This seems odd. He said that outside firms were making IBM keyboards to IBM specs with IBM logos. This doesn't sound right. Has anyone heard of such a thing?In the early 80s, a local electronics company, Racal-Milgo, produced terminals for another local company, IBM. Racal then outsourced the keyboard manufacturing. To qualify, a prospective supplier had to demonstrate to Racal that their version of product operated correctly, was built to spec., etc. To this end, several suppliers submitted working prototypes built to Racal's specs, including the "IBM" logo, to Racal for evaluation. My friend was responsible for selecting the correct supplier. He had several of these in his office, destined for the trash, and offered one or more to me since a group of us were building PC clones. At that time, keyboards were very pricey so I was happy to get my hands on this beauty. I'm sure I would have gotten one for my buddy Ray, who may still have his, although one of his wives would have surely disposed of it, sadly.
The only odd think I noticed on the keyboard was the label on the back plate. The UL and SA seals are blacked out. The F is handwritten instead of stamped, but I think I have seen that before.
- DSC00458 (Large).JPG (290.43 KiB) Viewed 1567 times
