The Personal Computer Series, or PC Series, was
IBM's follow-up to the
Personal System/2
The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART (serial po ...
and
PS/ValuePoint. Announced in October 1994 and withdrawn in October 2000, it was replaced by the
IBM NetVista, apart from the Pentium Pro-based PC360 and PC365, which were replaced by the
IBM IntelliStation.
x86-based
PC 100
The PC 100 was a budget model, available only in selected markets.
PC 140
The PC 140 was a budget model, available only in selected markets.
PC Series 300
Industry standard ISA/PCI architecture, first IBM machines with
USB. Processors ranged from the
486DX2-50, 486SX-25,
486DX4
IntelDX4 is a clock-tripled i486 microprocessor with 16-kB Level 1 cache.http://www.pld.ttu.ee/~prj/486dev.pdf Intel named it DX4 (rather than ''DX3'') as a consequence of litigation with AMD over trademarks. The product was officially na ...
-100 to the
Pentium 200 and in case of the Models 360 and 365 the
Pentium Pro
The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel and introduced on November 1, 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture (sometimes termed i686) and was originally intended to replace the original ...
. 486 models had a selectable bus architecture (SelectaBus) through a replaceable riser-card, offering the choice of either
VESA Local Bus/
ISA
Isa or ISA may refer to:
Places
* Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia
* Isa, Kagoshima, Japan
* Isa, Nigeria
* Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan
* Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain
* Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia
* Mount Is ...
or
PCI
PCI may refer to:
Business and economics
* Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards
** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors
* Prov ...
/ISA.
Within the 300 series the following models appeared:
PC 330

Its last sub-model used the
Pentium P54C processor clocked at 100, 133 , 166 or 200 MHz. It had, depending on the sub-model, up to 4 ISA and/or 3 PCI
expansion slots and four (2 external 5.25", 1 external and 1 internal 3.5") drive bays. It had in its latest version, the 6577, one DIMM-168 and 4 SIMM-72 memory slots, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS. This PC has 2 USB 1.0 slots in the back. The latest version of Windows which can be installed on this PC is Windows XP, though Windows 2000 and Windows ME are optimal choices.
The DIMM-168 memory slot takes 5V EDO DRAM and is incompatible with the more commonly used 3.3V SDRAM. The slot looks the same at first glance, but the keying is different. Trying to force a 3.3V SDRAM module into the slot could damage both it and the memory module.
Submodels were:
PC 340

The PC 340, introduced in 1996,
was a budget model. It used the Pentium processor clocked at 100, 133 or 166 MHz. It had 4 ISA and 3 PCI expansion slots and four (2 external 5.25 inch, 1 external and 1 internal 3.5 inch) drive bays. It had 4 SIMM-72 RAM slots, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS.
The submodels were:
* PC 300 Series Model 340 (Model 6560-1xx)
* PC 300 Series Model 340 (Model 6560-4xx)
* PC 300 Series Model 340 (Model 6560-5xx)
* PC 300 Series Model 340 (Model 6560-6xx)
* PC 300 Series Model 340 (Model 6560-7xx)
PC 350
The PC 350, introduced over 1994 to 1995,
was a middle-class model, having the same motherboard as the PC 330 in a much roomier case with additional drive bays. Processors ranged from the
486DX2-50, 486SX-25,
486DX4
IntelDX4 is a clock-tripled i486 microprocessor with 16-kB Level 1 cache.http://www.pld.ttu.ee/~prj/486dev.pdf Intel named it DX4 (rather than ''DX3'') as a consequence of litigation with AMD over trademarks. The product was officially na ...
-100 to the
Pentium 200. It had, depending on the sub-model up to 5 ISA and/or 3 PCI expansion slots and five (2 external 5.25", 1 external and 1 internal 3.5") drive bays. Like its smaller cousin, in its latest version it had 1 DIMM-168 and 4 SIMM-72 RAM slots, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS.
Submodels were:
PC 360
The PC 360 was an ISA/PCI-based system with six expansion slots that uses the
Pentium Pro
The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel and introduced on November 1, 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture (sometimes termed i686) and was originally intended to replace the original ...
CPU clocked at 150 or 200 MHz. It is packaged in a
mini-tower
In personal computing, a tower is a form of desktop computer whose case height is much greater than its width, thus having the appearance of an upstanding tower block, as opposed to a traditional desktop or "pizza box" computer whose width is gre ...
with six drive bays. It had 4 SIMM-72 slots for a total of up to 128 MB of memory, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS.
The submodels were:
* PC 360 Series Model 360 S150 (Model 6598-Cxx)
* PC 360 Series Model 360 S200 (Model 6598-Fxx)
PC 365
The PC 365 is an ISA/PCI-based multiprocessor system with five expansion slots. It supports dual Pentium Pro processors clocked at 180 or 200 MHz. The case has five drive bays and either two ISA or PCI slots, plus an additional three of which are shared ISA/PCI slots. It had 4 DIMM-168 slots for a total of up to 512 MB of memory, and featured an IBM SurePath BIOS.
The submodels were:
* PC 365 Series Model 360 S180 (Model 6589-10U, 11U, 17U)
* PC 365 Series Model 360 S200 (Model 6589-12U, 13U, 15U, 18U)
PC Series 700
These systems used the
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...
