IBM PC Family: XT, AT, PS/2 Personal Computers Compared 1981-1987 short intro training film

Short intro film from 1987 discusses how the IBM PC Family PC, XT, AT, PS/2 Personal Computers Compare and how they differ. A look inside and discussion of board level differences and progression of PC evolution. Professional vintage training film excerpt from Data-Tech Institute's past. How has the PC evolved, and what direction did IBM take with PS/2 technology? For comment and info. Runs about 6 mins.

Info courtesy of IBM Archives
Original segment (C) Data-Tech Inst.

[solsol]

I spent 8 hours a day working on my PS/2 for several years in late 80s early 90s, connected to a Novell network, managing the network and a DEC VAX 785. Good times😊

[josephgaviota]

In 1984, Computer Typesetting Services (no longer exists) was the typesetter for the Olympic Daily Record for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
My boss installed IBM PCs at the venues, so the writers on-site could write their stories on the PC, and using a MODEM, send the stories to our office to be typeset in the Daily Record.
At the time this was a HUGELY risky proposition; all the technology was quite new, and the Olympics was in international event. Had something gone wrong, it would have been front page, international news.

[jorgeandrade]

Thank you, I've always wondered about how the machines came to be. My first PC was a Pentium 100 in 1997 but I first came into contact with computing in 1987 with an 8-bit MSX Expert from a Brazilian company Gradiente. I still love computers and have expanded my collection dramatically. I'm very delighted to have come across your video.

[TheRealLaughingGravy]

Boy, did I love typing on the original IBM PC. What a great keyboard, with a solid clackety-clack feel and sound.

[guillermodiego]

Brought back good 'ole memories, thanks!

[jamesslick]

My first IBM-PC was the PC-XT. Weird that THIS video came up just now, as I was talking to my niece about my XT just HOURS ago! My XT's power supply "blew up" with a bang, smoke and all! - and a funky SMELL. (It was 6 year old at that point.) Fortunately ONLY the PS was lost, I replaced it and that old girl was in use for another 3 years!

[CarlosTorresCali]

Muy hermoso. Yo compré uno de estos por solo 100usd en Medellin Colombia el año pasado. Me falta conseguirle el teclado. Lo tengo como nuevo. 🍓😁

[multigerbs]

I remember working on and maintaing a whole warehouse full of Xt's with 128 kb of ram, Hercules graphic cards and a single 5 1/4 inch floppy drive each. We had a single XT that had a 20Mb hard drive which held all the data for the whole setup. A 386 was epitome of desire back then and I spent hours going through the specs in trade magazines dreaming of getting my hands on one.

[robytar]

I have an old IBM "PC", upgraded with a more powerful power supply & ST225 hard disk, along with the heavy metal original PC keyboard. Been sitting for 25yrs., it was working but my Amdek 310 monitor failed and no longer can mess with it. It's the oldest part of my vast computer parts bin. Amazed what these go for on ebay.

[fed-yum]

How those early games depended on a 4.7MHz processor, or they were impossibly fast to play. So the turbo button was added to clones to slow down the processor to let you play them. 😂

I remember when was I was learning C on my PC clone in about 86, de-referencing a null pointer would make the printer print random characters. The only way to make it stop was to power it off. Some time later, my $800 50MB hard drive crashed, and I lost years of work. 😂

Lots of lessons learned.

[theoldar]

Got my first IBM clone in 87, a Leading Edge XT with no hard drive.

[initial_kd]

I have a IBM 5160 XT with a a 5153 CGA monitor. It's a later model with a full size Seagate hard drive and a 'half height' 5 1/4 disk drive, 640kb ram and the later floppy disk controller card that could use 720kb 3.5 disk drives. It never came with a keyboard but i have a model M from 86 if i remember correct, would like a Model F but sack paying out the nose for one 😅 I added an 8bit vga card just because it means im not stuck with the CGA display, also a soundblaster 1.5 or 2.0 (forget lol) sound card (at the minimum i can now use speakers). Oh and the psu died as a film capacitylor and a voltage regulator died so i just stuck standoffs in the psu case and put a seasonic 250w psu in it wired to the clunky switch.

There was also the rarer XT 286 with a 80286 and zero wait state ram, still uses the older style XT case.

[macin-jicf]

I'm collecting some IBM keyboards, and if I have a chance, I'd also like to collect other hardware including monitors..

[retroguy]

2:32 Microsoft is promoting OS/2? Pretty sure he meant IBM, right?

[Plasmacore_V]

What PS/2 could have been if IBM hadn't made it proprietary. So now almost all desktop PCs today are still based on AT (ie: ATX and micro ATX).

[johnsimon]

I thought the PC and XT were different hardware specs, like 128k Mac and Mac SE/30 but no not really.

[RetroJack]

4 downvotes from people who saw the PS/2 😋

[Lackaustausch]

1:14 it's an AMD, not Intel. 😂 AMD ftw btw