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)
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
5510 series were introduced to the consumer market to spread out 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 PS/55 Japanese display adapters designed for high
resolution graphic environment were very expensive and pushed up prices of
PS/55s. In order to confront NEC PC 9801, and to extend the superiority of
DOS/V architecture against Japanese specific "closed" architecture relating
handling of Japanese characters. DOS/V architecture enabled any IBM PC/AT
and PS/2 based computers to handle Japanese characters just with
VGA video sub-system, 80286 and upper CPUs and with 2MB of system memory.
IBM needed cheap and competitive priced PC for their new DOS. Thus
PS/55Z 5510 series were put on the market shortly after IBM DOS J4.0/V
had been announced.
DOS J4.0/V was based on POC DOS 4.0 and some programs for
handling of Japanese characters were added such as $FONT.SYSm, $DISP.SYS,
$IAS.SYS and Japanese Font Files. If these drivers are not loaded, DOS 4.0/V
acted just like as pure PC DOS 4.0 and compatible with any of software written
in English but once those drivers are loaded it provides Japanese environment.
CHEV command allows changing of Japanese and English environment (basically
within Japanese environment) while SWITCH command rebooting a system with
real English (PC DOS) environment without DOS/V related drivers.
Following version, DOS J5.0 included 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.
Model 5510-Z/S/T Brochure
5510-Z (Z02/ZJ2, Z04/ZJ4) Released May 1991
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.

|
CPU | 286-12 |
Memory | 1MB |
FDD | 2-mode drive
(Z02 and ZJ2 were equipped with 2 drives) |
Video | VGA WD90C10-LR VRAM 512KB? |
HD | IDE 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
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.

|
CPU | 386SX-16 |
Memory | 2MB |
FDD | 2-mode drive |
Video | VGA 512KB VRAM
(WD90C11A-LR VGA chip on the planar)
Capable for 800 x 600 SVGA mode. |
HD | IDE 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 was released May 1991
Model 5510-Tx4 Brochure
Model 5510-Tx8 Brochure
5510-T was not so cheap as PS/55Z but cheaper than MCA models 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.

|
CPU | 386DX-20 |
Memory | 2MB |
FDD | 2-mode drive |
Video | VGA 1MB VRAM
The later TW8 model was sold with XGA /A (1MB VRAM). |
HD | 40MB (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 |
|