Author Topic: [ENDED, but a fun topic] IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard  (Read 8697 times)

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Offline ander

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EDIT: This listing is sold, but check out DeChief's similar listing later in this topic!

 - - -

I had to show you guys this, as it's so cool:

IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese Keyboard














Alps plate switches. Missing one cap (that lower L one where they've removed the stem to show the switch), but replace it with one of the typical oddball 122-key legends and I doubt anyone would notice.  ;?)

At a BIN price of $264 US, plus shipping from Australia, it's not exactly a door-crasher. I've never seen one before, though... It seemed sufficiently slick to post.
« Last Edit: Wed, 03 October 2018, 02:58:49 by ander »
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Offline Techno Trousers

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 19 November 2017, 08:51:11 »
That is pretty darn cool looking. Even the space bar is labelled!

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 19 November 2017, 16:56:58 »
Beautiful find! If I ever have the good fortune of owning one of those I would feel obligated to make (or attempt to make) a custom controller. Holy moly

Some teardown photos if anyone is interested http://www.komotch2.com/junk/kj/5576001.htm

Offline SamirD

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #3 on: Mon, 20 November 2017, 00:28:55 »
Very nice and unique!  Thank you for sharing!  :thumb:

Offline DeChief

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #4 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 08:17:55 »
It's always funny when you go looking for photos of something on the net and the first result is one your own :D It was a very nice keyboard but the missing key always bugged me. I was fortunate enough to find one with all of its keys though, so sold this one - and now I'm trying to get rid of it again! But this time with its matching PS/55.



https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/173398319389

No custom controller required by the way, it's just regular PS/2 and works fine on modern PCs with an active USB converter. I used the keyless one as my main keyboard for a few months before the placement of the @ key finally got to me.

Offline SamirD

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #5 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 09:08:24 »
That's a wonderful PS/2!  Makes me hope and pray that our 30-286 will be in good shape when I have a chance to fire it back up.  It had that same monitor and we had upgraded the cpu to a 486slc and 4mb of ram so it could run windows 3.1.  It was super-sweet and maxed out.

Offline xtrafrood

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #6 on: Sat, 14 July 2018, 09:23:21 »
It's always funny when you go looking for photos of something on the net and the first result is one your own :D It was a very nice keyboard but the missing key always bugged me. I was fortunate enough to find one with all of its keys though, so sold this one - and now I'm trying to get rid of it again! But this time with its matching PS/55.

Show Image


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/173398319389

No custom controller required by the way, it's just regular PS/2 and works fine on modern PCs with an active USB converter. I used the keyless one as my main keyboard for a few months before the placement of the @ key finally got to me.

Oh my, just gorgeous. Such a great game too. :)

Offline DeChief

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 08:50:10 »
It's always funny when you go looking for photos of something on the net and the first result is one your own :D It was a very nice keyboard but the missing key always bugged me. I was fortunate enough to find one with all of its keys though, so sold this one - and now I'm trying to get rid of it again! But this time with its matching PS/55.

Show Image


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/173398319389

No custom controller required by the way, it's just regular PS/2 and works fine on modern PCs with an active USB converter. I used the keyless one as my main keyboard for a few months before the placement of the @ key finally got to me.

Oh my, just gorgeous. Such a great game too. :)

Thanks! I'd love to keep it, especially now that I managed to fix the hard drive (dead caps, took me a full year to get around to doing a 5 minute job in the end!), but I'm dramatically downsizing my collection and it didn't make the cut....

That's a wonderful PS/2!  Makes me hope and pray that our 30-286 will be in good shape when I have a chance to fire it back up.  It had that same monitor and we had upgraded the cpu to a 486slc and 4mb of ram so it could run windows 3.1.  It was super-sweet and maxed out.

Thanks dude! Best of luck with it, with that 486SLC and a bit more ram, yours could even run Doom. It's not a pretty sight, but in low-res mode and the view window shrunk down you'll get a playable framerate. :P


Offline SamirD

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 11:19:54 »
Oh running Doom would probably not even fly as I think wolfenstein didn't even run very well.  But we finally could multi-task on the machine.  And with an ISA network card, it was connected to all the others too.  Fantastic how far it upgraded.  I'm glad we bought enough RAM to max it out.  Finding that today would be pretty tough and expensive.

Offline Rob27shred

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 14:21:15 »
Very cool find ander! How do the ALPS plate spring switches feel? Never got the pleasure of trying myself yet, I've been falling further down the ALPS rabbit hole lately so these are particularly interesting to me.

