IBM JX

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IBM Personal System/55
IBM JX rear view

The IBM JX (or JXPC) was a

Australasian market towards the public education sector rather than at consumers, and was sold in three levels: JX (64 KiB), JX2 (128 KiB) and JX3 (256 KiB). Upgrades were available to both 384 KiB and 512 KiB. The JX was the first IBM PC to use 3.5" floppy drives.[3]

IBM Japan expected to sell 200,000 units of JX, but only 40,000 units were produced. The JX was discontinued in 1987, and IBM Japan gave 15,000 units of JX to its employees in honor of the company's 50th anniversary.[2]

General

The IBM JX's main difference from the PCjr was a professional keyboard (rather than the PCjr's disparaged

Sierra On-line
being the most well-known.

Configuration

It had several innovative features:

In Japan, both white and dark gray units were available,

ROM, but the basic system only has the capability to display 40×11 Japanese text. The Extended Display Cartridge provides 40×25 Japanese text mode, and its display resolution is 720×512 pixels like a 16 pixel font model of the IBM 5550
. This cartridge contains a BASIC interpreter compatible with 5550's.

However, one disadvantage it shared with the PCjr was that it could not use the standard

ISA bus cards of the IBM PC.[4]

The system operated

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.[4]

IBM Japan advertised the JX as a home computer, but its sales didn't grow even in 1986. According to the Nikkei Personal Computing journal, a distributor revealed the number of units sold was "around 2,000 units in Japan alone", and an industry insider expected "Sales to retail stores, overseas stores, IBM's employees, their family, and direct sales to large customers. Including all of these, about 10,000 units". One computer store declared that customers wouldn't buy it even at one quarter list price.[5] The Japanese home computer market was much smaller than its video game console market compared with Western countries, yet NEC sold 75,000 units of PC-88 in the four months since November 1985.[6]

Many people pointed out the matter was adopting the

PC/AT in November 1985.[7]

The IBM 5550 sold well for Japanese companies who used IBM's mainframe computer. The JX providing the Japanese text mode and word processor had the potential to expand into the small-business sector. However, in February 1985, IBM Japan released the IBM 5540 as the entry-level line of the IBM 5550. The IBM 5540 offered a fully compatibility with the 5550 at the price between the 5550 and JX. A sales manager of IBM Japan expected it expanded their lineup of computers, but the announcement confused IBM users. A businessman who used the 5550 in his office and the JX at his home complained "If I knew the 5540 would release four months later, I wouldn't have purchased the JX". Both JX and 5540 took a long time to develop. The product manager explained that they spent 70% of their efforts on compatibility with older machines every time they developed new machines. The Nikkei Personal Computing journal pointed out both were developed at the same time at the Fujisawa Development Laboratory, and suspected that IBM Japan was imposed to release the JX first by its parent company, IBM.[8]

Masahiko Hatori(羽鳥 正彦), who developed the BIOS and DOS for the JX, recalled the development staff were anxious that it would be too late to compete with other Japanese machines although the management thought it went well whatever IBM made.[9] They were using NEC and other companies' computers at their home. He also revealed the reason why the JX used the 8088 processor was both the development and sales teams thought a consumer-class JX mustn't surpass a business-class 5550. The JX was dedicated to be inexpensive for personal use, but it didn't suit consumers who preferred the fast response time for gaming.[10]

IBM Japan didn't disclose its unit sales, but the Nikkei Computer journal reported in 1987 that only 40,000 units were produced according to the insider.

PS/55Z
in 1988.

Timeline

Timeline of the IBM Personal Computer
IBM ThinkCentreIBM NetVistaIBM Palm Top PC 110IBM PC SeriesIBM AptivaIBM PS/ValuePointThinkPadEduQuestIBM PS/noteAmbra Computer CorporationIBM PCradioIBM PS/1IBM PS/55IBM PS/2IBM Personal Computer XT 286IBM PC ConvertibleIBM JXIBM Personal Computer AT/370IBM Personal Computer ATIBM Industrial ComputerIBM PCjrIBM Portable Personal ComputerIBM Personal Computer XT/370IBM 3270 PCIBM Personal Computer XTIBM 5550IBM Personal ComputerIBM System/23 DatamasterIBM 5120IBM 5110IBM 5100
Asterisk (*) denotes a model released in Japan only

References

  1. ^ 陳, 韻如 (2009). "新技術の形成における新旧技術・組織の調整 : パナソニックの「レッツノート」のケーススタディ" (PDF). 社会文化研究所紀要 (in Japanese). 64. Kyushu International University: 57–79. Retrieved 23 March 2021 – via Kyushu International University Repository.
  2. ^
    ISSN 0285-4619
    .
  3. ^ Dunn, Ron (December 1985). "IBM JX Benchtest". Personal Computer World. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Raike, William M. (March 1985). "A Sampler". BYTE. p. 375. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  5. ^
    ISSN 0287-9506
    .
  6. Nihon Keizai Shimbun
    . 1986-03-10. p. 5.
  7. Nihon Keizai Shimbun
    . 1985-11-26.
  8. ISSN 0287-9506
    .
  9. ISSN 0386-5428
    .
  10. ^ "Special Interview キーマンが語る: 日本IBM情報システム(株) 竹村譲 氏、日本IBM(株) 羽鳥正彦 氏". The BASIC (in Japanese). 120. 技術評論社: 33–40. 1993.
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Preceded by IBM JX
1984 - 1987 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
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