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91-567: The PS/2 line was created by IBM partly in an attempt to recapture control of the PC market by introducing the advanced yet proprietary Micro Channel architecture (MCA) on higher-end models. These models were in the strange position of being incompatible with the hardware standards previously established by IBM and adopted in the IBM PC compatible industry. Most major PC manufacturers balked at IBM's licensing terms for MCA-compatible hardware, particularly

182-544: A UNIX operating system for PS/2 models with Intel 386 or later processors. IBM's initial PS/2 computers were popular with target market corporate buyers, and by September 1988, IBM reported that it had sold 3 million PS/2 machines in the past 18 months. However, the PS/2 was unsuccessful in the consumer market since IBM failed to establish a link in the consumer's mind between the PS/2 MicroChannel architecture and

273-517: A complex called the Power Platform. The PS/2 Models 90 (IBM 8590/9590) and 95 (IBM 8595/9595/9595A) used Processor Complex daughterboards holding the CPU , memory controller, MCA interface, and other system components. The available Processor Complex options ranged from the 20 MHz Intel 486 to the 90 MHz Pentium and were fully interchangeable. The IBM PC Server 500 , which has

364-507: A few on the older pattern continued to be made at Greenock and Guadalajara until 1999. Relatively few press-fit model Ms have survived. During the Lexmark years, a few Model M variants were manufactured with rubber-dome key switches rather than buckling springs. Due to these switches' comparatively short durability, few of these variants have survived. Despite their rarity, today's enthusiasts and collectors do not value them nearly as highly as

455-585: A full AT-class machine and support up to 4 MB of RAM. Later ISA PS/2 models comprised the Model 30 286 (a Model 30 with an Intel 286 CPU), Model 35 (IBM 8535) and Model 40 (IBM 8540) with Intel 386SX or IBM 386SLC processors. The higher-numbered models (above 50) were equipped with the Micro Channel bus and mostly ESDI or SCSI hard drives (models 60-041 and 80-041 had MFM hard drives). PS/2 Models 50 (IBM 8550) and 60 (IBM 8560) used

546-463: A grounded spacebar and, on some later models, drainage holes to deter damage from spilled liquids. The M2 was a late Lexmark variation issued under cost pressure from competing rubber-dome keyboards. Some revisions used rubber-dome switches; others retained buckling springs. All had a much thinner, lighter case and discarded the metal backplate. It can easily be distinguished from the original Model M design by its flat, unsculpted front case section; also

637-503: A high of 10,000 employees in Boca Raton before the PS/2 came out, only seven years later, IBM had $ 600 million in unsold inventory and was laying off staff by the thousands. After the failure of the PS/2 line to establish a new standard, IBM was forced to revert to building ISA PCs—following the industry it had once led—with the low-end PS/1 line and later with the more compatible Aptiva and PS/ValuePoint lines. Still,

728-453: A link in the consumer's mind between the PS/2 MicroChannel architecture and the immature OS/2 1.x operating system; the more capable OS/2 version 2.0 was not released until 1992. The firm suffered massive financial losses for the remainder of the 1980s, forfeiting its previously unquestioned position as the industry leader, and eventually lost its status as the largest manufacturer of personal computers, first to Compaq and then to Dell . From

819-490: A more finely graduated range (powers of 2, instead of powers of 4). Many PS/2 models also used proprietary IBM SIMMs and could not be fitted with commonly available types. However industry standard SIMMs could be modified to work in PS/2 machines if the SIMM-presence and SIMM-type detection bridges, or associated contacts, were correctly rewired. At launch, the PS/2 family comprised the Model 30 , 50 , 60 and 80 ;

910-541: A motherboard identical to the 9595A, also uses Processor Complexes. Other later Micro Channel PS/2 models included the Model 65SX with a 16 MHz 386SX; various Model 53 (IBM 9553), 56 (IBM 8556) and 57 (IBM 8557) variants with 386SX, 386SLC or 486SLC2 processors; the Models 76 and 77 (IBM 9576/9577) with 486SX or 486DX2 processors respectively; and the 486-based Model 85 (IBM 9585). The IBM PS/2E (IBM 9533)

1001-558: A number of different interface and connector standards, some of which (such as the 5-pin DIN used on 5250 terminals) are poorly documented and have had to be reverse-engineered by enthusiasts. Early variants shipped with the PC XT and AT used connectors specific to those systems. After the introduction of the PS/2 most shipped with a connector for a PS/2 port ; these included the 1391401. Unicomp introduced support for USB . Older model Ms used

