History of IBM Model M - the greatest of all time Keyboard

The first thing you pay attention, picking up the IBM Model M keyboard is its weight. After years of using the devices, weighing a kilogram or so, and clicks on the soft keys and touch screens - to keep in the hands of two kilograms of plastic and metal will be slightly scary. The second thing - it's juicy and crisp clicks that turn a boring peripheral device in the most valuable and expensive antiques of the computer world.

The following year, IBM Model M celebrates 30 years, but for many people it is the only keyboard they use. Recently, Model M was seen on the table Minecraft creator Markus Persson Notch, it was connected to his computer game in which only one video card is worth thousands of dollars. «Model M - this is the best keyboard ever created" - he told PC Gamer. On YouTube a bunch of reviews Model M, unboxing and sound comparisons with other mechanical keyboards. Since its introduction, IBM Model M keyboard was a standard of perfection.

"I love the iPad, this is an amazing device; I like the Kindle, as the reader for e-books ", - says Brandon Ermita, head of the university's IT department at Princeton. "But I would never have written the article, I could never write his thesis, and would never have been able to do their job on the touch screen."

Ermita devoted himself to keeping life in the Model M: he takes them from the warehouses and scrap receiving points, restores and sells through its website clickykeyboardsAnd also contains a real private museum Model M. According to rough estimates, over the last ten years, it passed through his hands for four to five thousand keyboards.

Like many of you, I have a pretty vague memories from the use of Model M. Last month I went to the suburbs of New Jersey and met with Hermite to rediscover the magic of the most favorite keyboard of all time.

On the day I visited his spacious office, where about two dozen keyboards took their seats in the stands, like a bottle of expensive wine. Above them, covered with a showcase, rested a black keyboard - Prototype Model M, which is the oldest exhibit in the collection Hermits. In the basket were the last of its acquisition, which will complete disassembly and cleaning of crumbs, sauce, sewing needles and other trash left by the former owners. Model M could become a thing of the past, but its DNA is almost in every modern keyboard that we use today.

QWERTY keyboard layouts have been invented for typewriters in the late 19th century and quickly became universal. But by the time when IBM released its first PC in 1981, the layout is no longer just the order of letters location - now users needed special keys to work with a word processor, a terminal and a "microcomputer". Now the keyboard from the 70s and 80s are perceived both familiar and completely alien: 83-key IBM keyboard computer, known as the PC / XT, all important keys are very small and biased to the edge, and their characters have been replaced by mysterious arrows. These keyboards create the impression of chaos, tiny buttons and inexplicably long stretches.

In August 1984, IBM announced a keyboard similar to the PC / AT keyboard. Compared with the previous model, «AT-keyboard were far behind," as wrote PC Magazine. AT yes no tar live our days: the function keys grouped in two rows and to the left, rather than from the top; Esc, wormed his way among the numeric keys of the keyboard; mixed up the Ctrl and Caps Lock.

But IBM wanted more than just an "acceptable". Back in the early 1980s, the company has established a working group of ten people who were tasked with creating a better keyboard for experts and for common users. The design of the previous iteration, we are satisfied "quickly and efficiently, it is not something over which focused our group", - says David Bradley, a member of the working group and, concurrently, the creator (now universal) shortcuts Ctrl + Alt + Delete. A new group of invited people unfamiliar with computers to check more user-friendly keyboard, making an important key Management of large and frequently used keys are duplicated so that to them it was easy to reach with either hand. Many keys are removable and allows the user to rearrange them as they were convenient. This was the birth of the Model M.

Introduced in 1985, as part of IBM 3161 terminal, Model M was originally named the IBM Enhanced Keyboard. Its PC-compatible version coming next spring, and in 1987 - it became the official standard for the IBM Personal System / 2. The very first version, as he could get to the Ermita truth was made June 10, 1985-th. This is a very special date and it has become available due to the fact that each keyboard typed her ID, which It contains the date of production - Ermita even make money on it, picking up people keyboard made in their day birth. He also oversees the project Model M Archive - eerily long set of tables that contain information about all keyboards, passed through his business, as well as providing other users (ID, date of manufacture, number plant).

