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The Ultimate IBM 5150

G

Great Hierophant

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Mar 22, 2006
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Location
Massachusetts, USA
The 5150 lacks the slots, space, and power to make it a really ultimate 4.77MHz system. What I envision is taking the system to the maximum using only official IBM upgrade options. I think I can present an ultimate configuration from this:

In the 5150, five slots are available, and I would stock them as follows:

1 - Color/Graphics Display Adapter
2 - Diskette Drive Adapter
3 - 64/256 Memory Enhancement Option w/256KB
4 - 64/256 Memory Enhancement Option w/256KB
5 - Extender Card

In the expansion chassis, I would stock the eight available slots as follows:

1 - Fixed Disk Adapter
2 - Monochrome and Printer Display Adapter
3 - Printer Adapter
4 - Asychronous Communications Adapter
5 - Asychronous Communications Adapter
6 - Game Control Adapter
7 - 64KB Memory Expansion Option
8 - Receiver Card

All cards are IBM cards. Several things can be observed. In order for this configuration to work, it would require a 16/64KB motherboard. I decided not to use the BSC or SLDC adapters IBM used because I know of no consumer-based use for them.

Naturally, the main chassis would contain two full-height 320/360KB Diskette Drives and the expansion chassis would contain two full-height fixed disk drives (Seagate ST-412s). The motherboard would have the Math Coprocessor installed in the designated socket. It also should have the last BIOS, dated 10/27/82, installed in the ROM sockets (the BASIC ROMs need not be changed.)

So, what would we attach to these various devices? Well, there are two parallel ports, and IBM offered a Matrix and a Graphics printer. Just don't try to print at the same time. Two display adapters for IBM's Color and Monochrome Displays, but only one will display at a time. The Async and Game cards would have to be connected to a non-IBM modem, mouse and joystick.

Perfection the IBM way.
 
I think that you forgot to utilize the external Floppy port. Using IBM options such as the 4865 or 4869 you could have an external floppy drive. With some creativity, you could have two.

Also, an 'ultimate' system might have a PGA controller and display.
 
GH:

I am myself am a huge fan of the 5150, being my first "real" computer an all. I still have my original that I use frequently albeit fitted with equiptment that furthers my enjoyment of the machine.

Now, back in the day, what so you suppose that whole setup would have been priced at? ;)
 
You could add a parallel card and an EGA card in place of MDA and CGA. It would still be true blue, just from a later time period. The EGA card will drive an EGA, CGA, or monochrome monitor, and if it is blue, you can use the driver that comes with DOS for it.

IIRC, the two printers look identical on the outside, except for the nameplate. You can do everything that the matrix printer can do with the graphics printer.

Also, an EGA monitor will display CGA if it is plugged into that adaptor. I have this set up, along with an MDA and monitor and it works fine. I've forgotten the switch, but you do it from the DOS prompt.

Sean
 
mbbrutman said:
I think that you forgot to utilize the external Floppy port. Using IBM options such as the 4865 or 4869 you could have an external floppy drive. With some creativity, you could have two.

Also, an 'ultimate' system might have a PGA controller and display.
Click to expand...

You will never see more beautiful colors than those displayed on a PGA monitor. Some of them have been converted to VGA.

Sean
 
Thats a decent price, although shipping is a bit steep.

I was 'extremely lucky' to find one of these about a year ago, listed
on my local craigslist with a working IBM PGD monitor.
Haven't really used it much though, as there isnt much software that
supports the PGA card. The monitor can be easily converted to run
VGA, that way adding an 8-bit VGA card to the PC and keeping the
'classic IBM' look. :)


frozenfire75i said:
a good deal on the PGA Card... I am NOT the seller!

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-IBM-Pro...Z4193QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-IBM-PGA...Z4193QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1713.m153.l1262
Click to expand...
 
I never thought about the PGA, but as someone pointed out, it will not fit into the 5150's slots, so it will not work. The VGA card was released when the 5150 was discontinued, and while it will work, it was not advertised during the PC's operational life.

However, I would not include the EGA card for different reasons. While it will work and may have been an (expensive) option for the 8-bit PCs, it is not a good fit for the 5150. Displaying EGA graphics requires more of the processor's time, almost double in many circumstances, than CGA graphics. While EGA supports CGA's RGB graphics well, it does not support composite color graphics, which are one of the prime attractions of the CGA card. If you put an EGA and a CGA card into the same system, the EGA card would emulate an MDA card with a little-used monochrome graphics mode. You lose a printer port too. The Hercules Graphics Card used a more-widely supported graphics mode. Many, many applications that support EGA run best on 286s.
 