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1092-541: A page on Google's FAQs, leading users to believe the project has been closed. Google's mobile operating system Android is open source; however, the operating system that comes with the phones that most people actually purchase in a store is more often than not shipped with many of Google's proprietary applications that promote users to use only Google services. Because cloud computing is still relatively new, standards are still being developed. Many cloud platforms and services are proprietary, meaning that they are built on

1183-415: A printer, could now function as a high-speed data transfer interface. This allowed the use of new hardware such as parallel port scanners , CD-ROM drives, and also enhanced the capabilities of printers by allowing them to communicate with the host PC and send back signals instead of simply being a passive output device. Most of the initial range of PS/2 models were equipped with a new frame buffer known as

1274-547: A production life span that took them into the late 1990s, within a few years of IBM selling off the division. Vendor lock-in In economics , vendor lock-in , also known as proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in , makes a customer dependent on a vendor for products , unable to use another vendor without substantial switching costs . The use of open standards and alternative options makes systems tolerant of change, so that decisions can be postponed until more information

1365-551: A result of this a 720 KB floppy could be formatted to 1440 KB in a PS/2, but the resulting floppy would only be readable by a PS/2 machine. PS/2s primarily used Mitsubishi floppy drives and did not use a separate Molex power connector; the data cable also contained the power supply lines. As the hardware aged the drives often malfunctioned due to bad quality capacitors . The PS/2 used several different types of internal hard drives. Early models used MFM or ESDI drives. Some desktop models used combo power/data cables similar to

1456-459: A sexy vision at times, and many other difficulties. […] Customers constantly evaluate other desktop platforms, [but] it would be so much work to move over that they hope we just improve Windows rather than force them to move. In short, without this exclusive franchise called the Windows API, we would have been dead a long time ago. The Windows franchise is fueled by application development which

1547-419: A somewhat standardized capacity of 2880 KB. The PS/2 floppy drives lacked a capacity detector. 1440 KB floppies had a hole so that drives could distinguish them from 720 KB floppies, preventing users from formatting the smaller capacity disks to the higher capacity (doing so would work, but with a higher tendency of data loss). Clone manufacturers implemented the hole detection, but IBM did not. As

1638-560: A version of BSD UNIX for the ROMP that was only available to select colleges and universities. The RISC Adapter Card contained the ROMP-C microprocessor (an enhanced version of the ROMP that first appeared in the IBM RT PC workstations), a memory management unit (the ROMP had virtual memory ), a floating-point coprocessor , and up to 8   MB of memory for use by the ROMP. The 6152

1729-529: A year, and the largest such account review in the history of business. Overall, the PS/2 line was largely unsuccessful with the consumer market, even though the PC-based Models 30 and 25 were an attempt to address that. With what was widely seen as a technically competent but cynical attempt to gain undisputed control of the market, IBM unleashed an industry backlash, which went on to standardize VESA, EISA and PCI. In large part, IBM failed to establish

1820-477: Is a feature of the PCI-X bus format. Bus mastering capability, bus arbitration, and a primitive form of plug-and-play management of hardware were all benefits of MCA. Gilbert Held in his 2000 book Server Management observes: "MCA used an early (and user-hostile) version of what we know now as 'Plug-N′-Play', requiring a special setup disk for each machine and each card." MCA never gained wide acceptance outside of

1911-502: Is available or unforeseen events are addressed. Vendor lock-in does the opposite: it makes it difficult to move from one solution to another. Lock-in costs that create barriers to market entry may result in antitrust action against a monopoly . This class of lock-in is potentially technologically hard to overcome if the monopoly is held up by barriers to market that are nontrivial to circumvent, such as patents, secrecy, cryptography or other technical hindrances. This class of lock-in

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2002-524: Is complicated migration between backends, and makes it difficult to integrate data spread across various locations. This has been described as a problem of vendor lock-in. The solution to this is for clouds to adopt common standards. Model M keyboard Model M keyboards are a group of computer keyboards designed and manufactured by IBM starting in 1985, and later by Lexmark International , Maxi Switch, and Unicomp . The keyboard's different variations have their own distinct characteristics, with

2093-456: Is focused on our core APIs." Microsoft's application software also exhibits lock-in through the use of proprietary file formats . Microsoft Outlook uses a proprietary, publicly undocumented datastore format. Present versions of Microsoft Word have introduced a new format MS-OOXML . This may make it easier for competitors to write documents compatible with Microsoft Office in the future by reducing lock-in. Microsoft released full descriptions of

