IBM 3101

IBM 3101 ASCII Display Station, and its follow-on IBM 3151/315X and IBM 3161/316X are display terminals with asynchronous serial communication (start-stop signaling) that were used to attach to a variety of IBM and non-IBM computers, especially the data processing terminals on non-IBM minicomputers, IBM Series/1 and IBM AIX computers, during the 1980s - 1990's.

IBM 3101

The IBM 3101 ASCII Display Station became available in 1979 and featured the following functions and features: ^[1]

• 12-inch diagonal, green-phosphor CRT display
• 24 lines of 80 characters
• Keyboard
  • ASCII keyboard: US English, Belgian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese Katakana, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss French, Swiss German, or UK English
• Asynchronous communications: EIA RS-232C interface for short distance connection or EIA RS-422 interface for longer distance connection
• Communications speed from 200/300 to 19,200 bits per second
• US English or one of the world's other major languages:

Compared to IBM's general practice at that time, it featured:

• Use of many non-IBM technologies
• Initial setup by the user
• Consists of three elements (Display, Keyboard and Logic) which can be mixed
• Maintenance service at IBM service depots only
• User's self diagnostics, by referencing the Problem Determination Guide booklet stored in the keyboard
• Purchase only, with volume discount. No lease offering

IBM 3101 was used for attachment to a variety of IBM and non-IBM computers and, as asynchronous communication display, competed against Digital Equipment Corporation (VT100, etc.), Wyse Technology (Wyse 50/60/70, etc.), Applied Digital Data Systems (ADDS Viewpoint, etc.) and others. It was especially used as the data processing terminals on non-IBM minicomputers and IBM Series/1.

IBM 3102 Printer

IBM 3102 Printer using thermal paper-dot matrix printing technology can be attached to IBM 3101's auxiliary port, for horizontal 80 characters per line, vertical 6 lines per inch, each character in 5x7 dot matrix, at the speed of 40 characters per second.

IBM 3161/3163

IBM 3161/3163 ASCII Display Stations became available in 1985 and featured the following: ^[2]

• Monochrome CRT display, 12-inch CRT (3161) or 14-inch CRT (3163)
• Optional cards to emulate other ASCII display terminals: ADDS Viewpoint, Hazeltine 1500, Lear Siegler ADM 3A and ADM 5, and TeleVideo 910

IBM 3164

IBM 3164 Color ASCII Display Station became available in 1986:

• 14-inch color CRT display

IBM 3151

IBM 3151 ASCII Display Station became available in 1987: ^[3]

• 14-inch diagonal color CRT display (specify green, amber or white screen)
• 24 lines of 80-132 characters each
• Consists of two elements: Display/Logic and Keyboard
• Optionally offered emulation of other ASCII display terminals: Lear Siegler ADM-3A, ADM-5, ADDS Viewpoint A2, Hazeltine 1500, Televideo TVI-910/910+, TVI-912, TVI-920, TVI-925, TVI-925E, and IBM 3101.
• ASCII block operating mode except for models 51 and 61 with similar advantages to the EBCDIC IBM 3270.

It won for IBM's Japanese subsidiary in 1998 a "Good Design Product Award" from Japan Institute of Design Promotion. ^[4]

IBM 3152

IBM 3152 Color ASCII Display Station became available in 1992 in the IBM Europe/Middle East/Africa countries only:

• Keyboard
  • ASCII keyboard: US English, Belgian, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss French, Swiss German, or UK English.
  • PS/2 keyboard: US English, Belgian, Bosnian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Slovak, Slv/Croat/Sl, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss French, Swiss German, Turkish U, Turkish Q Hebrew, or UK English.

IBM 3153

IBM 3153 InfoWindow II Color ASCII Display Station became available in 1993. It was manufactured similarly to the NCR (Boundless Technologies) 2900 series of terminals, capable of being used with a register or kitchen monitor system.

Development, Manufacturing and Users

The IBM 3101/315x/316x Series of ASCII display stations were developed by IBM Communication Products Division's Fujisawa (later Yamato) development laboratory in Japan and later by the Greenock, Scotland, development department in UK. They were manufactured at IBM's Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, plant in USA for the Americas and Asia/Pacific; and Greenock, Scotland, plant in UK for Europe/Middle East/Africa.

They were used as data processing input/output terminals on many minicomputers, especially on IBM Series/1 and IBM AIX computers, for commercial, governmental and military applications.

Its Effect

This ASCII display station series was the base from which low-cost IBM 3104 display of the IBM 8100, the IBM 5291 of the IBM 5250 display terminal series for IBM System/36 attachment, the IBM 4980 display of the IBM Series/1 and IBM 3178 display of the IBM 3270 display terminal series for IBM System/370 attachment were further developed.

See also

• Asynchronous serial communication
• IBM Series/1 & IBM AIX
• IBM 5250 and IBM 3270
• List of IBM products
• Digital Equipment Corporation & VT100
• Wyse Technology

References

1. ↑ IBM 3101 ASCII Display Station Description, IBM Publication GA18-2033-1
2. ↑ IBM 3161/3163 ASCII Display Station Description, IBM Publication GA 18-2310-0
3. ↑ IBM 3151 ASCII Display Station Reference Manual, IBM Publication GA18-2634-01
4. ↑ 1988 "Good Design Product" Award for IBM 3151 Computer Terminal (IBM Japan） (in Japanese)

External links

• IBM 3151 models
• IBM history of Far Eastern Languages in Computing. Part 3. IBM Japan taking the lead, accomplishments through the 1990s (IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Volume 27, Issue 1, January -March 2005)
• IBM 3152 Display Terminals - FRU Substitution (AF/E and E/ME/A only)