The IBM PS/2 Model 70 386
The last in the original IBM PS/2 line, but the first IBM 386 desktop, the PS/2 Model 70 386 was introduced on June 2, 1988. Several innovative features of the PS/2 line would evolve and live on for years: PS/2 mouse and keyboard connectors, “plug and play”-style CMOS system configuration management, IDE-style hard drive interfaces, tool-less case design, among others. To stave off PC clone manufacturers, IBM employed a new proprietary, high performing bus architecture, known as Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) in the PS/2 line. MCA was the “Betamax bus" of its day, and like Betamax, was a market failure, despite being technologically superior. This photo gallery catalogs the complete tear down and build up sequence of a 30+ year old IBM PS/2 Model 70 386, sourced from multiple PS/2 Model 70 computers/components, to produce a single near museum quality period-correct example circa 1988. Original list price for this machine, as configured, $10,248 circa 1988-1989 ($21,500 in 2019 dollars). Also included are screenshots of its cold boot and ultimate successful connection to the Internet in the year 2019 – with no hardware or operating system components manufactured later than 1992/Windows 3.1. This machine is like a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - but in reverse. It's traveled from 30+ years in the past to the present; finding itself in a world that has drastically changed from what it knew before. Yet somehow... it manages.
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