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IBM 6580 has arrived...

Adventurer said:
It does appear to have two RS/232 ports, but I have no clue how to transfer the data - a proper software is needed on PC and a Displaywriter to do this. As for the cable - did IBM use a standard Laplink cable for asynchronous file transfer?
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If I were you, I'd follow the wires. I don't know that 9 pin connectors were common for RS-232 at that time. My fallible memory says that the connector on the printer was 15-pin, again, non-standard.

If you follow the wires, you may end up finding a 1488/1489 pair. If so, that gives a high confidence of being RS232. Either way, you'll find something that will give you reasonable guesses about pin designations.

LapLink is a parallel specification and didn't exist for probably 15 years or more yet.
 
An interesting fact - it appears that there were third party manufactured printers, which would work with an IBM Displaywriter, and it appears they used some sort of adapter to use them on a DW:

dw printer.JPG
 
The pictured printer comes with either a Centronics interface, or GPIB. Centronics being the most common. It would need a special interface to connect to RS232. But that's not yet enough to confirm that the Displaywriter uses RS232.
 
Adventurer said:
How about that "asynchronous communication package" for IBM Displaywriter, which was released?
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"Asynchronous Communication Facility" described in http://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102678942? It's a terminal emulator, apparently.

There was also a "Displaywriter/Personal Computer Attach Convenience Kit":

Permits a Displaywriter system (without any communications features installed in the diskette unit) to be cable-connected to a 5150 via an Asynchronous Communications Adapter. The Compact Printer Connector Adapter (#0102) is also required. This attachment allows a Displaywriter to participate in a PC Cluster. When the Displaywriter is attached to a stand-alone 5150, the Displaywriter is used for operational control. Functions supported include transfer of documents and files between the Displaywriter and the 5150 including conversion of the document to revisable form text document content architecture (RFTDCA) prior to transfer to the 5150, and conversion from RFTDCA before transfer of documents to the Displaywriter. It is recommended that only DOS print files be transferred to the Displaywriter. Addition functions include the ability to display directories of the 5150 and Displaywriter, deletion of documents and files on either system unit, and an optional foreground execution facility which supports alternating between Displaywriter/Personal Computer Attach program functions and Textpack 4 or Textpack 6 functions.
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the QWERTZ keyboard layout threw me off for a second! Beautiful machine! I would love to have one of these...
 
A-ko said:
the QWERTZ keyboard layout threw me off for a second! Beautiful machine! I would love to have one of these...
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This particular all white early Model F only comes with QWERTZ layout, at least I have never seen one with QWERTY...
 
Hi,

Is there a place where all the software for this PC is available for download or at least some of the programs?
 
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