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Long story short we (me and one of my friends) were given the option of picking up some old IBM model M's from school. The first one (claimed by my friend), is in near perfect working order, all keys appear to work on a quick inspection, the device is just a little dirty. The one I got is a little worse off, here is the short list of apparent issues. 1. PS2 cable has been cut, apparently someone wanted that connector. (Could it be fixed? I think I could just solder a new connector at the end of the cable, would that work?) 2. F4 key is missing completely, the spring is missing as well. 3. The ö key cap is missing. (Nordic layout) 4. The m key prints out nm when pressed, v makes vb, numlock registers as numlock and arrow up. Not sure why. My friend is just disconnecting the cable from the one in use, and connecting it to the second one. He is currently swapping between them this way to test if they work fully. What do you guys think, is there hope for the second model M? Hopefully I can fix it somehow. I don't have pictures right now, I think I can get some tomorrow, I didn't have the meant to take the massive device home as I was travelling on bike, and couldn't close my backpack. Both keyboards are currently at my friends house.

IBM is getting rid of another part of their business, giving it to Global Foundries and paying $1.5 billion for them to keep it operational and have access to the production lines for their POWER chips, which they will keep developing. http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/10/struggling-ibm-pays-1-5-billion-to-dump-its-chipmaking-business/ http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29689344 Edit: Since IBM supplies chips to some very serious governmental agencies, the deal will require approval by 'as many as 200 regulators worldwide' potentially delaying the deal. http://techreport.com/news/27241/ibm-globalfoundries-deal-faces-regulatory-hurdles

I have a problem with my IBM x3850 M2 (this) Server. I cant boot from my isb stick with windows server 2012 r2 on it. the stick is bootable and i can boot from the stick on my gaming rig. when i select the usb stick to boot, this happens: i9990301 Disk failure or disk reset failed server spec: 2x Xeon E7240 32gb ecc ddr2 ram 4x 146gb 10k sas hdds I enabled booting from usb sticks in the bios. and i tried all usb ports on the server. the usb stick is a kingston data traveler G4 with 16GB Is there a bios setting that can solve the problem? Here are some pics...

So I found this keyboard in a closet at home, it's from an old IBM computer my mom has had since the 80's, not sure what model the PC is, too far in to take it out without starting a week long organizing project. But I was wondering if this is the famous IBM Model M? To me it looks like one. The label on the bottom is all worn out. Worth cleaning it up and try it out? Sorry for the blurry picture, shit camera.

Hi LTT. So I've just built a NAS and I'm about to install Debian on it from a USB stick to another USB stick (OS drive). Yesterday I had some problems with the installations so I've turned the computer on and off a couple of times. Today I continued to install Debian and had to turn the computer off as I was stuck in installation. When I turned the computer on again, the fans started spinning and I could see light from the RAID controller but no image on the screen. The screen turns on, then tells you there's no signal and go into standby-mode. I also experience that when I booted the system the fans started spinning, there was light from the RAID controller, then after ~20sec the whole system restarted itself and goes back to not showing an image. At this point I've booted the system several times without any problems but now it started to do this black screen and restart. So I've tried with a couple of different screens, a old VGA with a VGA-->DVI converter and a new Sony HDMI TV. Once with either screen I had an image appear but it's just stuck on this image/page. I tried to reboot the system a few times trying to get past this as it stayed like this for 15min or so. Once I tried to wait until something happened (a risky move if nothing will happen), something did happen though, it said something about the LSI controller. I didn't managed to read all of it or remember it. After that I figured it might be something with the LSI controller, so I tried to disconnect it from the system and now it boots without any problems. Conclusion: The LSI controller is causing the black screen or spontaneous restart. What could be a solution to this? Here's all my parts: CPU: Intel Pentium G3220T CPU cooler: Noctua NH-L9i RAM: Kingston HyperX Black 4GB 1333MHz Motherboard: MSI B85I Power supply: SilverStone SFX ST45SF-G Case: Lian-Li PC-Q25B Expansion card: IBM ServeRAID M1015 Storage: SeaGate NAS HDD ST4000VN000 4TB x 4 USB for OS: SanDisk Cruzer Fit 16GB Other: Noctua NF-A14 PWM, Noctua NF-F12 PWM, Mini SAS to 4 SATA x 2, cable ties Cheers McLarsen.