Great Hierophant said:
Displaying EGA graphics requires more of the processor's time, almost double in many circumstances, than CGA graphics. While EGA supports CGA's RGB graphics well, it does not support composite color graphics, which are one of the prime attractions of the CGA card. If you put an EGA and a CGA card into the same system, the EGA card would emulate an MDA card with a little-used monochrome graphics mode. You lose a printer port too. The Hercules Graphics Card used a more-widely supported graphics mode. Many, many applications that support EGA run best on 286s.
Click to expand...

I agree that sticking with CGA is the best option for a 5150, but I wanted to point out a common misconception that EGA was slower than CGA. While it is indeed more memory to write, if you were a *good programmer* (I stress this) you could actually perform many operations faster than on CGA. This is because EGA is arranged in a series of bitplanes as opposed to being byte-addressable. While more of a hassle to code for, this has certain advantages, such as being able to write up to 8 pixels in a single bitplane with a single write operation. EGA had other advantages not related to bitplanes, such as being able to copy video memory to video memory faster than the CPU could do it -- this was *killer* for background tiles and is one of the reasons the Commander Keen series (especially episodes 4-6 due to programming optimization) is so fast.

Not all programs were that diligent. But I remember Flight Simulator 3.0 (or 4.0, can't remember specifically) was -- you can actually see it run faster in EGA than CGA on the same platform.
 
The beauty of this system is that fills as much as possible with true IBM product. All four drive bays are filled with full-height floppy and hard drives. All slots are occupied. Most of the system resources are in use and without conflict. Only IRQ2 and DMA1 is free.

There would still be a slot free with the 256K motherboard.
 
billdeg said:
To me the ultimate 5150 is the rev A motherboard (original) version!
Click to expand...

Yes, given my interest in the historical aspects of these things, "ultimate" to me means the configurations that were the most popular when the computer was first released. With a 5150 here, that would be green screen monochrome, two full height 5.25 360k drives, parallel printer card and the asyncronous communications card. Not sure of the motherboard revision, but the system had BASIC in ROM.
 
tezza said:
Yes, given my interest in the historical aspects of these things, "ultimate" to me means the configurations that were the most popular when the computer was first released. With a 5150 here, that would be green screen monochrome, two full height 5.25 360k drives, parallel printer card and the asyncronous communications card. Not sure of the motherboard revision, but the system had BASIC in ROM.
Click to expand...

Based on that your ideal system would be a Rev. A (16-64K) motherboard with the 1.0 ROMs, one or two 160K SSDD floppy drives (180K under DOS 1.10+) and the IBM Mono/printer adapter and an IBM 5151 Monochrome monitor.

DOS 1.0 would be ideal, but that configuration did ship with DOS 1.1 for a time.

The single-sided drives are the real problem. They are far rarer than the 16-64K mother board.
 
Erik said:
Based on that your ideal system would be a Rev. A (16-64K) motherboard with the 1.0 ROMs, one or two 160K SSDD floppy drives (180K under DOS 1.10+) and the IBM Mono/printer adapter and an IBM 5151 Monochrome monitor.
Click to expand...

No, my ultimate is not the earliest system Eric, rather those configurations that were "most popular" when the computer first released here in New Zealand.

I don't think the IBM-PC was ever released with 160K drives here. I never saw, read, or heard of one in this configuration. I think they probably came into NZ a little later than the official release date in the US. I don't recall seeing any until 1983 or so. Certainly it was after that year, when they started to take off.
 
tezza said:
No, my ultimate is not the earliest system Eric, rather those configurations that were "most popular" when the computer first released here in New Zealand.

I don't think the IBM-PC was ever released with 160K drives here. I never saw, read, or heard of one in this configuration. I think they probably came into NZ a little later than the official release date in the US. I don't recall seeing any until 1983 or so. Certainly it was after that year, when they started to take off.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, and I'm pretty sure you're right - the 160K drives didn't last long and didn't go international. . . :)
 
tezza said:
I don't think the IBM-PC was ever released with 160K drives here.
Click to expand...
Same appears to be the case for Australia. Supported by the story at http://www.borrett.id.au/computing/art-1982-12-01.htm. That fits in with my observation that the earliest 5150 drive here in Australia was the unbadged Tandon TM100-2A. By 'unbadged' I mean that there is no "IBM" on the front, but there are white IBM stickers added to various places on the drives.
 
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