IBM
0209 IBM 5110
Whilst I was in the GSD ‘Country Announcement Group’ my own special baby was IBM GSD's first personal computer, the IBM 5110. Having said that, it was rather larger than you might expect of a modern PC. In its initial form, the IBM 5100 which was intended to be portable, had to be lugged round in a special carrying case. Unfortunately, its weight was something over 100 pounds, hardly a laptop!. This first version had been designed for scientific applications, and indeed had the APL language built into this - as indeed did the later 5110 even though it was to be sold in a very different market – but, a major drawback in commercial markets, the 5100 was only tape based.
The IBM 5110 was rather more versatile than its predecessor. Most important, it had a diskette unit attached. This used the very large diskettes that the IBM Displaywriter was using at that time. This also meant that the disk unit was the size of a small filing cabinet; making it less portable than ever – though it was still supplied with a carrying case, for use in the unlikely event that it was disconnected from its diskette data storage! Even though nobody actually carried it around, it was IBM's first general-purpose, commercial, personal computer.
Because, justifiably, nobody else in GSD was particularly interested, I had an almost free rein with this product. I was the Country Announcement Manager (CAM), and I had ultimate authority to overrule anyone else in terms of the launch. In fact, one of the up-and-coming politicians in GSD head office elbowed his way in, trying to make his mark by launching it in such a way to suit his career. This would have been disastrous for the launch programme in general. As he was a salesman, and most of the other senior managers were salesman, he actually was quite successful in bending their ears. Accordingly we had a meeting which turned out to be showdown. The room was full of senior managers, going up to main board director in status, and almost all of them were more senior than myself. When my putative rival put his case forward he obtained their votes. I then they did something which you were entitled to do within IBM, though you risked your career in so doing, I 'not concurred'. This was one of those lovely IBM expressions which was meant to encourage creativity. You didn't have to disagree. You simply 'non-concurred'. Due to my all-encompassing role as Country Announcement Manager, when I non-concurred the whole process came grinding to a halt. Thus, the whole meeting -- with its many senior managers -- had to go back to square one and talk it through until my own ideas were found acceptable! I don't think that did my career much good, Keith certainly made me aware that it was a mistake. But it did mean that the launch was, within its limits, successful.
Because everything was within my hands, it was fascinating experience. I was able to see how the laboratories and support services around the world worked. I well remember going across to the Mainz in Germany for a Teacher The Teachers (TTT) course. This was held at IBM's massive Mainz plant. It was so big that it had its own hotel in the middle of the plant, and it was there that we stayed. Unfortunately, the American team teaching us were not very good; and, worse still, were arrogant in their ignorance as only Americans can be! On top of that I caught very bad flu and had to fly home early as I was so ill. I had a terrible row with the Americans because they demanded that I stayed despite my illness.
Incidentally while we were there, or at least the half day before the course started, we drove down the Rhine Gorge. I should add that the night before we had dinner at the Hilton hotel and I had been delighted to find, on the wine list, a Johannesburger Kabinett hock that I had always wanted to drink. When we drank the bottle I enthused immensely about this. My colleagues also said it was delightful. However, while driving down the Rhine, we had stopped at a local inn and had some of the local wine. It was slatey, almost muddy, but my colleagues enthused even more -- saying how much better it was than the one which we had the night before!
Uniquely, for this 5110 product, we received a prototype version to work on ourselves. This was locked in a separate room at the GSD HQ in Richmond, for which only I had the only key. Accordingly, every night I went and played with the machine. It was a work of art, though being a prototype, the back panel was wire wrapped rather than a PCB (Printed Circuit Board). I spent many happy hours sorting out how it worked; with the American lab on the end of a phone line, changing the position of the wire wraps to sort out the various problems I found. One night, though, I couldn't get it to work at all. After about half an hour on the line to the US, the American voice drily said to me “Follow the power lead out of the machine and you might just find, where it comes against the wall, a mains switch”. I had forgotten to switch the machine on!
Despite all my work, the launch was inevitably going to be a minor affair. It was a superb bit of kit and it also had a very good set of business packages shipped with it. All you had to do was put the first disc in, complete the password, and you were up and running. Then you just had to answer a few questions to automate your business. Unfortunately, as we soon found out, some bright spark in the States had changed the password before it was shipped -- so nobody could start the machine without a great deal of support!
But, as I said, it had to be relatively low key and was run alongside a more general kick-off meeting. This was not just Keith keeping attention for his own ‘Pacific’ (S/38) launch, which was due soon afterwards, it actually made some sense. In fact the GSD salesman earned his commission, and incentives, by the value of the equipment then sold. At that time they would have had to sell 100 of the new 5110s to make the equivalent of one large System/34. The best we could do was to hope that they would sell a 5110 when there was no opportunity for any larger machine. Even then they didn't, since the investment in learning the new machine just wasn't worthwhile for the salesmen. That is why the PC later used a separate organisation. That was what was really needed before such small systems became successful.
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