Specifications of the IBM 5150 PC *Maximum processor frequency is 5 MHz. IBM PC used one 14.31818 oscillator to drive both the CPU and video. For video it was divided it by 4 (14.31818 / 4 = 3.58 MHz), and for CPU it was divided by 3, which why it was running at 4.77 MHz, and not at 5 MHz.

**Initially, there was no IBM support for hard drives at all.  The limits were:

- DOS 1.0 and 1.1 had no hard drive support.
- The BIOS on the 5150 motherboard has no support for hard drives.
- 'BIOS expansion ROM' functionality did not exist at this time.
- The IBM 5150's 63W power supply was inadequate to power both the 5150 and hard drives of the time.

However, some third-party solutions emerged.  They involved an externally powered hard drive, and custom boot floppy.


Manuals

IBM 5150 Guide to Operations
IBM 5150 Technical Reference

Diagnostics

IBM PC 5150 Advanced Diagnostics Version 1.02
IBM PC 5150, 5155, 5160 Advanced Diagnostics Version 2.20

Utilities

Writing images to floppys you can use WinImage

WinImage 9.00 32 bits for Windows XP, 2003/2008 server, Vista, Seven
WinImage 8.10 32 bits for Windows NT4-x86, 2000, XP, 2003 server, Vista, 95/98/Me

Files

Files from the original ibm5150.net site

Links

Information about IBM 5155 Portable PC
Information about IBM IBM PC Convertible

Contact: mattias at ibm5150.net


Last updated 20 dec 2019