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.
[1] IBM announces the RISC Technology Personal Computer (RT PC), IBM's first PCs with RISC-based processors and intended for academic, CAD/CAM and scientific use. The Model M-based IBM RT PC Enhanced Keyboard (aka, 6100 System Keyboard) is likewise introduced, which are also the first Model Ms to make use of their potential speaker grille.
[2] IBM announces the RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) family of workstations and servers. They will replace the RT PC and uses IBM's new RISC-based POWER architecture. The Model M-based RS/6000 Enhanced Keyboard is likewise introduced, which like its RT PC predecessor also has a speaker present.
- ASK Keyboard Archive - P/N 1392373 (1989, IBM-US) [accessed 2024-08-09]. License/note: photos saved from volatile taobao/xianyu listing, used under fair dealing.
- Brandon @ clickykeyboards.com - photo used with attribution [accessed 2024-04-21]. License/note: https://deskthority.net/wiki/Help:Contents#Copyright.