2184-651: Is not true of the 95xx models (and some unlisted 85xx's), which are specialist workstation displays designed for use with the XGA-2 or Image Adapter/A cards, and whose fixed frequencies all exceed that of basic VGA – the lowest of their commonly available modes instead being 640 × 480 at 75 Hz, if not something much higher still. It is also worth noting that these were still merely dual- or "multiple-frequency" monitors, not variable-frequency (also known as multisync); in particular, despite running happily at 640 × 480 , 720 × 400 and 1024 × 768 , an (e.g.) 8514 cannot sync

2275-408: Is potentially inescapable to rational individuals not otherwise motivated, by creating a prisoner's dilemma —if the cost to resist is greater than the cost of joining, then the locally optimal choice is to join—a barrier that takes cooperation to overcome. The distributive property (cost to resist the locally dominant choice) alone is not a network effect , for lack of any positive feedback ; however,

2366-454: Is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs [independent software vendors] would be crazy not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different operating system instead. It is this switching cost that has given customers the patience to stick with Windows through all our mistakes, our buggy drivers, our high TCO [total cost of ownership], our lack of

2457-417: Is strictly of the collective kind. However, the personal variant is also a possible permutation of the variations shown in the table, but with no monopoly and no collectivity, it would be expected to be the weakest lock-in. Equivalent personal examples: There exist lock-in situations that are both monopolistic and collective. Having the worst of two worlds, these can be very hard to escape — in many examples,

2548-618: Is the IBM Enhanced Keyboard identified by IBM assembly part number 1391401, the U.S. English layout keyboard bundled with the IBM Personal System/2 . Until around 1993, most Model Ms included a coiled, detachable cable, with either an AT (pre-1987) or PS/2 connector , in 5- and 10-foot lengths (1.5 and 3 meters). From about 1994 onwards, flat non-detachable cables were used to reduce manufacturing costs; however, IBM retained its 101-key layout, never implementing

2639-604: The Intel 286 processor, the PS/2 Models 70 386 (IBM 8570) and 80 used the 386DX , while the mid-range PS/2 Model 55 SX (IBM 8555–081) and used the 16/32-bit 386SX processor. The Model 50 was revised to the Model 50 Z still with 10 MHz 80286 processor, but with memory run at zero wait state, and a switch to ESDI hard drives. Later Model 70 486 and 80 variants (B-xx) also used 25 MHz Intel 486 processors, in

2730-737: The Microsoft Windows keys common on other keyboards from that time. Unicomp later designed a 104-key Model M with Windows keys. On March 27, 1991, IBM divested a number of its hardware manufacturing operations, including keyboard production, forming Lexmark International . Lexmark continued manufacturing Model M keyboards in the United States, United Kingdom, and Mexico, with IBM as their major customer. Many of these keyboards are identified by IBM assembly part numbers 52G9658, 52G9700, 71G4644, 82G2383, and 42H1292, which were bundled with IBM PS/ValuePoint and IBM PC Series . Over

2821-532: The Model 25 was launched a few months later. The PS/2 Models 25 and 30 (IBM 8525 and 8530, respectively) were the lowest-end models in the lineup and meant to replace the IBM PC and XT. Model 25s came with either an 8086 CPU running at 8 MHz, 512 KB of RAM, and 720 KB floppy disks, or 80286 CPU. The 8086s had ISA expansion slots and a built-in MCGA monitor, which could be either color or monochrome, while

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2912-641: The Motorola ROKR E1 and SLVR mobile phones. As a result, that music was locked into this ecosystem and available for portable use only through the purchase of one of the above devices, or by burning to CD and optionally re-ripping to a DRM-free format such as MP3 or WAV . In January 2005, an iPod purchaser named Thomas Slattery filed a suit against Apple for the "unlawful bundling" of their iTunes Music Store and iPod device. He stated in his brief: "Apple has turned an open and interactive standard into an artifice that prevents consumers from using

3003-550: The PC Convertible . In addition, they could be had as an optional feature on the XT and AT. The PS/2 line used entirely 3.5" drives which assisted in their quick adoption by the industry, although the lack of 5.25" drive bays in the computers created problems later on in the 1990s as they could not accommodate internal CD-ROM drives. In addition, the lack of built-in 5.25" floppy drives meant that PS/2 users could not immediately run

3094-667: The Sherman Antitrust Act . On June 7, 2006, the Norwegian Consumer Council stated that Apple's iTunes Music Store violates Norwegian law. The contract conditions were vague and "clearly unbalanced to disfavor the customer". The retroactive changes to the DRM conditions and the incompatibility with other music players are the major points of concern. In an earlier letter to Apple, consumer ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon complained that iTunes' DRM mechanism

