IBM personal system/2 (PS/2)

1987/08/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Hardwarea

IBM introduces a new family of PS/2 computers. This family consists of 8 computer configurations that can be divided into four different levels.

Model 30 is a personal desktop computer, more compact and somewhat faster than the traditional pc. This model includes two options, two 3.5 inch (720 Kbytes per floppy) floppy disks, or a 20 Mbytes hard drive and floppy disk.

Above this, and the first one that can really be included in the PS/2 generation, is the 50 model. This offers a single configuration: a 3.5 inch floppy drive and a 1.44 Mbyte hard drive per disk and 20 Mbyte per disk.

These two models are the only desktop models. The next model, the 60, must stand on the ground. It also has two possible configurations: A 1.44 Mbyte and 3.5 inch floppy drive and a 44 and/or 77 Mbyte hard drive.

And at the top of the scale we have the PS/2 80, which has a 32-bit computer. This can have three settings: 1.44 Mbyte and 3.5 inch diskette and 44.70 or 115 Mbytes hard drive.

Currently this new PS/2 family will work with the updated and most powerful version of the MS-DOS, DOS 3.3 operating system, while the Operating System/2 is not available.

Is it compatible with the PC? Currently the software running on PCs can also be run on new PS/2 if passed to 3.5 inch floppy disks. From a hardware point of view, it seems that peripherals that connect to PCs can also connect to PS/2 without major problems. However, PC broadcast cards can only be used on 30/2/PS, not accepted by other models.

For the moment, and with the exception of process speed, the advantages of this new family are not something of the other world. However, it is expected that next year when the OS/2 operating system will substantially change this situation.

However, for PS/2 30 it will not be any advance, since the OS/2 system will not be designed for this model. It must continue with the DOS 3.3 system. Therefore, this model does not have much future, on the one hand because neither the PC nor the real PS/2 nor the price is much higher than that of the compatible PCs.

Therefore, we will have to wait for the other three models to offer.