My Computer Collection
IBM 7561

Photo of IBM 7561 (Front)
Click here or click onto the photo for a full size version of this picture.

The IBM 7561 belongs to a side-development of IBM's Personal Computer Division that builds PCs for industrial use. In such environments, it is not so important how cool a computer looks, but instead how good it can withstand the environmental conditions. This leads to a solid full-metal case that fits into 19-inch racks, extra cooling fans and a generally more rugged construction.

The 7561 is a derivative of the PS/2 model 70: It also has Microchannel slots, a PS/S hard disk interface and the same power supply, but one slot more and a completely different housing with a large (and noisy...) fan at the front. The fan has a dust filter for use in 'dirty' environments.

I currently cannot make much use of my 7561 because it's broken somewhere in the area of the on-board VGA; I suspect the Color Palette DAC but it seems to be difficult to fix...

Photo of IBM 7561 (Cover off)
Click here or click onto the photo for a full size version of this picture.

It almost looks like the designers of the 7561 took the innards of a model 70 and built a new metal case around it. The construction is exactly like the model 70, including the snap-in mountings for hard drive and floppies.

Photo of IBM 7561 (Mainboard)
Click here or click onto the photo for a full size version of this picture.

Note the seemingly unused space left to the planar. Louis' first thought was that it is the place of the optional battery pack, but it turned out that the battery pack is located in supply: that:

The 7561 had a 180W PSU, autoranging option.

I was wrong then, but I put out the correct answer- the backup battery fits inside the PSU itself. The screw that opens up it's compartment is at the front of the PSU on the outside. The plug is a three pin Molex.

So you could have a built-in UPS for this machine - very nice in an industrial environment...

Processor:
Intel 80386DX @ 20 MHz
Coprocessor:
Intel 80387DX @ 20 MHz
Cache:
none
Memory:
2 Mbytes (options range from 2M to 6M)
Bus:
4 MCA slots, two 32 bit and two16 bit
Interfaces (onboard):
  • Mouse, Keyboard
  • 1 x Serial
  • 1 x Parallel
  • Floppy (1.44M), one or two internal drives
  • ESDI hard disk (DBA interface)
  • VGA
Add-on cards:
  • (currently none)
Operating System(s):
  • (currently none)


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©1999 Alfred Arnold, alfred@ccac.rwth-aachen.de