3185-532: The Video Graphics Array , or VGA for short. This effectively replaced the previous EGA standard. VGA increased graphics memory to 256 KB and provided for resolutions of 640×480 with 16 colors, and 320 × 200 with 256 colors. VGA also provided a palette of 262,144 colors (as opposed to the EGA palette of 64 colors). The IBM 8514 and later XGA computer display standards were also introduced on

3276-586: The 80286 models came with VGA monitor and ISA expansion slots. A cut-down Model M keyboard with no numeric keypad was standard, with the normal keyboard being an extra-cost option. There was a very rare later model called the PS/2 Model 25-SX which sported either a 16 MHz or 20 MHz 386 CPU, up to 12 MB of memory, IDE hard drive, VGA Monitor and 16 bit ISA slots making it the highest available model 25 available denoted by model number 8525-L41. The Model 30 had either an 8086 or 286 CPU and sported

3367-523: The Customizer. There have been other configurations, including updated 104- and 105-key layouts; a Unix layout (where the Ctrl , Caps Lock , Esc , and tilde keys are transposed); models with integrated pointing sticks and trackballs ; and POS -specific models such as those with built-in magstripe readers. All used the press-fit controller characteristic of late Lexmarks. Unicomp continued to use

3458-493: The DRM from their tracks, at no extra cost. However, Apple charges consumers to have previously purchased DRM music restrictions removed. Although Google has stated its position in favor of interoperability, the company has taken steps away from open protocols replacing open standard Google Talk by proprietary protocol Google Hangouts. Also, Google's Data Liberation Front has been inactive on Twitter since 2013 and its official website, www.dataliberation.org, now redirects to

3549-750: The LK-201 keyboard shipped with the VT220 serial terminal. Production of Model M keyboards began in 1985. They were often bundled with new IBM computers. While today primarily associated with the IBM PC and its successors, it actually first shipped with the 3161 terminal and was deployed across several other IBM product lines as well, notably including the 5250 terminal and the RS/6000 . They were produced at IBM plants in Lexington, Kentucky ; Greenock, Scotland ; and Guadalajara, Mexico . The most common variant

3640-560: The Lexmark Select-Ease Keyboard (model M15), including a buckling-spring switch patent. They continued to manufacture the IBM Enhanced Keyboard with TrackPoint II (model M13) in Mexico until 1998. Some of Lexmark's keyboard manufacturing assets were also sold to a group of Lexmark employees, who formed Unicomp whose basic version of the Model M was similar to part number 42H1292, first renamed 42H1292U and later

3731-609: The M13, which was also built like rugged Model Ms but featured a pointing stick . The M5 and M13 designs are still carried by Unicomp in 2021 under the names Trackball Classic and Endura Pro. The variant most commonly referred to as "Model M" is Part No. 1391401, on which many other variants were based. This model, known as the Enhanced Keyboard, included IBM's patented buckling spring design and swappable keycaps. The Model M's design has been widely described as reliable, and

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3822-429: The Model M keyboard in 1996. The Model M keyboard was designed to be less expensive to produce than the Model F keyboard it replaced. Principal design work was done at IBM in 1983–1984, drawing on a wide range of user feedback, ergonomic studies, and examination of competing products. Its key layout, significantly different from the Model F's, owed much (including notably the inverted-T arrangement of its arrow keys) to

3913-477: The Model M sometimes being referred to as the "clicky keyboard." Until the late fourth-generation variants, most Model Ms were manufactured with a 1.25" slotted, circular speaker grille in their bottom surfaces. Relatively few contain an actual speaker, however, which was useful only for sounding beep codes on older terminal systems. The most common P/Ns with speakers are 1394540 and 51G872, made for RS/6000 UNIX workstations. Model Ms have been manufactured to quite

4004-424: The Model M than on other keyboards. Additionally, many model M enthusiasts believe that tactile-feedback keyboards like the Model M reduce stress on the hands, preventing or even reversing repetitive strain injury . Significant pressure is required to press the keys, and a pronounced sound results to help typists previously trained on typewriters who had become accustomed to that level of feedback. This resulted in

4095-538: The Ogg/Vorbis code because of the license, and uses MP3 instead, then the problem rebounds on us—because his continued use of MP3 may help MP3 to become and stay entrenched. More examples: The European Commission , in its March 24, 2004 decision on Microsoft's business practices, quotes, in paragraph 463, Microsoft general manager for C++ development Aaron Contorer as stating in a February 21, 1997 internal Microsoft memo drafted for Bill Gates : "The Windows API