Offline DeChief

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 23:26:13 »
Oh running Doom would probably not even fly as I think wolfenstein didn't even run very well.  But we finally could multi-task on the machine.  And with an ISA network card, it was connected to all the others too.  Fantastic how far it upgraded.  I'm glad we bought enough RAM to max it out.  Finding that today would be pretty tough and expensive.

No no, it runs! I've got a 486SLC in my Amstrad Mega PC and finished the whole game using it.

Very cool find ander! How do the ALPS plate spring switches feel? Never got the pleasure of trying myself yet, I've been falling further down the ALPS rabbit hole lately so these are particularly interesting to me.

They feel amazing, second only to Alps buckling springs in a TeraDrive keyboard.

Offline SamirD

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 15 July 2018, 23:46:00 »
Oh running Doom would probably not even fly as I think wolfenstein didn't even run very well.  But we finally could multi-task on the machine.  And with an ISA network card, it was connected to all the others too.  Fantastic how far it upgraded.  I'm glad we bought enough RAM to max it out.  Finding that today would be pretty tough and expensive.

No no, it runs! I've got a 486SLC in my Amstrad Mega PC and finished the whole game using it.
I think the video card was just too weak in the 30-286.  Remember, all the other buses are the same 8-16bit versus 32-bit so a lot of slowness happens outside of the processor.


Offline DeChief

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #12 on: Tue, 17 July 2018, 08:54:01 »
Oh running Doom would probably not even fly as I think wolfenstein didn't even run very well.  But we finally could multi-task on the machine.  And with an ISA network card, it was connected to all the others too.  Fantastic how far it upgraded.  I'm glad we bought enough RAM to max it out.  Finding that today would be pretty tough and expensive.

No no, it runs! I've got a 486SLC in my Amstrad Mega PC and finished the whole game using it.
I think the video card was just too weak in the 30-286.  Remember, all the other buses are the same 8-16bit versus 32-bit so a lot of slowness happens outside of the processor.

PS/2s have a VGA connector on the motherboard, and I don't think any video cards were made for them - the PS/55 however is a different story. There are something like 4 Japanese-character-specific VGA MCA cards for it, I've got a few of them.

Offline ed_avis

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 17 July 2018, 10:28:52 »
Yes, there were plenty of MCA-bus video cards for PS/2s.  Early on there was XGA (1024x768 interleaved) followed by XGA-2 (noninterleaved).  Then there were various video cards from third parties, including the first 3d accelerated card, the SGI IrisVision.  You are right that they had VGA on the motherboard.

Offline SamirD

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 17 July 2018, 10:55:38 »
PS/2s have a VGA connector on the motherboard, and I don't think any video cards were made for them - the PS/55 however is a different story. There are something like 4 Japanese-character-specific VGA MCA cards for it, I've got a few of them.
I never tried it, but I'm sure an ISA video card would have worked as most everything we put in the 30-286 seemed to work.  Unfortunately, we ran out of slots--external floppy board, SCSI hardcard for more hd space, and then lan NIC and it was full. :(


Offline ander

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Re: IBM 5576-001 PS/55 Japanese terminal keyboard
« Reply #15 on: Thu, 19 July 2018, 04:37:56 »
It's always funny when you go looking for photos of something on the net and the first result is one your own :D It was a very nice keyboard but the missing key always bugged me. I was fortunate enough to find one with all of its keys though, so sold this one - and now I'm trying to get rid of it again! But this time with its matching PS/55.

Beautiful, dude! What a stunning example of our computing roots... May they never be forgotten.


Very cool find ander! How do the ALPS plate spring switches feel?

Don't ask me; I've just the messenger. No doubt I'd have more opportunities to enjoy some of these delightful, lesser-known keeb technologies if they weren't in direct conflict with my desire to, you know, stay married.


They feel amazing, second only to Alps buckling springs in a TeraDrive keyboard...

What [choke]—Alps buckling springs? I knew AT&T did some, but Alps? Oh, okay.

You can't help wondering why more keyboard makers didn't take the BS route in some way. I mean, it just makes such sense, doesn't it? Responsive, long-lasting, consistent—and of course, very importantly, twangy. It's easy to understand why the Unicomp guys felt it was so important to keep the BS keyboard, one of mankind's most noble creations, from fading away. If only the same could've been done with music. Oh well.
We are not chasing wildly after beauty with fear at our backs. – Natalie Goldberg