The collection Hermits have a lot of unique specialized keyboards, for example, one with built-in buttons labels for travel agents or small model with three rows of keys, it is possible for cashiers. "When computers were introduced into production, they were presented as office supplies," - said the former IBM manager Neil Muskens. On vintage keyboards, you can find a sticker with instructions for specific programs and, often, critics We appreciate the keyboard on how well they work with software like WordStar and Lotus 1–2–3.

One commentator was very upset to see the changed layout during the presentation of Model M, but he had a nagging feeling that this design will be adopted in the future. "I feel as though IBM said to me - you must learn to love it, because - it's the future of the keyboard", - wrote PC Magazine columnist and he was right.

The layout used in the Model M, there is so long ago that is already considered something to take for granted. But her descendants are no longer using one of the things because of which the Model M has become a cult, namely the spring mechanism of keys submitted to PC / XT. Unlike arrangements with straight springs that move like pistons, y Model M has a spring beneath each key, in pressing time they bend, and after you release the key, return to the previous position with the characteristic sound. Due to this, they have a clear tactile feedback, which is not present in the modern membrane keyboards.

Unfortunately, this is not always good and sometimes the owners of Model M acrobystitis sad story of their spouses or co-workers, who can not endure the chatter of keys. However, the spring mechanism fans say that it reduces the number of errors when typing, because keystrokes It is required to overcome the resistance of the spring, which negates the false press, and to understand whether the key was pressed to help clear clicks. In many respects it is similar to a typewriter.

Soon after the Model M, its clones flooding the market. For its part, IBM has released a new version of the keyboard, which have undergone minimal redesign. As a result of nostalgia for the Model M spans generations. "People are often written off with me by e-mail and thank for the fact that give them memories those times when they were students or technicians in the distant 1980, "- says Ermita. Younger buyers remember how they played their classmates rearranging the keys on their keyboards. "I've heard this story a few times."

In 1990, IBM business unraveled keyboards, typewriters and printers in the Lexmark company. After six years, Lexmark has thrown his unit keypads that Muskens calls a transition to more widespread and cheaper products. IBM continued to license the products produced at the plant in Scotland and, briefly, the company Maxi-Switch, but the last batch of Model M, as far as we can judge, went off the assembly line in 1999.

You can still buy the official Model M for about $ 80, but it will not be nameplate IBM. After Lexmark gone out of business, Muskens and other former employees, began quietly buying up property rights and manufacturing equipment, a job title Unicomp. "We had to change the electronics," - says Muskens. "Material wrappers changed in 1999, but everything else is basically remained the same."

For some it is not enough authentic. "We were constantly asked if we can sell [some] product with the logo of IBM? Answer - No, because the ownership of the logo belong to IBM », - is responsible Muskens. He says that IBM is still ordering their little keyboards for their existing customers, but If you want old school IBM logo - go on eBay or contact a guy like Ermita. For other users of the innate superiority and versatility Model M exceeds the nostalgic needs: there are guys who adapted them to work via BluetoothAnd one of the Reddit users He boasted its modification, Which employs a keypad backlighting in the manner of those that use the Razer or Alienware.

"They are like oil. Once the day comes when they run out. This will be a big disaster, "- said Ermita. Now, however, it seems that this disaster is still far. The oldest Model M is for 30 years and Ermita hopes that it will last another 10 or 20 - enough for another generation that will be able to use part of the computer history.

Model M - is an artifact of the time when high technology and computers have been part of the industry, rather than a distraction. A computer with a standard PS / 2 was sold at a price of at least $ 2.295 in (or about $ 5,000, taking into account inflation to date), power and versatility it is inferior to any modern smartphone. Decades later, the increase in capacity and reduction in cost of computers has changed exponentially. But with these changes, the producers completely abandoned the concept of durability and longevity: among innumerable companies ready sell consumer specialized mouse and keyboard on the flea market prices, it is difficult to justify large investments than absolute minimum.

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