A timeline of IBM keyboard history
This page is considered work-in-progress and should be treated as such. The design and layout of this page are subject to tweaks, and a lot of content (events) are still to be added and fleshed out. If you have any feedback or suggestions for the design and/or particular events, feel free to contact me and let me know your thoughts.
The IBM and family keyboard timeline is an illustrated overview of some of the most important events affecting IBM, Lexmark, Unicomp, Lenovo and Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions keyboards. This includes notable keyboard releases and withdrawals, corporate history like company founding, divestures and change in OEMs, and patents. Due to their relationship and impact on the keyboards around them, host devices such as personal computers, terminals, consoles and typewriters also appear throughout the timeline. 143 events have been recorded for the "show all" versions of the timeline.
[ASK] IBM introduces the 4680 POS Matrix Keyboard for 4683 and 4684 POS Terminals. It is one of IBM's most functional keyboards, purposely designed for "applications requiring a large number of pre-defined keys." It has a manager's keylock and 139 keys, of which 126 comprise its main relegendable area. It is made by Key Tronic and uses Key Tronic capacitive foam and foil (tactile variant) keyswitches.