The IBM 5110 Computing System is the successor of the

IBM 5100 The IBM 5100 Portable Computer is a portable computer (one of the first) introduced in September 1975, six years before the IBM Personal Computer, and eight before the first successful IBM compatible portable computer, the Compaq Portable. It ...

Portable Computer. The IBM 5110 was announced in January 1978 (a little over 2 years after the introduction of the IBM 5100). Its main differences were support for more I/O devices (floppy disk drives,

IEEE-488 IEEE 488 is a short-range digital communications 8-bit parallel multi-master interface bus specification developed by Hewlett-Packard as HP-IB (Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus). It subsequently became the subject of several standards, and is ...

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such a ...

) and a

character set Character encoding is the process of assigning numbers to graphical characters, especially the written characters of human language, allowing them to be stored, transmitted, and transformed using digital computers. The numerical values that ...

(EBCDIC) which was compatible with other IBM machines. These improvements made it partially incompatible with the IBM 5100.

Variations

Three variations of the IBM 5110 were built: * IBM 5110 Model 1 (with a built-in QIC DC300 tape drive of 204 kB) * IBM 5110 Model 2 (without the QIC tape drive) * IBM 5110 Model 3 - also designated as the IBM 5120 (with two built-in 8-inch 1.2 MB

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

drives)

Description

The 5110 featured the same housing as the 5100 (although the colors were different), which contained an

IBM PALM processor The PALM (Put All Logic in Microcode) is a 16-bit central processing unit (CPU) developed by IBM. It was used in the IBM 5100 Portable Computer, a predecessor of the IBM PC, and the IBM 5110 and IBM 5120 follow-on machines. It is likely PALM ...

, a

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

and a 1,024-character display screen. Main memory held 16, 32, 48 or 64 KB of

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

, depending on the unit. Offering either

magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...

diskette A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

storage, the Model 1 could store as much as 204,000 bytes of information per

tape cartridge Magnetic tape cartridge and magnetic tape cassette both refer to a small plastic unit containing a length of magnetic tape on at least one reel. The unit may contain a second "take-up" reel or interoperate with such a reel in an associated tape dr ...

or 1.2 MB on a single diskette; the Model 2 allowed only diskette storage. Up to two IBM 5114 diskette units, each housing a maximum of two diskette drives, could be attached to the 5110 for a total online diskette capacity of 4.8 MB. The IBM 5110 Model 3 allowed only one external IBM 5114 diskette unit. IBM did not offer a LAN or

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

for these systems. However, in 1981

Hal Prewitt Harold D. Prewitt, Jr (Hal) (born October 1, 1954, in Hutchinson, Kansas) is an artist, photographer, race car driver, businessperson, inventor of personal computer products and early pioneer in the personal computer revolution. He resides in S ...

, founder of

Core International, Inc Core International, Inc., commonly referred to as Core, was a multinational computer and technology corporation headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. The company is now part of Sony and no longer exists as stand-alone identity. The ...

invented and marketing the world's first and only hard disk subsystems and "CoreNet", a LAN used to share programs and data for the IBM 5110 and 5120 systems. An IBM 5103 printer and an external IBM 5106 auxiliary tape unit (Model 1 only) were available as options from IBM. Citing the easy use of his new system, Jeff Grube, vice president of

Punxsutawney Punxsutawney (; Lenape: ' ) is a borough in southern Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. Punxsutawney is known globally for its annual Groundhog Day celebration held each February 2, during which thousands of attendees and international media outl ...

Electric Repair (who received the first IBM 5110 on February 2, 1978), said: "If you can type and use a hand-held calculator, you have all the skills necessary to operate a 5110."

Programming languages

The 5110 was available with either APL or

BASIC BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College ...

—or both—programming languages. Machines that supported both languages provided a toggle switch on the front panel to select the language. In 1984,

introduced PC51, software that allowed 5100 Series computer programs written in BASIC to run unmodified on the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

and compatibles under PC DOS and share programs and data on CoreNet, the LAN for all these models.

5110 Software

The 5110, designed by the Global Software Development team at

IBM Rochester IBM Rochester is the facility of IBM in Rochester, Minnesota. The initial structure was designed by Eero Saarinen, who clad the structure in blue panels of varying hues after being inspired by the Minnesota sky, as well as IBM's nickname of " Big ...

Rochester, Minnesota Rochester is a city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Olmsted County. Located on rolling bluffs on the Zumbro River's south fork in Southeast Minnesota, the city is the home and birthplace of the renowned Mayo Clinic. Acco ...

,Cf. IBM 5110 Computing System, IBM Archives website was aimed at GSD's traditional commercial market. The machine was brought in only 90 days from conception to production. It achieved this short timescale under the management of Bill Sydnes, who as a member of Bill Lowe's taskforce later did much the same for the

.IBM 100 - Icons of Progress - The PC Team
/ref> As a business system, IBM offered a number of basic accounting software for a small business. However, companies such as

designed and supported a wide assortment of application programs.

Model 3

The IBM 5110 Model 3 (also known as the IBM 5120 Computing System) was the

desktop A desktop traditionally refers to: * The surface of a desk (often to distinguish office appliances that fit on a desk, such as photocopiers and printers, from larger equipment covering its own area on the floor) Desktop may refer to various compu ...

version of the 5110. The 5110 was withdrawn from marketing in March 1982 but IBM continued to support the series until the mid 80s.

References

;Notes
IBM 5110 Computing System
IBM Archives. Retrieved 10-19-2011.
Core 5110/20 Hard Drives
* Mercer, David (1987, 1988)

Kogan Page Kogan Page is an independent publishing company founded in 1967 and headquartered in London, with branches in New York and New Delhi. Kogan Page specialises in business books and digital content, with over 1,000 titles published in key subject a ...

Ltd. . .
1984 Core PC51 Users Manual

1984 Core PC51 Media Release
{{IBM personal computers 5110 Computer-related introductions in 1978