IBM PC/AT 5170 & IBM PC Portable 5155

It’s 1984, 41 years ago.
Frankie tells you to relax, Laura’s losing control, and Stevie’s calling to say he loves you. France wins the UEFA European Football Championship with Michel Platini, Carl Lewis is the star at the Los Angeles Olympics, and Ronald Reagan becomes US President. Sweden wins Eurovision, ‘The Terminator’ hits cinemas, Switzerland approves the motorway vignette, is visited by the Pope, and elects the first woman to the Federal Council.

And IBM releases, among other things, the PC/AT and the PC Portable.
The IBM PC/AT 5170 was a heavyweight of its time as a personal computer, and not just because of its computing power – it weighs a hefty 20 kg with its iconic steel casing.

The successor to the PC-XT, with an 80286 processor running at 6 MHz, hard drive, HD floppy, up to 16 MB of RAM, and 16-bit expansion slots.
It also featured the new EGA graphics with an impressive 16 colors at 640×350 resolution – perfect for professional business charts, but great for Tetris too!
Priced from $6000 (equivalent to $18,000 today), it was intended exclusively for businesses.

After Compaq showed in 1983 that an IBM-compatible DOS machine could also be portable, IBM had to catch up.
The IBM Portable 5155 is essentially an IBM PC/XT in a portable casing.
Even the CGA graphics card is standard, although it outputs its image via the composite connection to a 9” monochrome screen.
“Portable” seems to refer mainly to the built-in handle, not the 14 kg weight – and that’s without a battery.