The IBM 1130 Computing System was a low-cost computer used for price-sensitive computing-intensive technical markets like education and engineering and was first announced on 11th February 1965. The base system comes in the form of a desk-like setup containing an IBM 1131 central processing unit. For input and output, the base 1130 would have the titular console keyboard, a paper tape reader and punch, and an IBM 1053 Console Printer that uses a Selectric-based printing system[2]. The console keyboard was used for entering data and instructions into the system's core storage, whose capacity was 4096 words for the base module (which could be expanded considerably with add-ons)[3].
The IBM 1130 Console Keyboard consists of three components; a status indicator panel, a data input keyboard and a control switch panel.
The keyboard itself is based on the IBM 029 keypunch keyboard. Unlike IBM's printer-keyboards of the period that may or may not also be keypunch based, the keyboard is not directly connected to the IBM 1130's printer, thus console keyboard entries are not printed automatically unless the IBM 1131 CPU is specifically programmed to do so. The maximum input speed of the keyboard is 20 characters per second and the keys output characters in 16-bit words in IBM Card Code standard.
The status indicator panel sports 8 lamps that are triggered when a certain condition is met. The following indicators are related to keyboard input:
The control switch panel sports 7 functional switches besides the power on/off switch. Of note is the Console/Keyboard switch that indicates the source of the console input data (either the keyboard itself or console entry switches) to the currently running program.