4186-680: The PC/XT/AT. CBIOS was so compatible that it even included Cassette BASIC . While IBM did not publish the BIOS source code, it did promise to publish BIOS entry points . With certain models to the IBM PS/2 line, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) was also introduced. MCA was conceptually similar to the channel architecture of the IBM System/360 mainframes. MCA was technically superior to ISA and allowed for higher-speed communications within

4277-581: The PS/2 introduced a new software data area known as the Extended BIOS Data Area (EBDA). Its primary use was to add a new buffer area for the dedicated mouse port. This also required making a change to the "traditional" BIOS Data Area (BDA) which was then required to point to the base address of the EBDA. Another new PS/2 innovation was the introduction of bidirectional parallel ports which, in addition to their traditional use for connecting

4368-463: The PS/2 line in July 1995. IBM's PS/2 was designed to remain software compatible with their PC/AT/XT line of computers upon which the large PC clone market was built, but the hardware was quite different. PS/2 had two BIOSes : one named ABIOS (Advanced BIOS) which provided a new protected mode interface and was used by OS/2, and CBIOS (Compatible BIOS) which was included to be software compatible with

4459-486: The PS/2 line. Key monitors and their maximum resolutions: In truth, all XGA 1024 × 768 monitors are multimode, as XGA works as an add-on card to a built-in VGA and transparently passes the VGA signal through when not operating in a high-resolution mode. All of the listed 85xx displays can therefore sync 640×480 at 60 Hz (or 720 × 400 at 70 Hz) in addition to any higher mode they may also be capable of. This however

4550-432: The PS/2 platform experienced some success in the corporate sector where the reliability, ease of maintenance and strong corporate support from IBM offset the rather daunting cost of the machines. Also, many people still lived with the motto " Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM ". In the mid-range desktop market, the models 55SX and later 56SX were the leading sellers for almost their entire lifetimes. Later PS/2 models saw

4641-409: The PS/2. When setting up the card with its disk, all choices for interrupts and other changes were accomplished automatically by the PC reading the old configuration from the floppy disk. This made necessary changes, then recorded the new configuration to the floppy disk. This meant that the user must keep that same floppy disk matched to that particular PC. For a small organization with a few PCs, this

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4732-470: The addition of bistability per individual, such as by a switching cost, qualifies as a network effect, by distributing this instability to the collective as a whole. As defined by The Independent , this is a non-monopoly (mere technology), collective (on a society level) kind of lock-in: Technological lock-in is the idea that the more a society adopts a certain technology, the more unlikely users are to switch. Examples: Technology lock-in, as defined,

4823-408: The addition of an extra key to the right of the left Shift key. PS/2 systems introduced a new specification for the keyboard and mouse interfaces, which are still in use today (though increasingly supplanted by USB devices) and are thus called "PS/2" interfaces. The PS/2 keyboard interface, inspired by Apple's ADB interface, was electronically identical to the long-established AT interface, but

4914-578: The bottom-rung 8086-based Model 25 and 30, which had a cut-down version of VGA referred to as MCGA ; the 286 models came with VGA. This supported CGA graphics modes, VGA 320 × 200 256 color and 640 × 480 monochrome mode, but not EGA or color 640 × 480 . All of the new PS/2 graphics systems (whether MCGA, VGA, 8514, or later XGA) used a 15-pin D-sub connector for video out. This used analog RGB signals, rather than four or six digital color signals as on previous CGA and EGA monitors. The digital signals limited

5005-565: The cable connector was changed from the 5-pin DIN connector to the smaller 6-pin mini-DIN interface. The same connector and a similar synchronous serial interface was used for the PS/2 mouse port. The initial desktop Model 50 and Model 70 also featured a new cableless internal design, based on use of interposer circuit boards to link the internal drives to the planar (motherboard). Additionally, these machines could be largely disassembled and reassembled for service without tools. Additionally,

5096-557: The case, featured MCA and a 486SLC CPU. The 6152 Academic System was a workstation computer developed by IBM's Academic Information Systems (ACIS) division for the university market introduced in February 1988. The 6152 was based on the PS/2 Model 60, adding a RISC Adapter Card on the Micro Channel bus. This card was a co-processor that enabled the 6152 to run ROMP software compiled for IBM's Academic Operating System (AOS),

5187-417: The color gamut to a fixed 16- or 64-color palette with no room for expansion. In contrast, any color depth (bits per primary) can be encoded into the analog RGB signals so the color gamut can be increased arbitrarily by using wider (more bits per sample) DACs and a more sensitive monitor. The connector was also compatible with analog grayscale displays. Unlike earlier systems such as MDA and Hercules , this

