IBM System/23 Datamaster: Difference between revisions
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| CRTC || Intel 8275
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| USART || Intel 8251
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== Historical Signifiance ==
=== Commercial Failure ===
The scarcity of those systems is the result of high prices (it was marketed at USD9000 at the time), delayed availability, poor marketing and the release of in-house competing systems such as the Displaywriter and the PC. This made the computer fail to be adopted by the marked, which had a plaethora of competing systems at much more competitive price and performance. Therefore the System/23 quickly became a niche in the marked and was soon forgotten as the technology improved quickly in the mid-80s.
=== Influence over the 5120 ===
The long development time of the IBM Datamaster made its case a model for the [[IBM 5120]], which adopted a variant. While it is acknowledged that both units have related cases, it is usually wrongly stated that the 5120 influenced the System/23 where in reality it was the Datamaster that influenced the 5120.
=== Usage of standard parts ===
The IBM Datamaster is the first IBM computer to rely on then industry-standard components including microprocessor, memories, peripheral devices and logic integrated circuits. This aproach would be reused in the Displaywriter (which has a mix of both standard components and IBM SLTs) and later developments, such as the PC family of computers. However, the references were changed to avoid third parties to tamper with the machine.
=== Creation of the IBM PC ===
It is often said that the IBM had a rushed development of the PC with a single year in development. Whereas the statement is partially true, it is also forgotten how close both systems are and how the same engineers that worked in the Datamaster later worked in the PC, bringing the required expertise. Also, the chosen CPU was the [[Intel 8088]] due of its similarity hardware-wise with the [[Intel 8085]] and this way most of the peripherals were maintained in the transition from the Datamaster. The character set and its format were also brought from the System/23 to the [[5150]]. Also, the expansion bus is nearly untouched in that evolution. Finally, from pictures of early prototypes it can be seen that the power connectors were the same as the one in the Datamaster. As a conclusion, it might be stated that the early life of the IBM PC started as modifications on the Datamaster.
== Hardware Description ==
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