Mystery IBM Japan monster keyboard - mystery solved

User avatar
daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

11 Feb 2011, 20:13

Many of you will have seen this beast before -

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All that was known was that it was an IBM keyboard from the 1970s. Some degree of speculation existed over what it was and what it was used for. However, while digging up information on the IBM Multistation, I discovered this info -
Chinese keyboard (V-type)
Chinese emulation only made 5250, R1, along with many mysteries keyboard type.
After all using only the keyboard, because it was more than 23 million.
The keyboard also want to see the thing most people look at management.

Those with a key 254 requires optional adapter to connect to a dedicated unit.
They key is engraved with Chinese characters in Japanese, perhaps like a typewriter, I think I have to input Chinese characters directly.

I found by chance from the site in English how to operate.
According to the report, has to be Chinese characters 12 on a single key, by pressing a number between 1 and 12 in another at the same time with that key, he seems to have become a U you to choose a Chinese character to be input
Sounds like a match for the above unit. If it is in fact the same thing, then it is an IBM 5556-005, more than likely with linear Alps Bigfoot switches.

EDIT: The above unit has 254 keys too (counted number of rows and columns, multiplied, then hand counted the other keys), so it's more than likely a match unless there was an earlier Chinese 5250 keyboard which used the same layout.

The keyboard cost 238,000¥ in early 1980s yen, which is probably equivalent to a few thousand dollars in todays money.
Last edited by daedalus on 11 Feb 2011, 20:18, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

11 Feb 2011, 20:17

Those bottom and side keys look like beam spring caps.

Image

User avatar
daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

11 Feb 2011, 20:25

My first reaction was that it was some sort of Beam Spring keyboard for the same reason. Nonetheless, there are some things to consider -

1. Some of the earlier Japanese 5556 keyboards had the same sculpted keycaps as older IBM terminal keyboards. It isn't beyond the stretch of the imagination that they could have copied those other key shapes with Alps switches (See here http://sandy55.fc2web.com/keyboard/4773 ... er_key.jpg)

2. I read another description of this keyboard elsewhere that said something that implied that the keycaps resembled that of an old typewriter or terminal keyboard. Can't find the link again.

3. Any of the IBM Japan stuff seems to have been locally made stuff designed in the approximate style of other IBM products.

The only other alternative is that this is some early IBM Chinese terminal keyboard, but the keyboard described above seems to describe this perfectly.

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

11 Feb 2011, 20:40

I dunno, Sandy's Alps caps are vintage but not identical. The caps on the Chinese board are identical, both font (were western is used) and shape.

Image

Also I have IBM Japan boards made in the USA.

User avatar
daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

11 Feb 2011, 20:52

There were Japanese Beam Spring, Model F and possibly some Model M terminal keyboards with Japanese layouts. But for the Japan-specific stuff, they seemed to subcontract to other Japanese companies. The 5576-C01 was a bit of a special case, and I think it was made by Lexmark because of possible patent concerns with getting their subcontractors to make trackpoint keyboards.

Out of curiosity, does your 5556 keyboard have double shot or dye sub keycaps? The one in your collection seems to be one of the later models.

User avatar
daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

11 Feb 2011, 21:09

There was an IBM 3270 Kanji System, but it got around the character problem by having 15 different shift keys (!) - you'd operate them with your left hand and press the appropriate keys with your right. In the keyboard in the original post, there are 20 keys in the top left, but most of these seem to be standard IBM terminal keys, and there's 12 characters per key, not 15. The description I read said that each level of shift corresponded with 240 Kanji characters, but the above keyboard only has 216 alpha keys. I really thought it was a Beam Spring because of the keycaps too, but it sounds too similar to this special Multistation keyboard for my liking...

Description of Kanji 3270 system here -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Kanji_System

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

11 Feb 2011, 21:35

daedalus wrote:There was an IBM 3270 Kanji System, but it got around the character problem by having 15 different shift keys (!)
Reminds me of the ZX Spectrum. I hope the keyboard is better. Although those ZX Spectrum keys made perfect erasers. Erases everything, pencil, ink, blood, you name it.

