| Subcribe via RSS
The IBM 5250 Display stations are a long lived, popular family of terminals originally produced by IBM as a component of their System/3 computer in 1969. Designed specifically for small businesses the midrange System/3 offered a cheaper alternative to the larger, more expensive systems colloquially referred to as ‘Big Iron‘ , which were priced out of the reach or smaller organizations.
The story of Prime computers is an interesting one, the greatly abridged version of which is that they were a large manufacturer of minicomputers in the 1970′s and 80′s who, after a lengthy decline, bowed out of the industry in the quite unexpectedly. They left behind many customers who’d bought into their line of equipment with huge investments in Prime technology and sadly added weight to the old industry adage, ‘nobody ever got fired for buying IBM’.
Like many manufacturers of that era they also produced several models of proprietary terminals, such as the PT250, which is still supported by the occasional terminal emulator today…but that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is a series of great TV spots from the early 80′s staring the Tom Baker version of Doctor Who!