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geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: sharktastica on Sun, 10 April 2022, 05:21:37

Title: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: sharktastica on Sun, 10 April 2022, 05:21:37
This is the follow up to my wiki page on the IBM Enhanced Keyboard (https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=116349) talking about its smaller sibling, the tenkeyless Space Saving Keyboard (SSK)! Included are design details, a bit of history, some pricing info, possible branding and connectivity, and possible variants!


The page: https://sharktastica.co.uk/wiki/page?id=modelmssk


[attachimg=1]
Own Photo

[attachimg=2]
By P. Zwettler, WTFPL

[attachimg=3]
By P. Zwettler, WTFPL

Cheers!
Title: Re: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: NathanA on Mon, 11 April 2022, 05:35:38
FYI, the founder of this here GeekHack site reportedly purchased the very last SSK that Unicomp themselves assembled, back in 2007.  It was an ANSI model and even labeled as P/N 1393278, though it was a Unicomp birth certificate and the oval badge in the upper-left of the top case was kept blank.  He got it for USD $59 smackeroos.  After taking delivery of it, he called them to order another, and was told that they had used the last remaining parts to build the keyboard he just received.  So though Unicomp may have had a custom (non-IBM-inherited) part# for an ISO variant, they were also building ANSI models under the original IBM P/Ns up until the end as well.

The pictures on the original post no longer work, but The Wayback Machine has our back on this one (https://web.archive.org/web/20180725002955/https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=3859.0).
Title: Re: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: sharktastica on Mon, 11 April 2022, 10:11:41
FYI, the founder of this here GeekHack site reportedly purchased the very last SSK that Unicomp themselves assembled, back in 2007.  It was an ANSI model and even labeled as P/N 1393278, though it was a Unicomp birth certificate and the oval badge in the upper-left of the top case was kept blank.  He got it for USD $59 smackeroos.  After taking delivery of it, he called them to order another, and was told that they had used the last remaining parts to build the keyboard he just received.  So though Unicomp may have had a custom (non-IBM-inherited) part# for an ISO variant, they were also building ANSI models under the original IBM P/Ns up until the end as well.

The pictures on the original post no longer work, but The Wayback Machine has our back on this one (https://web.archive.org/web/20180725002955/https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=3859.0).

Thanks! Glad that's archived! I knew stock ran dry in 2007 (and knew of Unicomp-era P/N 1393278) but I wasn't able to find photo evidence of 2007 examples to cite. I'll add this bit of info in soon.
Title: Re: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: Versaknight on Mon, 11 April 2022, 11:32:13
Shark has the best stuff!
Title: Re: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: jacobalbertus1 on Mon, 11 April 2022, 22:31:45
oh shark lol
Title: Re: New Shark's Wiki page - IBM Model M SSK!
Post by: granola bar enthusiast on Tue, 19 April 2022, 12:23:26
the ssk is two of my favorite things in keyboards, wkl tkl's, and a vintage board. its such a shame that it's so difficult to get now