deskthority

I recently saw an eBay listing for an IBM 6580 with black key buttons. Looking at the key mount, it looks like a beamspring. Does anyone know more about this? Is this original?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115098539949?n ... 7675.l2557

Yes, it's legit. Was made for an extremely rare dual-monitor system, the IBM 5253. Barely any info on this, was apparently an industrial control unit of some kind (explaining the dark caps) but beyond that almost zero.

The 5520 administrative system wasn't necessarily dual monitor, it came in single and dual monitor configurations just like the 5251/5252. It wasn't made for industrial control. It was made for distributed records entry and management - sending and editing documents concurrently in multiple locations. You can think of it as a cross between a displaywriter and a dumb terminal. It was an incredibly useless flop and was only on the market for about 3 years.

this 6580 is 200+$, what a pity

xxhellfirexx wrote: 08 Dec 2021, 04:50

Looks like there's a bar that I'd guess would do the typewriter style 'press either shift to release shift lock' thing. It might also just tie both shifts together so pushing one actuates the other. Would be a neat board to fix up.

jsheradin wrote: 13 Dec 2021, 14:24

xxhellfirexx wrote: 08 Dec 2021, 04:50

Looks like there's a bar that I'd guess would do the typewriter style 'press either shift to release shift lock' thing. It might also just tie both shifts together so pushing one actuates the other. Would be a neat board to fix up.

The mechanism is exactly the same as the mechanism on the displaywriter. They used the same keyboard on the displaywriter and the 5520 administrative system, which this keyboard is from. The only difference is the keyboard controller and the keycap color

I guess that makes it a "Black and White Whale".

Isn't that an orca?