5278-416: The cost to resist incurs some level of isolation from the (dominating technology in) society, which can be socially costly, yet direct competition with the dominant vendor is hindered by compatibility. As one blogger expressed: If I stopped using Skype, I'd lose contact with many people, because it's impossible to make them all change to [other] software. While MP3 is patent-free as of 2017, in 2001 it

5369-533: The design has not changed significantly over time. Thanks to the M's design, including its heavy steel backplate and strong plastic frame, many early Model M Keyboards are still functional four decades past release. The Model M's buckling spring key design specification gives it a unique feel and sound. Unlike more common and lower-end rubber dome designs, buckling springs give users a notable tactile and auditory feedback. Because of its more defined touch, some users report they can type faster and more accurately on

5460-567: The file formats for earlier versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in February 2008. Prior to March 2009, digital music files with digital rights management (DRM) were available for purchase from the iTunes Store , encoded in a proprietary derivative of the AAC format that used Apple's FairPlay DRM system. These files are compatible only with Apple's iTunes media player software on Macs and Windows , their iPod portable digital music players, iPhone smartphones , iPad tablet computers , and

5551-473: The first few years the PS/2 was available, and they were very commonly purchased with lower-end models. The VGA connector became the de facto standard for connecting monitors and projectors on both PC and non-PC hardware over the course of the early 1990s, replacing a variety of earlier connectors. Apple had first popularized the 3.5" floppy on the Macintosh line and IBM brought them to the PC in 1986 with

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5642-582: The floppy drives. Later models used DBA ESDI or Parallel SCSI . Typically, desktop PS/2 models only permitted use of one hard drive inside the computer case. Additional storage could be attached externally using the optional SCSI interface. Later PS/2 models introduced the 72-pin SIMM which became the de facto standard for RAM modules by the mid-1990s in mid-to-late 486 and nearly all Pentium desktop systems. The 72-pin SIMMs were 32/36 bits wide and replaced

5733-403: The full 101-key keyboard and standalone monitor along with three 8-bit ISA expansion slots. 8086 models had 720 KB floppies while 286 models had 1440 KB ones. Both the Model 25 and 30 could have an optional 20 MB ST-506 hard disk (which in the Model 25 took the place of the second floppy drive if so equipped and used a proprietary 3.5" form factor). 286-based Model 30s are otherwise

5824-409: The immature OS/2 1.x operating system (the more capable OS/2 version 2.0 was not released until 1992) to justify the PS/2's price premium, in contrast to rival IBM PC compatibles that stuck with industry-wide standard hardware while running Microsoft Windows . In 1992, Macworld stated that "IBM lost control of its own market and became a minor player with its own technology." IBM officially retired

5915-411: The large body of existing IBM-compatible software. However IBM made available optional external 5.25" drives, with internal adapters for the early PS/2 models, to enable data transfer. In the initial lineup, IBM used 720 KB double density (DD) capacity drives on the 8086-based models and 1440 KB high density (HD) on the 80286-based and higher models. By the end of the PS/2 line they had moved to

6006-456: The manufacturing label, if present, says "M2" rather than "M." M2s were poorly fabricated and notoriously unreliable; comparatively few survived into the 21st century, and Model M enthusiasts do not value them. The M2 should in turn be distinguished from the M5, another Lexmark variant which returned to the rugged Model M case/backplate construction but added a built-in trackball ; and those two from

6097-549: The more common buckling-spring variants. A five-year agreement obligating IBM to purchase nearly all of its keyboards from Lexmark expired on March 27, 1996. Lexmark exited the keyboard business, selling related assets to IBM and Maxi Switch. When Lexmark discontinued keyboard production in April 1996, IBM continued producing buckling-spring Model M's in Scotland until 1999. Maxi Switch purchased assets for rubber-dome keyboards and

6188-622: The more sought after variants of the Model M keyboard is the Space Saving Keyboard, which integrates the number pad into the keyboard's main section, substantially reducing its width. The Space Saving Keyboard is likely the origin of the keyboard layout that is generally known as a "Tenkeyless keyboard." IBM released the standard and Space Saving Model M's in an alternative 'gray/pebble' color for use with their Industrial computers, designed to conceal discoloration from handling in production environments. Other variable features include

6279-563: The need to consider the flavor of hypervisor in the other enterprise. A heterogeneous cloud is considered one that includes on-premises private clouds, public clouds and software-as-a-service clouds. Heterogeneous clouds can work with environments that are not virtualized, such as traditional data centers. Heterogeneous clouds also allow for the use of piece parts, such as hypervisors, servers, and storage, from multiple vendors. Cloud piece parts, such as cloud storage systems, offer APIs but they are often incompatible with each other. The result

