IBM JX

IBM JX Personal Computer (IBM 5511)
Developer IBM
Release date October 1984 (1984-10)
Operating system PC DOS 2.1, Microsoft Disk BASIC, Advanced BASIC
CPU Intel 8088 @ 4.77 MHz

The IBM JX (or JXPC) was a personal computer released in 1984 into the Japanese, Australian and New Zealand markets. Designed in Japan, it was based on the technology of the IBM PCjr and was designated the IBM 5511. It was targeted in the Australian market towards the public education sector rather than at consumers, and was sold in three levels: JX (64Kb), JX2 (128Kb) and JX3 (256kb). Upgrades were available to both 384kb and 512kb.

General

The IBM JX's main difference from the PCjr was a professional keyboard (rather than IBM PCjr's disparaged chiclet), dual 3.5" floppy drives, as well as options for a 5.25" floppy drive and a hard drive, both of which sat atop the main unit. The JX did not have the support for the sidecar add-ons that the PCjr was designed to support for hardware expansion. In common with the PCjr it had no DMA controller. It also supported the otherwise unique-in-the-IBM-PC-world ECGA (Enhanced CGA—16 simultaneous colors, but only at 320x200 resolution) and the 4-channel sound functions. Support for these two features was utilised by only a handful of software developers—Sierra On-line being the most well-known.

Configuration

It had several innovative features:

In Japan, both white and dark gray units were available,[1] but elsewhere all IBM JXs were dark gray—very unusual in the days of the standard color of IBM "beige boxes".

However, one disadvantage it shared with the PCjr was that it could not use the standard ISA bus cards of the IBM PC.[1]

The system operated PC DOS 2.11 as well as Microsoft Disk BASIC and Microsoft Advanced BASIC. Like the PC, if the system was left to boot without inserting a diskette into one of the drives the Microsoft Cassette BASIC interpreter would be loaded, which was compatible with IBM PCjr BASIC, including Cartridge BASIC. PC DOS 2.11 could only use half of the tracks of a 3.5" drive, however, since it didn't really understand what a 3.5" drive even was. The PCjx's BIOS could only address the first 40 tracks, like a 5.25" drive.

The PCjx later had a BIOS upgrade chip, sold together with PC DOS 3.21, which could use the full 720 KB capacity of the diskette drives. Some popular options for the PCjx were a 5.25" 360 KB capacity diskette drive, a 10 MB external hard disk (both of these as stackable units the same size as the JX itself) and a joystick. IBM never released a 3270 emulation adapter for the PCjx, in order to steer enterprise customers to more-expensive IBM PCs and XTs.

Reception

BYTE in 1985 called the JX "a Japanese product for the Japanese; its price and capabilities reflect its target market". The magazine stated that its compatibility with PCjr peripherals rather than the PC's, and joystick ports and audio, "suggests that IBM Japan is hedging its bets by pursuing a share of the easily saturated video-game sector". BYTE concluded that "the JX will enjoy, at best, a modest and short-lived success—it's too little, too late" against more-sophisticated rival computers.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Raike, William M. (March 1985). "A Sampler". BYTE. p. 375. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
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