sold with both APL and BASIC languages in ROM. APL allowed numerous business software written on IBM minicomputers to run on the 5120.

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Bruce Franklin specifies:
After the IBM 5120, IBM manufactured another computer in Rochester based on the Intel 8088 chip that was called the DataMaster.
The computer's performance was poor compared to the 51XX computers, and IBM did not sell many of them.
Most people attribute the "IBM Personal Computer" as the first of what we know as PC's today, however IBM's model number for the PC introduced in 1981 was the IBM 5150. It was merely a new model of the 51XX line of computers and the second model to use an Intel processor.