Model 5510

(PS/55Z 5510)

5510sre.exe Reference Disk for 5510-S v1.01 (DOS/V)
5510tref.exe Reference Disk for 5510-T v1.41 (DOS/V)
5510zref.exe Reference Disk for 5510-Z v1.10 (DOS/V)

Model 5510-Z/S/T Brochure

PS/55 Type 5510 (Schwarzschild Cafe)
PS/55 Type 5510 Anatomy (Schwarzschild Cafe)
The IBM Personal System/55 5510 (EN translation by McRetro)

General Information
5510-Z 286-16
5510-S 386SX-16
5510-T 386DX-20


General Information

The 5510 series was introduced to the consumer market to spread IBM Japan's DOS/V technology. PS/55s (with 386DX processor and Japanese Display Adapter) were mainly targeted to the business market and they were very expensive. Especially the display adapters designed for high resolution graphic environment were very expensive and pushed up prices of the PS/55s. In order to confront NEC PC 9801, and to extend the superiority of DOS/V architecture against Japanese specific "closed" architecture of handling Japanese characters. DOS/V architecture enabled any IBM PC/AT and PS/2 based computers to use Japanese characters just with a regular VGA video sub-system, 80286 or higher CPU, and with 2MB of system memory. IBM needed cheap and competitively priced PC for their new DOS. Thus PS/55Z 5510 series was released to the market shortly after the IBM DOS J4.0/V announcement.

DOS J4.0/V was based on PC DOS 4.0 with some special programs allowing for use of Japanese characters - such as $FONT.SYS, $DISP.SYS, $IAS.SYS and Japanese Font Files. If these drivers are not loaded, DOS 4.0/V acts just like a regular (pure) PC DOS 4.0 and is compatible with all software written for it or earlier DOS versions. Once those drivers are loaded they provide an environment for Japanese software. A special CHEV command allows the user to switch between the Japanese and English mode (basically within the Japanese environment). Another command - SWITCH - reboots the system to a real English (PC DOS) environment without the special DOS/V drivers.

The following version - DOS J5.0 included a PS/55 high resolution mode for existing PS/55 Display Adapters and softwares written for IBM DOS J4.0 along with DOS/V drivers. DOS J5.02 was the last release which supports PS/55 High-Resolution together with DOS/V VGA resolution. There are two versions of J5.0 and J5.02 with "/V" extension which does not contain PS/55 High Resolution mode. PC DOS 6.1/6.3/7.0 and 2000 are all based on DOS/V only and do not support PS/55 High-Resolution.


5510-Z (Z02/ZJ2, Z04/ZJ4) Released May 1991, AT bus

Model 5510-Z Brochure

5510-Z was an AT bus system with 80286-12MHz CPU and was defined as "Entry model". As you can see, front face of 10-Z looks like PS/2 model 8576.

CPU286-12
Memory1MB
FDD2-mode drive
(Z02 and ZJ2 were equipped with 2 drives)
VideoVGA WD90C10-LR VRAM 512KB?
HDIDE 40MB for Z04 and ZJ4

Price 5510-Z02 (basic model) JY198,000
ZJ2 and ZJ4 were shipped with DOS J4.0/V


5510-S (S01/SV1, SV4, SW4) Released Dec 1991, AT bus

Model 5510-S Brochure

5510-S was not an MCA system. It was based on AT architecture. 10-S was introduced to the market to take over 5510-Z (286 CPU) model and as a reference machine to test compatibility of hardwares and softwares for DOS/V specification.

CPU386SX-16
Memory2MB
FDD2-mode drive
VideoVGA 512KB VRAM
(WD90C11A-LR VGA chip on the planar)
Capable for 800 x 600 SVGA mode.
HDIDE 40MB for SV4 and SW4.

SV1 (FD model) came with set of floppies of IBM DOS J5.0/V

Type HDD FDD RAM OS Price Marketed
SV0 1 2MB JY 248,000 Dec 1991
SV1 1 2MB DOS J5.0/V (Floppies) JY 264,000 Dec 1991
SV4 40MB 1 2MB DOS J5.0/V JY 358,000 Dec 1991
SW4 40MB 1 6MB DOS J5.0/V and Win 3.0J JY 465,000 Dec 1991


5510-T First model released May 1991, Micro Channel

Model 5510-Tx4 Brochure
Model 5510-Tx8 Brochure

The 5510-T was not as cheap as the other 5510 PS/55Z machines but was cheaper than the MCA-based PS/55 machines with Japanese Display adapter. This model was equipped with a 386DX CPU though it was classified under PS/55Z. I do not know difference between this model and 5540-T aside from the fact that 40-T can't take XGA while 10-T can.

CPU386DX-20
Memory2MB
FDD2-mode drive
VideoVGA 1MB VRAM
The later TW8 model was sold with XGA /A (1MB VRAM).
HD40MB (ESDI? not sure)

Type HDD FDD Video RAM OS Price Marketed
T04 40MB 1 VGA 2MB DOS J5.0/V (Floppies) JY 358,000 May 1991
TJ4 40MB 1 VGA 2MB DOS J5.0/V JY 554,000 May 1991
T08 80MB 1 XGA 2MB DOS J5.0/V JY 628,000 Dec 1991
TW8 80MB 1 XGA 6MB DOS J5.0/V and Win 3.0J JY 751,000 Dec 1991

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Louis F. Ohland, Peter H. Wendt, David L. Beem, William R. Walsh, Tatsuo Sunagawa, Tomáš Slavotínek, Jim Shorney, Tim N. Clarke, Kevin Bowling, and many others.

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