An interesting model of IBM Model M

Beasway · 22 Jul 2017, 21:35

Hi,

Looking for information on the Model M i have, qwerty ISO with red sublegends, never seen that before, also check out the double legends on the top of the F-row. The keyboard came together with IBM 55SX computer. What do you think its worth?

Techno Trousers · 22 Jul 2017, 21:56

It's pretty interesting. Probably intended for terminal emulation rather than a PC. Being Greenrock made is a liability for model Ms. It might have an ABS rather than PBT space bar, although it doesn't look yellowed. The sublegends are pretty cool, and they might be worth something to a person looking for an international layout. But overall I doubt it's worth much more than a regular Model M.

martink · 22 Jul 2017, 23:54

You have Z and Y swapped

. Swiss layout is QWERTZ not QWERTY. -_ and '? are also not in their original positions.

Beasway · 23 Jul 2017, 00:28

martink wrote: You have Z and Y swapped . Swiss layout is QWERTZ not QWERTY. -_ and '? are also not in their original positions.

At first i thought so too, but they are not swapped, the layout in the picture is correct, i tested it with ENG as windows language.

martink · 23 Jul 2017, 01:04

Do the accented characters work also?

Darkshado · 23 Jul 2017, 01:30

IIRC the Greenock Ms with the dreaded ABS spacebars also have a grounding wire on the aforementioned key. (I have a Greenock M from 1990-12-12 and it has a PBT spacebar.)

Beasway: do not confuse physical and logical layouts.

Beasway · 23 Jul 2017, 01:40

martink wrote: Do the accented characters work also?

All characters work as on standard keyboard depending on windows language, if youre going to change the language to German (swiss) then Y will become Z, as on any other keyboard, but it is not hardwired if thats what you mean. It might be so that originally Y and Z had swapped positions, that would make sense and match %^& markings (like the German boards), but since it hasnt been in a German country for over 20 years someone swapped it to match english locale.

Still confused about the red characters and other markings. Maybe it was built for terminal emulation as second poster suggested, PA1, PA2 markings on PG UP and PG DOWN would make sense.

Spacebar on this board is PBT.

Techno Trousers · 23 Jul 2017, 06:26

The 24 function keys and legends like Dup, Mark, and EOF are what make me think it may have been made for terminal emulation. My F122 (and M122s) have 24 physical function keys at the top and alternate legends on other keys.