Firstly, a little bit of background: I'm both a live sound engineer and a part-time motion graphics designer. That means I spend half my time on outdoor sites, and the other half at home using quite intensive 3D applications. Up until now, I've been using a MacBook Pro running Windows, so switching to a non-mac wouldn't be a problem. Unfortunately, twice now my MacBook has succumbed to water damage, so I'm after a tougher machine. I was looking at the W530 series and wondered if they're as tough as the old T series from the IBM/Lenovo days, and if they were worth the money. If there are any other options around, then I'd love some suggestions. Thanks!

Hello everyone, I have another review for you! This time of the famous IBM Model M. Once again, I will post the text here, but to see all of the images and my sound test video you can follow this link to my website. Thanks for reading! ==== Now I shall review a retro IBM Model M. Today we're celebrating this particular keyboard's 20th birthday! Let's go over the typing experience first. As many of you know, this keyboard uses a buckling spring switch. There is nothing else like it. The actuation point is very pronounced, and the keystroke is heavier. You can't really bottom out the keys; the spring simply compresses until it can't compress any longer. I've achieved my highest and most accurate typing speed test scores (134+ wpm so far) with this keyboard. Most of all: it's fun! The most noticeable difference between the IBM Model M and other mechanical keyboards is the sound. Let's just say your colleagues at work are not going to be happy with your new-found love. Shall we give it a listen? As for build quality and design, it's built like a tank in the U.S.A., and it's appearance is old-school, classic. While it is made of plastic, the plastic is twice as thick as modern keyboards. Even though my keyboard has been on this earth for 20 years, there has been minimal, if any, discoloration during that time. It looks almost brand new. I especially love the raised and angled top row keys and the slight upward curvature to the keys on the other rows. However, it does take up a lot of space on your desk, which won't give you as much room for your mouse. The coiled cable is twice as thick as USB cables found with other keyboards. I like that it is removable, but I wish the connectors weren't proprietary. There are two small rubber feet on the bottom of the keyboard, but they are sufficient. Even if they were not included, the keyboard would **not** be moving around much because it is so heavy. This is also true when using the plastic angle adjustment feet. Another part of the great build is the keycaps. It would be just as hard to find a new-in-box IBM Model M as it would be to find a McDonald's burger with less than 10 grams of fat. This being the case, I purchased mine used. I was especially surprised to find no key shine. Part of the reason is because it uses higher quality PBT keycaps. The sides of the keys are glossy, while the tops have a nice simple texture. They also have dye-sublimated lettering. While a tiny bit fuzzy to the *Retina display* trained eye, they should never wear. At least, that's what the rumors say. There are some downsides to using this keyboard, and I'll go over those. One thing about the keyboard that bothers me is that the top and bottom halves in the front of the case have a visible gap. The spacebar is louder than the other keys, and has a different/looser tone. This is probably due to movement of the stabilizers. You simply cannot game. Not only are the switches heavier and wouldn't provide fast enough response, there is only 2 key roll over. This doesn't affect you when you're typing, not in the least, but when gaming even a rubber dome keyboard would be easier to use. I do miss the Windows key. I use shortcuts all the time to get into Windows Explorer (Win+E), go straight to the desktop (Win+D), and open up the start menu (using StartIsBack) in Windows 8. The good thing is you can use software called [KeyTweak](http://webpages.charter.net/krumsick/) to get around this. I've swapped out my caps lock key for the Window key, for instance. If you play games often and constantly have to swap out your board, this isn't ideal as KeyTweak requires a restart for any changes to occur. Another option similar to Keytweak is [AutoHotKey.](http://www.autohotkey.com/) Considering this product is now 20 years old, it's amazing how it still competes well with other, more modern, mechanical keyboards. I like it a lot, and I can almost guarantee you will too. If you're interested in picking one up for yourself, [Clicky Keyboards](http://www.clickykeyboards.com/) does a really nice job professionally cleaning, refurbishing, and then selling these keyboards. I am definitely going to be keeping this for a very long time, at least another 20 years.