6370-422: The next four years, cost pressure led to several minor design changes intended to lower the part and fabrication costs of Lexmark Model Ms. The case and metal backplate were repeatedly lightened. The cable jack and detachable SDL cable were replaced with a fixed cable. Some variants were made with a single color for key legends. In 1995 Lexmark made the most sweeping design change in the Model M's history, altering

6461-641: The old 30-pin SIMM (8/9-bit) standard. The older SIMMs were much less convenient because they had to be installed in sets of two or four to match the width of the CPU's 16-bit (Intel 80286 and 80386SX ) or 32-bit (80386 and 80486 ) data bus, and would have been extremely inconvenient to use in Pentium systems (which featured a 64-bit memory bus). The 72-pin SIMMs were also made with greater capacities (starting at 1 MB and ultimately reaching 128 MB, instead of 256 KB to 16 MB (and usually no more than 4 MB) for 30-pin) and in

6552-653: The original IBM machinery to produce Model Ms, leading to a gradual decline in quality as the tooling became worn. This, and various problems with their USB controllers helped keep a market for vintage Model Ms thriving. In 2020 Unicomp replaced its tooling and shipped a "New Model M" with noticeably improved build quality that more closely resembles the classic 1391401 (though with a 104- or 103-key layout and USB); many older variants are no longer sold on Unicomp's website and some still on sale have been deprecated. The Model M's numerous variations (referred to as "part numbers") incorporated alternative features and/or colors. One of

6643-408: The otherwise common intermediate 800 × 600 SVGA resolution, even at the relatively low 50 to 56 Hz refresh rates initially used. Although the design of these adapters did not become an industry standard as VGA did, their 1024 × 768 pixel resolution was subsequently widely adopted as a standard by other manufacturers, and XGA became a synonym for this screen resolution. The only exceptions were

6734-412: The per-machine royalties. The OS/2 operating system was announced at the same time as the PS/2 line and was intended to be the primary operating system for models with Intel 80286 or later processors. However, at the time of the first shipments, only IBM PC DOS 3.3 was available. OS/2 1.0 (text-mode only) and Microsoft's Windows 2.0 became available several months later. IBM also released AIX PS/2,

6825-498: The portable hard drive digital music player of their choice." At the time Apple was stated to have an 80% market share of digital music sales and a 90% share of sales of new music players, which he claimed allowed Apple to horizontally leverage its dominant positions in both markets to lock consumers into its complementary offerings. In September 2005, U.S. District Judge James Ware approved Slattery v. Apple Computer Inc. to proceed with monopoly charges against Apple in violation of

6916-466: The service. iTunes accounts can be set to display either standard or iTunes Plus formats for tracks where both formats exist. These files can be used with any player that supports the AAC file format and are not locked to Apple hardware. They can be converted to MP format if desired. As of January 6, 2009, all four big music studios ( Warner Bros. , Sony BMG , Universal , and EMI ) have signed up to remove

7007-428: The size and location of the internal controller board. While the new "press-fit" design successfully lowered manufacturing costs by eliminating the two ribbon cables and separate LED daughterboard of older versions, the controller's new card-edge connector proved to be a failure point that shortened the keyboard's average lifetime. The classic era of the Model M is generally considered to have ended with this change, though

7098-644: The specific standards, tools and protocols developed by a particular vendor for its particular cloud offering. This can make migrating off a proprietary cloud platform prohibitively complicated and expensive. Three types of vendor lock-in can occur with cloud computing: Heterogeneous cloud computing is described as a type of cloud environment that prevents vendor lock-in, and aligns with enterprise data centers that are operating hybrid cloud models. The absence of vendor lock-in lets cloud administrators select their choice of hypervisors for specific tasks, or to deploy virtualized infrastructures to other enterprises without

7189-454: The system. The majority of MCA's features would be seen in later buses with the exception of: streaming-data procedure, channel-check reporting, error logging and internal bus-level video pass-through for devices like the IBM 8514 . Transfer speeds were on par with the much later PCI standard. MCA allowed one-to-one, card-to-card, and multi-card to processor simultaneous transaction management which

7280-587: The television show M*A*S*H playing the staff of a contemporary (i.e. late-1980s) business in roles reminiscent of their characters' roles from the series. Harry Morgan, Larry Linville, William Christopher, Wayne Rogers, Gary Burghoff, Jamie Farr, and Loretta Swit were in from the beginning, whereas Alan Alda joined the campaign later. The profound lack of success of these advertising campaigns led, in part, to IBM's termination of its relationships with its global advertising agencies ; these accounts were reported by Wired magazine to have been worth over $ 500 million

