VOGONS


First post, by bolt

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This weird thing seems to be a clone of the 5150, but it's made by THE Computer Products, which apparently stands for Thompson, Hamman and Edwards. I picked it up at the local recycling center, along with a perfectly functional IBM 5155 portable, which is darn nice. The THE, however, has a 120V PSU, so I can't plug it into the mains in Norway. I therefore have no idea whether or not it works.

It has a 6040MGP, which I've worked out is a monochrome 8-bit graphics card. It also has a floppy drive controller and some other board that provides 4 ports on the back. It has two half-size 5.25" floppies, which seem to be in a remarkable and dust-free condition, though I have no idea of the specs on them.

Any available information on this machine, and certainly whether or not it would be worth the shipping price to someone in a 120V powered country would be very much appreciated. Otherwise I think I might just run off with the floppies for a future project and put the rest of it back.

Several pictures attached. Sorry for the horrible quality. My phone absolutely refused to focus on this thing for no apparent reason.

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Reply 2 of 4, by Deksor

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Isn't that rather an XT clone ? the 5150 had only 5 ISA slots.

I've got 3 XT boards (two coming from IBM 5160 and one made by an unknown chinese brand I guess) and all 3 use the same power connector as an AT PSU. So to power it on, you'd just need an AT psu. Though I'm not sure it could be permanently be in there because they're absolutely not the same shape (on my XT, the PSU is much taller than any of the AT PSUs I have and the power switch is on it rather than on a wire coming out of the PSU)

Trying to identify old hardware ? Visit The retro web - Project's thread The Retro Web project - a stason.org/TH99 alternative

Reply 3 of 4, by bolt

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True, that. I'll see if I have something available, or order an ATX to AT adapter off of eBay.
Would something like this be of any value to someone though?
I have many other projects going on, and don't think I'll bother too much with this, but it's bad to toss it out if it's some sort of rare gem.

Reply 4 of 4, by martin939

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I'd grab a 230V - 120V stepdown transformer, it will always come in handy.
If you don't have the room to store it I'd sell it, there are plenty retro PC collectors and If you plan on sticking to the 5155 you might want to keep the THE for spares - floppy drives, CPU, RAM etc. since both are XT's.