Admiral Shark's Keyboards part number database reaches 2500+ part numbers recorded!

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Keyboards spanning from 1949 to the present day, covering IBM, its descendants, and companies that have acquired IBM divisions, staff and IP. From the IBM 024 Card Punch to the Unicomp Mini M and Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II, 70+ years of keyboard part numbers documented yet still nowhere near finished.

Nonetheless, in celebration of this milestone, here's a breakdown of some of the stuff in the database…

About the database

The keyboard part number database is one of the largest repositories of keyboard data on the internet and is made available for research, reference and posterity. It's an ever-growing collection of known IBM and family keyboard part numbers and specific design data for each. Keyboards considered to be "IBM and family" are of any company that makes/made keyboards for IBM, were a former division of IBM, or purchased IBM's IP and continues producing their former or derivative designs. Namely, this includes Lexmark, Unicomp, Lenovo and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions.

It's built upon data collected from official documents and manuals, past eBay and other auction website listings, other repositories like deskthority wiki, and community submissions.

You can access it normally at https://sharktastica.co.uk/kb_db
Or you can query it through an interactive quiz at https://sharktastica.co.uk/kb_db_finder

Major keyboard types

Keyboards by switches

Keyboards by major manufacturers

IBM keyboards by branding

Keyboards by connector

A thank you!

Thank you for reading, and a huge thanks to everyone who supported me and my efforts over the last 2 years and a half. Especially thanks to those who actively use my resources - you make doing all this worthwhile!

This project is far from finished. There are potentially many hundreds of part numbers from IBM, Lexmark, Unicomp, Lenovo and Toshiba left to find, index and find supporting evidence for. But, I have no intention of stopping just yet. There's still so much data out there that needs preserving, ideally as soon as possible. Especially as early internet websites/repositories go offline and IBM's own online resources are delisted. So, I'll see you at 3000!

Cheers!

Public announcement SNPA-202206A
Published 2022-06-10