IBM PC 5150 Part 2 with Jim Leonard

Welcome to Floppy Days episode 109 for December, 2021.  I am Randy Kindig, your host.  As a reminder, we are currently finishing up talking about computers released in 1981.  This is the second of a now anticipated four shows covering the release of the IBM PC 5150, the grand-daddy of most modern personal computers.  Back in episode 106, I covered the long and interesting history of the 5150.  How it came about and why we are living today with the choices made clear back in 1981.

I’m very happy to announce that I will have a co-host for these next 3 episodes where we cover tech specs, books, magazines, Web sites, and all the usual topics.  And that co-host is Jim Leonard, one of the people responsible for putting together VCF Midwest each year and a huge early PC enthusiast.  Jim is a fount of knowledge about these machines and adds a ton to the podcast!

It turns out that just covering the tech specs about the 5150 alone was more than enough material to fill an entire episode, so Jim and I will focus on that in this episode.  Next month we will cover peripherals, software, magazines, books, and more and in the final episode covering this venerable machine we will focus on ads, emulation, modern upgrades, Community, and Web sites.

Before we get into the 5150 tech specs, I will be talking a bit about new acquisitions in the vintage computer hobby and what I’ve been up to.  

I have a page set up at https://www.patreon.com/FloppyDays where you can donate to help keep this podcast going.

New Acquisitions

• Commodore 128 RGB to SCART - https://c128adapter.pook.nl/ 
• Atari 8-bit 576NUC+ - https://thebrewingacademy.com/collections/myteks-576nuc-atari-computer/products/myteks-576nuc-and-internal-fujinet 
• Atari 8-bit ACE80XL Cart - https://www.vintagecomputercenter.com/product/ace-80 

Upcoming Shows

• VCF East 2022  =   Apr 22, 23, 24, Infoage Science and History Museums, Wall, NJ - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-east/ 
• CocoFest 2022 = May 14th & 15th 2022, Elk Grove Village, Illinois - https://www.glensideccc.com/cocofest-2022/ 
• KansasFest 2022 = July 19–24, 2022, Kansas City, MO - https://www.kansasfest.org/ 
• VCF West 2022 =  Aug 6, 7, The Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA - https://vcfed.org/wp/festivals/vintage-computer-festival-west/ 

Interview - Jim Leonard

• Jim interview on Floppy Days #7 at VCFMW 8.0 (2013) - https://floppydays.libsyn.com/floppy-days-episode-7-vintage-computer-festival-midwest-8-0 
• Total DOS launcher - https://github.com/MobyGamer/total-dos-launcher 
• The Oldskool PC YouTube Channel - https://youtube.com/TheOldskoolPC 

Reference - Tech Specs

• https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc25/pc25_fact.html 
• https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php 
• http://www.minuszerodegrees.net 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer
• https://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=274&st=1