Pentium
Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel. The original Pentium processor from which the brand took its name was first released on March 22, 1993. After that, the Pentium II and P ...
processor with clock frequencies of 75, 90, 100, 133 and 166 MHz. Initial systems had selectable bus architecture (SelectaBus) through a replaceable riser-card. Options were either PCI/ISA or PCI/
MCA
MCA may refer to:
Astronomy
* Mars-crossing asteroid, an asteroid whose orbit crosses that of Mars
Aviation
* Minimum crossing altitude, a minimum obstacle crossing altitude for fixes on published airways
* Medium Combat Aircraft, a 5th gene ...
. The ISA or MCA bus would be connected to the PCI bus using a PCI to ISA/MCA bridge. The advantage of this is that even operating systems without MCA support worked on the system, as long as the MCA portion was not required.
Two form-factors were available, the 3x3 (3 slot, 3 bay) PC 730 and the larger 5x5 (5 slot, 5 bay) PC 750.
PC Series 3000
This series was introduced in April 1996 in
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...
only. It has a Pentium processor clocked at speeds ranging from 100 to 166 MHz and was shipped with a
Mwave modem
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more c ...
/
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by ...
card.
PC 300PL
The 300PL used three models of processors during its lifetime, the
Pentium MMX,
Pentium II
The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture (" P6") and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors (27.4 million in the case of the mobile Dixon with 256 KB ...
and
Pentium III
The Pentium III (marketed as Intel Pentium III Processor, informally PIII or P3) brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile CPUs based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 28, 1999. The brand's initial ...
. Models using the Pentium MMX came in speeds of 166, 200 and 233 MHz; models using the Pentium II came in speeds of 266, 300, 333, 350, 400 or 450 MHz; and models using the Pentium III came in speeds of 450, 500, 533, 550, 600, 667, 733, 800 or 866 MHz.
The 300PL usually shipped with a hard drive with a capacity ranging from 2 GB to 20 GB, a CD-ROM drive, and a floppy drive. In some models, an IBM EtherJet 10/100 Ethernet network adapter is also included. The IBM 300PL came either in a tower or a desktop form-factor.
Four different types of form-factors exist:
* Three PCI slots, no AGP; it also has an extra bay for a CD or DVD drive (desktop)
* Three PCI slots and one AGP; it also an extra bay for a CD or DVD drive (desktop)
* Four PCI slots and one AGP; it also has an extra bay for a CD or DVD drive (desktop)
* Six PCI slots and one AGP; it also has two extra bays for a CD or DVD drive (tower)
PC 300GL
The PC 300GL used the
Celeron
Celeron is Intel's brand name for low-end IA-32 and x86-64 computer microprocessor models targeted at low-cost personal computers.
Celeron processors are compatible with IA-32 software. They typically offer less performance per clock speed comp ...
, Pentium I, Pentium II and Pentium III throughout its lifetime. Celeron-based models had processors clocked at 333, 366, 433, 466, 500 or 533 MHz; Pentium I models had processors clocked at 133, or 166 MHz; Pentium II-based models had processors clocked at 350, 400, 450 MHz; and Pentium III-based models had processors clocked at 450, 500, 533, 550, 600, 667, 733, 800 or 866 MHz.
These systems were packaged in two case form-factors, desktop and micro-tower. There were two variants of the desktop case, one with two expansion slots and one with four. Both variants had four drive bays. The micro-tower case had four expansion slots and four drive bays.
PC 300XL
The PC 300XL uses the Pentium MMX clocked at 233MHz, or the Pentium II clocked at 233, 266 or 300 MHz.
It features integrated 10/100 Ethernet.
PC Power Series
This is the PC counterpart of the
RS/6000
The RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) is a family of RISC-based Unix servers, workstations and supercomputers made by IBM in the 1990s. The RS/6000 family replaced the IBM RT PC computer platform in February 1990 and was the first computer line to s ...
*
PowerPC 604 processor at 100, 120 or 133 MHz
* ISA/PCI
PReP architecture
* 16 MB parity memory standard, expandable to 192 MB
* Integrated 10baseT Ethernet, PCI Graphics and Audio
* Supports Windows NT 3.51 or
AIX Version 4
*
ARC BIOS
Two form-factors were available, the 3x3 (3 slot, 3 bay) PC830 and the larger 5x5 (5 slot, 5 bay) PC850.
See also
*
IBM IntelliStation
*
IBM NetVista
*
IBM PS/2
*
IBM PS/ValuePoint
The PS/ValuePoint (or just ValuePoint) personal computer was IBM's answer to the PC clone market, where the IBM PS/2 could not compete due to price and proprietary interfaces. Announced in October 1992 and withdrawn in July 1995, it was replaced ...
*
IBM PC XT
*
IBM PC AT
The IBM Personal Computer/AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 80 ...
*
IBM System AIX
AIX (Advanced Interactive eXecutive, pronounced , "ay-eye-ex") is a series of Proprietary software, proprietary Unix operating systems developed and sold by IBM for several of its computer platforms.
Background
Originally released for the ...
for the IBM PC Server Series
References
{{IBM personal computers
PC Series
Computer-related introductions in 1994