I'm not convinced by this. For one, most IBM branded US-layout 101-keys were produced by Lexmark up till 1996, but pretty much every example I've seen made after 1996 was made in Greenock (and I've seen more than a few). If these were only made for special contracts, why are there so many of them kicking around? IBM didn't kill off the 101/102-keys for regular orders till about 1999 and 2000, yet if what you are saying is true, where are the 'regular' ones made by Unicomp? Why were there Options By IBM keyboards produced by Greenock after 1996? If they had to originate 'start to finish' from IBM, why is it that you can find Lexmark-branded components inside Greenock made Model Ms? (Including the ones made after 1996).
Sigh.
Look. I don't give two craps if you're "not convinced" because like it or not, that's how government contracting works. It's a giant hairball of a mess and there are insane restrictions and limitations and whether or not they make any sense to you or you're "convinced"
doesn't frigging matter in the least.
Why?
BECAUSE IT'S GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING! IT NEVER MAKES SENSE!Seriously. I've had to deal with this - done deal, contract in place, and nobody could even tell me if it was prime source or second source supplier. All they did know was that we weren't allowed to let anyone except these people touch these particular things or we could lose the contract. Why? Wasn't security clearances (they didn't have any, that we knew) and nobody knew why that was, just that it was!
Hell, I had to give some poor guy in Austin no end of migraines because I got stuck with a support contract that specified all parts had to be new, not serviceable used, on an MCA machine. (Don't ask me why IBM agreed to it. Or how the shop got it in the first place. I don't
want to know.)
Frankly, at this point in my career, it wouldn't surprise me to see a contract which required the supplier's CEO to perform the Peanut-Butter-Jelly-Time dance in a gorilla suit if a part took longer than 4 hours to replace and then deliver an HP LP2480zx on a literal silver platter. One that requires all replacement parts to be from a specific factory or made in a specific country? Hell, even before you get into the security/forgery paranoia about China et. al, that's just par for the course.
Assuming we are talking about Greenock-made 122s, I can think of _at least_ one case where someone here used a 1999-vintage Greenock-made 122 with one of the standard converters. I have also seen post-96 Greenock-made ones that had the same part numbers as some of the regular 3270 and 5250 parts that were produced by IBM and Lexmark. I can't remember exactly when IBM discontinued their terminals, but I seem to recall that it was after 1996. Again, why do we see more than a few Greenock-made 122s made after 1996, but Unicomp ones are really quite rare? (such to the point that we're debating whether they even exist)
... did I say they were all oddballs? NO. NO I DID NOT. I never said any such thing and I'm not sure if you're trolling, confused, or just not reading what I actually wrote and making up your own interpretations from scratch. What I
did say was that given the sheer amount of forgery and conflicting information, I suspected that the fraudulent seller's keyboards were most definitely not the claimed part number and most likely oddballs. No more, no less. I never said or even implied anything about Greenock not making standard 3270 or 5250 122's.
I mean seriously. Holy crap, this was so far off in left field I was wondering if I was in the wrong thread. Know why it frequently sounds like I work for or used to work for Big Blue? Because I've personally overseen or maintained a ridiculous amount of IBM gear over the years. Do you know who I called for a blown 1990 made 5250? IBM. Know when? 2006. Know what they said? Be there tomorrow. IBM was still making those until 2002, primarily for shops that still had TwinAx in the walls. Which yes, means even your Average Joe 200 employee AS/400 shop could get a support contract until at least 2008. (Another Fun Fact: SNA is still in use. With 3770's. In production. In 2013. It was introduced in 1969.
Be afraid.)
I also said that to the extent of my personal knowledge, Unicomp never made specific models of specific keyboards because they did not have the rights or IP required to do so. To the extent of my personal knowledge, I have never seen Unicomp examples of these specific keyboards. Did Unicomp make a TN3270/5250 keyboard? Well duh. Hell, half the keyboard manufacturers in the world have made a TN3270/5250 keyboard at one point or another. Cherry made what, four, not including the RS/6000 version with speaker terminator?
Anyhow, a TN3270 keyboard is not a 3270 keyboard. It's a
TN3270. Meaning: it gets hooked up to a PC and speaks PS/2 or USB which gets interpreted by
TN3270 drivers included with the
TN3270 client. The 3270 PC doesn't even speak the 3270 wire protocol natively - it required a wire protocol intercept card that translated to XT. 5250, same deal - it's a proprietary wire protocol and
TN5250 is both not identical and uses PS/2 with host side interpretation for non-Set2 scancodes.
Again, I have no doubts that what you are saying is true in some cases, but I really don't think that this represented the entire output of the Greenock plant.
I never said it did, because I never said anything about the entire output of the entire Greenock plant, because I don't know.
What I
did say was that I knew that Greenock was the specific plant that produced all of the post-1996 Built by IBM keyboards. This is because Greenock was the
only remaining plant equipped to make said keyboards.
This is not a minor difference.
I have seen what I am 95% sure are 'proper' Unicomp-made 122-key keyboards with terminals on tills in a particular store chain (they don't have any lock lights, and they are not IBM branded, but have that empty rectangle that Unicomp's 122s and 101/104s have) On newer stores operated by this chain, they have Unicomp Spacesavers with a terminal-style layout, so I'm not sure what to make of it.
And this is why I brought up oddballs. Because those aren't terminal keyboards. They're POS keyboards. Which are not the same. There are at least six variants of POS setups which used or had a buckling spring option
not including RPQs. Trying to figure out which protocol it is from the connector and a 30 second look is like ... trying to guess the entire production run of Greenock for a given year broken down by model from a single keyboard.
There's PS/2-on-RJ45, Serial on RJ45, Serial on DB9, XT on DIN5, PS/2 on MiniDIN6 and "Other." Which is why I steer clear of POS keyboards unless someone else figured it out first. Because without the complete POS system, I have no idea what it actually is, and even then more often than not I still don't know. And that's before you get into the RPQ-But-Not AKA anything made for Sears.
Regardless, ugh, it's like the black swan cargo-culting I want to brick people for. So you saw what may or may not have been a Unicomp at one or more customers. So what? I've seen Dell rubber domes on IBM POSes, does this mean IBM is selling Dell keyboards? Hell no. (Though yes, I have seen IBM do this as part of four-walls/IBM GFS agreements.) Without looking at the support contract, or if there even was one still in force, and the purchase order if there was one, it doesn't mean anything other than "I saw a keyboard that didn't have the IBM logo on equipment with an IBM logo." It's not like Unicomp doesn't offer rebuilding services or custom manufacturing. Maybe somebody spilled their coffee in it and they sent it to be rebuilt. Or they ordered a batch as spares. Or their service contract only specified 'equivalent replacement.' Or they lifted it out of a dumpster. How the hell should I know? It's not my keyboard or a contract I'm managing.