7371-489: The use of a PS/2-female-to-USB-male adapter with a built-in interface converter. Since their original popularity, new generations have discovered their unique functionality and aesthetics. It is estimated that during the IBM and Lexmark years, over 10 million Model Ms were shipped. Their mass-market success ended in the 1990s amid an industry-wide switchover to lower-cost rubber dome over membrane keyboards. IBM stopped producing

7462-482: The vast majority having a buckling-spring key design and uniform profile, swappable keycaps . Model M keyboards are notable among computer enthusiasts and frequent typists due to their durability, typing-feel consistency, and their tactile and auditory feedback. The popularity of the IBM PC and its successors made the Model M's design influential: Almost all later general-purpose computer keyboards mimicked its key layout and other aspects of its ergonomics. The layout

7553-471: Was a lock-in to Apple's music players, and argued that this was a conflict with consumer rights that he doubted would be defendable by Norwegian copyright law. As of 29 May 2007 , tracks on the EMI label became available in a DRM-free format called iTunes Plus . These files are unprotected and are encoded in the AAC format at 256 kilobits per second , twice the bitrate of standard tracks bought through

7644-472: Was annoying, but less expensive and time-consuming than bringing in a PC technician to do installation. But for large organizations with hundreds or even thousands of PCs, permanently matching each PC with its own floppy disk was a logistical nightmare. Without the original, (and correctly updated) floppy disk, no changes could be made to the PC's cards. In addition to the technical setup, legally, royalties were required for each MCA-compatible machine sold. There

7735-447: Was both patented and entrenched, as noted by Richard Stallman in that year (in justifying a lax license for Ogg Vorbis ): there is […] the danger that people will settle on MP3 format even though it is patented, and we won't be *allowed* to write free encoders for the most popular format. […] Ordinarily, if someone decides not to use a copylefted program because the license doesn't please him, that's his loss not ours. But if he rejects

7826-457: Was nothing unique in IBM insisting on payment of royalties on the use of its patents applied to Micro Channel-based machines. Up until that time, some companies had failed to pay IBM for the use of its patents on the earlier generation of Personal Computer. The PS/2 IBM Model M keyboard used the same 101-key layout of the previous IBM PC/AT Extended keyboard, itself derived from the original IBM PC keyboard . European variants had 102 keys with

7917-505: Was standardized by ISO in 1994 and ANSI in 1998, with minor additions—most notably the Windows key and Menu key . The Model M is regarded as a classic and durable piece of hardware. Although the computers and computer peripherals produced concurrently with them are considered obsolete, many Model M keyboards are still in use due to their physical durability and the continued validity of their ANSI 101-key and ISO 102-key layouts, through

8008-644: Was the first Energy Star compliant personal computer. It had a 50 MHz IBM 486SLC processor, an ISA bus, four PC card slots, and an IDE hard drive interface. The environmentally friendly PC borrowed many components from the ThinkPad line and was composed of recycled plastics, designed to be easily recycled at the end of its life, and used very little power. The IBM PS/2 Server 195 and 295 (IBM 8600) were 486-based dual-bus MCA network servers supporting asymmetric multiprocessing , designed by Parallan Computer Inc . The IBM PC Server 720 (IBM 8642)

8099-441: Was the first computer to use the ROMP-C, which would later be introduced in new RT PC models. During the 1980s, IBM's advertising of the original PC and its other product lines had frequently used the likeness of Charlie Chaplin . For the PS/2, however, IBM augmented this character with the following jingle: How ya gonna do it? PS/2 it! It's as easy as IBM. (Or, "The solution is IBM.") Another campaign featured actors from

8190-721: Was the largest MCA-based server made by IBM, although it was not, strictly speaking, a PS/2 model. It could be fitted with up to six Intel Pentium processors interconnected by the Corollary C-bus and up to eighteen SCSI hard disks. This model was equipped with seven combination MCA/ PCI slots. IBM also produced several portable and laptop PS/2s , including the Model L40 (ISA-bus 386SX), N33 (IBM's first notebook-format computer from year 1991, Model 8533, 386SX), N51 (386SX/SLC), P70 (386DX) and P75 (486DX2). The IBM ThinkPad 700C , aside from being labeled "700C PS/2" on

8281-429: Was transparent to software, so all programs supporting the new standards could run unmodified whichever type of display was attached. On the other hand, whether the display was color or monochrome was undetectable to software, so selection between application displays optimized for color or monochrome, in applications that supported both, required user intervention. These grayscale displays were relatively inexpensive during

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