Recently picked up this beautiful IBM ThinkPad 365XD not too long ago from an auction for a whopping $7. Worth every penny of those 7 dollars! Runs like a dream for a laptop running Windows 98 and I love it! Last picture features my humble IBM Portable PC’s, a 5140 PC Convertible and P75 486.
Hi r/vintagekeyboards !
This is a NOS, US Layout, SORD KB-101 with Hirose Cherry HCP Clear switches and a very rare indigo switch. I was fortunate enough to acquire this from someone who was hired to clear out an old warehouse in Los Angeles, California. That warehouse ended up being SORD’s US warehouse, showroom, and distribution center for the west coast of the US. The paperwork in the background are original press releases and marketing material that SORD sent BYTE Magazine writers in 1983-1984 to announce their product offerings in the US market.
SORD (an acronym for both SOftware and haRDware as they focused heavily on the integration of both) was a personal and business computer manufacturer for the Japanese market. They held about 10% of the entire JP computer market (behind NEC and Fujitsu) at their peak and was a very successful company overall at the time. Their next big step was to introduce their products to the international market including the US. In 1982, SORD began work on setting up offices in both New York City and Los Angeles and building networks of suppliers and service centers across the country. The press material that I was able to acquire is from this period when they were first starting to introduce products to the US market. Based on what I have read through in the press releases, they were extremely hopeful for their success in other markets. Sadly, the personal computer industry started to evolve rapidly during this period and SORD fell behind, focusing on hardware that the industry started to move away from. SORD never made a large impact on the US market as they were unable to penetrate it like they predicted.
As for the keyboard, it was manufactured by Hirose Cherry Precision (HCP) in the mid 80s and uses their MX line of switches. For those who don’t know, Hirose was an already existing company in Japan that Cherry partnered with for a brief period, in an attempt to take back some of the keyboard market share in Japan. They were eventually unsuccessful, similar to SORD, and stopped production not long after this keyboard was made. Hirose switches differ from standard Cherry in that they are all linear, can have different color stems (special colors are on the spacebar and numpad enter keys), and the stems are slightly smaller than normal MX (normal mx keycaps WILL NOT FIT). This particular keyboard has a special HCP Indigo switch under the Numpad Enter key which is the only known example of a HCP indigo switch that has been documented. Typically these keyboards are most common in Japanese layout but this is an exceptionally rare US version that was most likely never sold and just sat in a SORD warehouse for decades. I’d also highly recommend checking out my other post about a Hangul SORD M68 keyboard here for an even crazier example of a SORD keyboard. While I don’t like that it has to be said, I do ask that you, the reader, does not contribute to the destruction of these keyboards for harvesting parts. These are exceptionally rare (I can count \~5 known examples of these in US layout), the parts don’t fit on modern keyboards properly, and are quite special in terms of computer history.
Hope you found this interesting! Thank you :)
Hello! I’ve got a carbon-themed old VE.A that I’d love to start using again with the set it was meant to be run with. Please comment before messaging. Would strongly prefer to buy CONUS. Thanks!
Hi r/typewriters!
This is my first contribution to this subreddit, as it is my first typewriter! Normally, I am a vintage mechanical keyboard collector and enthusiast who doesn’t dive into typewriters, mainly for a lack of space, except for this beauty. I specifically said to myself that the one exception that I would make is for one of these Onyx Blue IBM Selectric I’s, as navy blue is my favorite color an, as an engineer, this is a marvel. I recently purchased this locally from the original owner who kept it in wonderful condition, though it needs a really good service. Today I had the pleasure of dropping it off for its first service in decades at a local small business, Marr Office Equipment (Highly recommend checking them out if you’re in New England!!). They have been servicing selectrics and other typewriters for three generations, as many of you may know, and the owner is fantastic. These are a few photos from before dropping it off for its servicing today. Very excited to get this type ball jumping across the pages once again!
Side note, yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the release of the IBM Selectric I Model 75, one of the most revolutionary typewriters ever made.