The IBM AS/400 is a family of midrange computers from IBM announced in June 1988 and released in August 1988. It was the successor to the System/36 and System/38 platforms, and ran the OS/400 operating system. Lower-cost but more powerful than its predecessors, the AS/400 was extremely successful at launch, with an estimated 111,000 installed by the end of 1990 and annual revenue reaching $14 billion that year, increasing to 250,000 systems by 1994, and about 500,000 shipped by 1997.
Micro Channel architecture, or the Micro Channel bus, is a proprietary 16- or 32-bit parallel computer bus introduced by IBM in 1987 which was used on PS/2 and other computers until the mid-1990s. Its name is commonly abbreviated as "MCA", although not by IBM. In IBM products, it superseded the ISA bus and was itself subsequently superseded by the PCI bus architecture.
The Personal System/2 or PS/2 is IBM's second generation of personal computers. Released in 1987, it officially replaced the IBM PC, XT, AT, and PC Convertible in IBM's lineup. Many of the PS/2's innovations, such as the 16550 UART, 1440 KB 3.5-inch floppy disk format, 72-pin SIMMs, the PS/2 port, and the VGA video standard, went on to become standards in the broader PC market.
The IBM PC Convertible is a laptop computer made by IBM, first sold in April 1986. The Convertible was IBM's first laptop-style computer, following the luggable IBM Portable, and introduced the 3½-inch floppy disk format to the IBM product line. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries.
IBM LAN Server is a discontinued network operating system introduced by International Business Machines (IBM) in 1988. LAN Server started as a close cousin of Microsoft's LAN Manager and first shipped in early 1988. It was originally designed to run on top of Operating System/2 (OS/2) Extended Edition. The network client was called IBM LAN Requester and was included with OS/2 EE 1.1 by default. Here the short term LAN Server refers to the IBM OS/2 LAN Server product. There were also LAN Server products for other operating systems, notably AIX—now called Fast Connect—and OS/400.
In personal computing, a tower is a form factor of desktop computer case whose height is much greater than its width, thus having the appearance of an upstanding tower block, as opposed to a traditional "pizza box" computer case whose width is greater than its height and appears lying flat.
Since the rise of the personal computer in the 1980s, IBM and other vendors have created PC-based IBM-compatible mainframes which are compatible with the larger IBM mainframe computers. For a period of time PC-based mainframe-compatible systems had a lower price and did not require as much electricity or floor space. However, they sacrificed performance and were not as dependable as mainframe-class hardware. These products have been popular with mainframe developers, in education and training settings, for very small companies with non-critical processing, and in certain disaster relief roles.
The PS/ValuePoint personal computer was IBM's answer to the PC clone market, where the IBM PS/2 could not compete due to price and proprietary interfaces. Announced in October 1992 and withdrawn in July 1995, it was replaced by the IBM PC Series 300.
The IBM Personal System/2 Model L40 SX is a portable computer made by IBM as part of the IBM PS/2 series. It was the successor to the IBM PC Convertible. The "SX" in the name refers to its CPU, the Intel 80386SX.
The IBM PS/2 Note and PS/note are a series of notebooks from the PS/2 line by IBM. It was announced in March 1992, half a year prior to the release of the first ThinkPad, the IBM ThinkPad 700. The series was discontinued in 1994.
The PCradio was a notebook computer released by International Business Machines (IBM) in late 1991. Designed primarily for mobile workers such as service technicians, salespersons and public safety workers, the PCradio featured a ruggedized build with no internal hard disk drive and was optioned with either a cellular or ARDIS RF modem, in addition to a standard landline modem.
Reply Corporation, often shortened to Reply Corp., was an American computer company based in San Jose, California. Founded in 1988 by Steve Petracca, the company licensed the Micro Channel architecture from IBM for their own computers released in 1989, competing against IBM's PS/2 line. The company later divested from offering complete systems in favor of marketing motherboard upgrades for older PS/2s. Reply enjoyed a close relationship with IBM, owing to many of its founding employees, including Petracca, having worked for IBM. The company was acquired by Radius in 1997.
The Personal System/2 Model 30 and Personal System/2 Model 30 286 are IBM's entry-level desktop computers in their Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of personal computers. As opposed to higher-end entries in the PS/2 line which use Micro Channel bus architecture, the Model 30 features an Industry Standard Architecture bus, allowing it to use expansion cards from its direct predecessors, the PC/XT and the PC/AT. The original PS/2 Model 30 is built upon the Intel 8086 microprocessor clocked at 8 MHz; the Model 30 286 features the Intel 80286 clocked at 10 MHz.
The Micro Channel Developers Association (MCDA) was a consortium of computer manufacturers that sought to consider and prioritize steps in the maturation of the Micro Channel architecture, as well as to explore better approaches to disseminating technical information about Micro Channel to third parties.
The Personal System/2 Model 25 and its later submodels the 25 286 and 25 SX are IBM's lowest-end entries in the Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of personal computers. Like its sibling the Model 30, the Model 25 features an Industry Standard Architecture bus, allowing it to use expansion cards from its direct predecessors, the PC/XT and the PC/AT—but not from higher entries in the PS/2 line, which use Micro Channel. Unlike all other entries in the PS/2 line, the Model 25 and its submodels are built into an all-in-one form factor, with its cathode-ray tube (CRT) monitor and system board occupying the same enclosure. IBM oriented the Model 25 at home office workers and students.
IBM EduQuest, later shortened to EduQuest, was a subsidiary of American multinational technology corporation IBM that catered to the elementary and secondary educational market. A spin-off of the company's Educational Systems division spearheaded by James Elton Dezell Jr. (1933–2000), EduQuest developed software and hardware for schools. Most prominent was their line of all-in-one personal computers, whose form factor was based on IBM's PS/2 Model 25.
Aox Inc. was a privately run American technology corporation founded by Michael and Linda Aronson in 1978. Over the course of its 22-year lifespan, the company chiefly developed software and hardware for IBM's PC and compatibles, for the Personal System/2, and for the Macintosh. In its twilight years, the company designed multimedia and teleconferencing devices and chip designs. Aox was founded after Michael Aronson graduated from Harvard University with a doctorate in physics; he stayed with the company until 2000, when he incorporated EndPoints Inc. and switched to full-time fabless semiconductor design.
Cumulus Corporation was an American computer peripheral and system manufacturer active from 1987 to 1993. Based in Beachwood, Ohio and started by Tecmar founder Martin Alpert, the company set out to exclusively manufacture expansion products for IBM's Personal System/2 (PS/2) family of computers—mainly RAM expansion cards. It later released cross-platform CPU upgrade cards and memory expansion cards for other platforms besides the PS/2. Beginning in 1990, the company began trading as Cumulus Computer Corporation and began releasing complete systems of their own. Initially a success story for the tech industry in Cleveland, a botched stock launch in 1992 proved disastrous for the company's ailing cash flow situation, and in 1993 the company was liquidated amid massive debt to suppliers and lenders.