Image

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

11 Feb 2011, 23:32

daedalus wrote:Out of curiosity, does your 5556 keyboard have double shot or dye sub keycaps? The one in your collection seems to be one of the later models.
Dye sub.

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Here's an older one at otd.. brown Alps, cupped keys.

User avatar
sixty
Gasbag Guru

12 Feb 2011, 10:12

What the hell were they thinking on that last layout.

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Moogle Stiltzkin

17 Feb 2011, 07:04

very bulky keyboards o.O;

The keycap in the first screenshot on the left hand side sorta reminds me of Sixty's very old Cherry rounded keycaps.

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

06 Jul 2011, 20:49

It's in Germany in a museum.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/e-z/17023214/

Image

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

06 Jul 2011, 20:52

P.S. It has ninja style qwerty on the beam spring keys.

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webwit
Wild Duck

09 Sep 2011, 01:51


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Ascaii
The Beard

09 Sep 2011, 12:31

I actually watched the entire thing...very interesting!

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webwit
Wild Duck

09 Sep 2011, 13:11

The last two decades make me sad compared to the previous eight.

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Ascaii
The Beard

10 Sep 2011, 10:49

yup. no innovation, just "service". Woo they made a jeopardy AI. Im sort of underwhelmed.
Plus, I wonder what their selection process was for the "ibmers" or if they are just actors.

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webwit
Wild Duck

10 Sep 2011, 11:27

Yeah I don't think they will win any more Nobel Prizes soon.

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daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

10 Sep 2011, 11:50

I know some people who work for IBM. The experience has been unfavorably compared to working in a concentration camp...

Unless you can get a job in their research division, they don't really do anything interesting at all.

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The Solutor

10 Sep 2011, 16:05

webwit wrote:
daedalus wrote:There was an IBM 3270 Kanji System, but it got around the character problem by having 15 different shift keys (!)
Reminds me of the ZX Spectrum. I hope the keyboard is better. Although those ZX Spectrum keys made perfect erasers. Erases everything, pencil, ink, blood, you name it.

Image
The Spectrum keyboard was simply genial

User avatar
webwit
Wild Duck

10 Sep 2011, 16:53

I tried this trick with the Datahand, by introducing some macros for the most popular words in the English language. For example Modifier + T for "this". But it's hard to get used to, because in your mind you have to switch between character mode and word mode.

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sixty
Gasbag Guru

10 Sep 2011, 16:57

I think the best approach to "auto-completation" of common words is an approach similar to the one used in some mobile devices (and for decades in Asian IMEs) where words get auto completed based on your personal frequency.

I think Google labs had something like this going for a while and its now live on blogger:
http://bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/2011 ... ogger.html

I am also a fan of the linux auto complete for pretty much everything. I use a script to complete common words on irc conversations. I'm currently trying to change it around a bit to match the most recent words in the current console buffer.

Oh I'm drifting off.

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webwit
Wild Duck

10 Sep 2011, 18:13

Hmm yeah my text/code editor does the same thing.

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daedalus
Buckler Of Springs

10 Sep 2011, 19:14

Which one is that?

I sense religious wars inbound.

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webwit
Wild Duck

10 Sep 2011, 19:35

Tasword.

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lal

11 Sep 2011, 00:25

sixty wrote:[...]
I am also a fan of the linux auto complete for pretty much everything.
[...]
I hate how it prevents me from auto-completing "make foo<tab>" when there is a Makefile with inference rules only. Or generally a file with the "wrong" extension for the given command. "complete -r" is my friend :)

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Minskleip

11 Sep 2011, 01:38

Tried zsh?

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lal

11 Sep 2011, 18:46

Bourne sh FTW! ;)

Findecanor

11 Sep 2011, 20:08

I find scripting in bash to be quirky enough to bother learning another shell.
Is zsh the one that supports tab-completion for just about everything?

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Minskleip

11 Sep 2011, 21:01

Haha yeah. Scp tab completion is very nice!

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lal

11 Sep 2011, 21:15

Being serious for a second: zsh might be more powerful, feature-rich-ier, faster, whatever. But sh scripts run out of the box on virtually any Unix(-like) system in existence.

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