My Computer Collection
IBM PS/2 Model 77s

Photo of IBM PS/2 Model 77s
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The Model 77i/s is the 'big brother' of the Model 76i/s: it shares the same main board, but has a larger case and bigger power supply, providing space for up to 5 full-length MCA cards and 4 drives. One of these bays is usually occupied with the floppy, so there is effectively room for two 5,25 drives and one 3,5 inch drive. The space below the latter one is not unused; the power supply extends almost to the front :-)

Photo of IBM PS/2 Model 77s's innards
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Photo of IBM PS/2 Model 77s's drive bays
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Adding or removing drives is simple: remove the front cover with a click and push the drives in. Unfortunately, things are only so simple when you have the correct rails (siderails for 5,25 inch drives or bottom rails for 3,5 inch drives).

Photo of IBM PS/2 Model 77s's main board
Click here or click onto the photo for a full size version of this picture.

The 77s uses the Lacuna planar, the newer main board for the 76/77 series. Among the goodies are a ZIF socket for the CPU with a connector for an optional 3.3V voltage regulator module, an S3-928 based SVGA (1MB VRAM, expandable via a proprietary connector) and an IDE interface, something almost unique in the PS/2 line. IBM later offered BIOS and reference disk upgrades to allow larger disks than 504MB; I myself have a 6.4 GByte Seagate drive that happily works with all 3 OSes installed on this machine.

Processor:
Intel i486DX2 @ 66 MHz
Coprocessor:
integrated into CPU
Cache:
8K internally in CPU, 128K L2 cache module
Memory:
24 Mbytes (options range from 4M to 64M)
Bus:
5 MCA slots (32 bit)
Interfaces (onboard):
  • Mouse, Keyboard
  • 2 x Serial
  • 1 x Parallel
  • Floppy (2.88M), allows attachment of up to 3(!) drives
  • IDE (1 channel)
  • SVGA (S3-928-based)
Add-on cards:
  • SKnet Junior MC/2 Ethernet adapter
  • IBM EtherStreamer MC/32 Ethernet adapter
  • IBM 16/4 Token Ring Adapter/A
  • IBM Multiprotocol Adapter
  • Future Domain MCS-700 SCSI adapter
Operating System(s):
  • OS/2 Warp Version 4
  • Caldera OpenDOS 7.01
  • Linux 2.2 (Slackware-based)
Useful Links:


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