BM has demonstrated a new type of memory technology that the company believes could one day bea replacement for NAND flash. The company’s Theseus Project (conducted in cooperation with the University of Patras in Greece) is the first attempt to combine phase change memory, conventional NAND, and DRAM on a single controller. The result? A hybridized storage solution that outperforms PCIe-based SSDs by between 12 and275 times. The physics of phase change Phase change memory is one of a number of alternative memory structures that’s beenproposed as a replacement for NAND. Phase change memory works by rapidly heating chalcogenide glass, shifting it between its crystalline and amorphous state. In its amorphous state (read as a binary 0), the structure has very high resistance, while in its crystalline state (binary 1) resistance is quite low. Phase change memory can quickly shift between the two states, plus research from Intel and Micron have demonstrated the feasibility of intermediate states, which allows two bits of information to be stored per cell. Phase change memory has much lower latency than NAND, much faster read/write times (in theory), and it can withstand millions of write cycles as compared to 30,000 with high-end SLC NAND and as few as 1,000 with TLC NAND. Even better, it’s well positioned compared to other theoretical memory devices. Even so, NAND flash has enormous economies of scale and billions invested in fab plants across the world. What IBM has done with Theseus is to incorporate a small amount of PCM into a hybrid structure where its ultra-low-latency characteristics can be effectively leveraged. This chart shows the various areas where IBM believes phase change memory could be useful. Note that in many cases, the PCM is being integrated either as a cache solution or as an additional tier of storage between NAND and DRAM, just as NAND is often integrated between DRAM and a conventional hard drive. Project Theseus is an aggregate controller featuring what appears to be 2.8GB of PCM (36 128Mbit cells per card, 5 cards total). IBM calls this its PSS (Prototype Storage Solution). The advantages of PCM are illustrated in the slides above. These graphs show the total latency for various types of requests. Note that the PSS solution (that’s the PCM card) completes the overwhelming majority of its requests in under 500 microseconds. The two MLC solutions top out at 14,000 and 20,000 microseconds compared to 2,000 microseconds for the PSS, while the TLC NAND is an order of magnitude slower, topping out at 120,000 microseconds. In short, these early PCMs, built on 90nm CMOS and at extremely low density (modern NAND flash is now available in 512Gbit sizes compared to 128Mbit for PCM) is a full order of magnitude faster than commercial NAND, with vastly superior write performance and data longevity. There’s just one little problem IBM makes a point of noting that its PSS solution uses 90nm memory produced by Micron. The only problem? Micron gave notice earlier this year that it was cancelling all of its PCM production and pulling out of the industry. While it left open the door to revisiting the memory tech at some point in the future, it indicated that the superior scaling of 3D NAND was a better option (despite the numerous problems identified with that technology in the short term). Where does this leave PCM? The 2013 ITRS report notes that NAND performance isn’t actually expected to increase much from present levels — in fact, it’s going to be difficult to maintain current NAND performance while improving density and holding write endurance constant. Right now, PCM is the most promising next-generation memory technology on the market — but if no one steps forward to manufacture it, it’s going to be a tough sell. (source: Extreme Tech )

I guess IBM really only makes processors for business applications but maybe google will start making boards for consumers? Could we see IBM competing with Intel and AMD in the future? http://www.wired.com/2014/04/openpower/?mbid=social_twitter

My father kept on forgetting to take this IBM back to his office so someone made this as a decoration piece lol! And looks good too!

DARPA has awarded IBM a $3.45 million contract to develop self-destructing microchips. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2430476,00.asp Just thought I found this kind of interesting... any thoughts? Update 2/8/2014 @ 11:37PM EST http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26082700 Another article I found today on the subject.

Today when walking home I stumbled upon an old IBM keyboard (it is hard rubbish time). Naturally I took it home as it seemed like a waste to let something like that go to waste. So I was wondering; is it worth anything?

Story at /. Nvidia + POWER? The possibilities? No idea. I don't know what "POWER Architecture" is. What could this mean for Nvidia's Shield? Still, pretty cool. Thoughts?

