IBM 5100 luggable computer with APL

'Tim Shoppa' wrote, in part: I was using HP 9830's from about that time for data logging etc. through HPIB bus, but those are usually thought of as glorified programmable calculators rather than "computers". Overall form factor was even more portable than the 5100 but it didn't have a CRT (instead using a one-line dot-matrix LED display). They were about 1-3rd the price of a 5100, too.

In my use of the IBM 5100, all the data came in via a serial interface. I added an outboard parallel to serial interface for connection to instruments (in this case, shaft encoders and electronic timing data.) The 5100 logged the data and was used to perform error analysis and correction for periodic error correction. The system was used on gridded steel catwalks alongside spent fuel pools in nucelar reactor aux buildings during refueling. The 5100 could organize and display corrected data on the internal CRT for immediate use, and save (on an 8" floppy, as I remember, though information on the web indicates that only digital tape drives were available at that early date - incorrectly, I think - tape would have not been very reliable in the environment) for later analysis.

Phil Weldon