Story at /. Well. It's not often that IBM fails at something. Thought this was pretty interesting. How does $10 million turn into $1.2 Billion? That's... crazy.

IBM just released some details about their upcoming Power8 CPU during the Hot Chips-conference that is currently being held at the Stanford University. So far they have released the following data: 22-nanometer 650 square millimeters 230GB/s bandwidth 12 cores 8 threads per core 6MB, 96MB and 128MB for the L1, L2 and L3 cache respectively This is a huge upgrade compared to the old Power7+ (32-nm) which for instance only has 100GB/s bandwidth, 8 cores and a footprint of 567mm2. IBM is yet to release the transistor count of their new flagship CPU. (power CPU road-map) Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/27/ibm_power8_server_chip/ https://tweakers.net/nieuws/90935/ibm-geeft-details-over-power8-processor-met-12-cores.html

IBM has created a new sort of storage solution called racetrack memory Video at source link (Where Stuart Parkin, a research fellow at IBM's Almaden Research Center, describes racetrack memory, a new concept for storing data. Parkin and his team believe that racetrack memory could match the capacity of magnetic hard drives and the ruggedness of flash memory, making it a possible replacement for both.) *Quote* What current form factor of "memory" is it as fast as? (i.e. dram, cache memory, hdd/sdd) Supposedly faster then HDD When can I get it? Not mentioned Will it emit light simply from what it does normally? (still waiting for pc parts that do that lol) I doubt it This seems to be finally some improvement in storage Sorry for for being horrible at making articles Source : Engadget

I recently got a hold of a IBM x3500 M3 and was looking for some advice on setting up a RAID array in it. It currently has 4 300GB 12000RPM drives that came with it in a hardware RID, that re too small for my uses. I was going to replace it with 2/4 3TB HDD that are slower 7200RPM for a 6/12TB setup. What I'm asking is what RAID I should go with in your peoples opinion. I was looking at either a RAID 0, 1 or 10, but am not sure what would be the best option. If there are others that would be better please suggest.

Chinese Media Sina and BloomBerg reported, Lenovo buys IBM's x86 server business for 2.3 Billion dollars, nine years after Lenovo bought IBM's PC business for 1.25 Billion dollars. The deal includes about $2 billion of cash and the rest in Lenovo stock. The hardware products in this deal including "System x", "BladeCenter", "Blade", "Flex System", "Pure Flex" product, Blade Network Technology, etc. Lenovo's CEO Yang Yuanqing expected that the company will increase by $ 5 billion annual revenue through this acquisition. Before this acquisition, Lenovo also acquire control of Germany’s Medion AG and NEC Corp.’s PC division in Japan. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-23/lenovo-to-buy-ibm-server-unit-for-2-3-billion-amid-pc-slump.html http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/2014-01-23/16589122883.shtml (in Chinese) http://translate.google.com.hk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=zh-TW&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftech.sina.com.cn%2Fit%2F2014-01-23%2F16589122883.shtml (with Google Translate to English)

Hey guys I have an old IBM/Lenovo X60 tablet/laptop that I use as a second screen when gaming and other stuff when I'm too lazy to turn on my desktop... I was thinking of replacing the old harddrive with an ssd, but I don't know if is worth the cost... do you think it will help on the performance of the machine? It was "born" with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, and has an Intel Core Duo L2400 @ 1.66GHz and 1.5GB of ram. I hope you guys can help...

http://www.dailytech.com/IBM+Introduces+Two+New+Watson+Projects+for+the+Medical+Field/article33555.htm IBM announced two new Watson projects aimed to specifically help the medical sector: “WatsonPaths” and “Watson EMR Assistant." IBM collaborated with brilliant minds at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University to make the projects possible. WatsonPaths shows Watson's course of thinking, from the initial question to how it arrives at an answer. In between is Watson uses information from reference materials, clinical guidelines and medical journals to calculate conclusions that either support or refute a set of hypotheses -- just like human thinking. The point of WatsonPaths is to help medical professionals look at new ways of consuming medical information and thinking to arrive at the best treatment options. IBM also said that it could eventually help medical students learn how to search the latest medical information quickly and study critical reasoning pathways. As for Watson EMR Assistant, it allows for a quicker and more thorough understanding of a patient’s electronic medical records. EMRs can be very dense and contain too much information to read in a short period of time, but Watson EMR Assistant takes in the EMR data and makes sense of it all to create a complete analysis much quicker than a human doctor can. The doctor can then use Watson EMR Assistant to make quick and accurate medical diagnoses. "On 'Jeopardy!' it was not necessarily critical to know how Watson arrived at its answer. But doctors or domain experts in any field will want to understand what information sources Watson consulted, what logic it applied and what inferences it made in arriving at a recommendation,” said Eric Brown, IBM Research Director of Watson Technologies. “Through our research collaboration with Cleveland Clinic, we've been able to significantly advance technologies that Watson can leverage to handle more and more complex problems in real time and partner with medical experts in a much more intuitive fashion. These are breakthrough technologies intended to assist future versions of Watson products." Overall, the projects have improved Watson's cognitive computing abilities for a more "natural" interaction between Watson and medical staff. Watson competed with human contestants on "Jeopardy!" back in 2011. A little later, IBM thought about using Watson's DeepQA software to answer sales questions about the company through telemarketing calls. (Copied from dailytech)

So I decided it would be a great idea to give my Ibm Model M a quick clean, so I removed all the keys and blew away all the dust with compressed air and cotton buds then I steeped all the keys in hot soapy water. All of this went to plan when I went to go dry them and assemble the keyboard back my sister burst into a fit of rage while she was in the other room and then came into the kitchen "The room I was in" and started shouting about god knows what then took the bowl my keys were in and threatened to throw them in a bucket of coal and I was like hell naw and grabbed it back and sat down and carried on cleaning the key caps when she picked it up again and threw it at me, her bad aim meant she completely missed me and hit the cup of tea beside me, knocking it over and spilling the water and the keycaps all over the floor. I quickly lifted my keyboard and phone"S3" from the table and then cleaned the tea of them but I needed to work down in the farm in like two minutes so I then left the house and fed all the cows" Yes I am a farmer" and returned, she was lucky she cleaned up most of the mess but I still found about 10 more key caps after and assembled the keyboard when I realized that 2 keys were broken" Key pictured below" because I obviously can't type them and being a gamer/ heavy typist these keys are needed all the time so as you can imagine I was pretty pissed and my sister is clearly not very nice... So I looked on ebay and no key caps for sale at the moment so my only choices is to live with it or buy another model M! Note bottom picture is an old before picture. Ps. Does anyone in the UK/Ireland have any spare model m key caps for num pad enter and also a generic keycap, I highly doubt it but if you do give me a shout! Thanks.

It seems IBM really wants to stay at the top by investing heavily in the future generation of chip manufacturing which can only be good for us consumers as Moore's law is really struggling at the moment. The article is from ExtremeTech http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/186048-ibm-plows-3-billion-into-7nm-chip-research-and-post-silicon-technologies So what do you guys think, when will we see a 7nm consumer chips or even below that and what computational methods are you most interested in?

Project Sunblock a new independent project could see the end of advertising in parts of the internet by simply telling advertisers and companies using net adverts, where their marketing online is appearing. Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/04/ad_biz_gets_one_less_excuse_to_sponsor_freetards_and_filth/ It really struck me that advertisers simply don't track where their ad's go and thus what their marketing funds are going to, could prove interesting, but I can also see how it would be abused to build even more detailed profiles of users.

This is a really interesting video I found from IBM. They make a short stop motion animation film by magnetically moving CO molecules bit by bit. It's cool but the interesting part is that this technology may one day have an effect on data storage. In the making-of video, they mention that controlling data on the atomic level like this would allow for massive storage spaces. The way they do it is by shrinking the transistor down to the size of 12 atoms. I think it is really cool, even if we don't see the effect of this technology for a while because it would mean that even the smallest device could hold pretty much all the data ever. The making-of video The film they made http://www.youtube.com/madewithatoms

So, I just found this in the back of my closet. I think it's a pretty neat find :)