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Personal Terminal 510

Started by MIPS, October 30, 2016, 02:37:52 PM

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MIPS

So many levels of weird on this one.

It's a telephone. It's a speakerphone. It's a phonebook, calculator, clock, directory and frickin' VT100 compatible terminal. Plus there's the gel touchscreen which gives the surface a weird squishy feel.  What was AT&T planning??

Someone spotted it down in Houston and I paid to have it shipped up here where on arrival I found  :(

Presumably it will still work fine AS-IS as a telephone however the handset was not included. It looks like it came originally with one of the Merlin handsets in ivory.
I am currently looking for a handset, FYI.

unbeldi

#1
oh would love to have one of these.  I used to have a number of AT&T/Western Electric 3B computers, but never got one of these, but I remember them in operation.

I am not sure, but wasn't the handset the same as used in the Merlin system?

MIPS

#2
It is the same handset. I'm curious how mine ended up separated.
There's also an optional keyboard you could get for it.

It does NOT take a standard keyboard. It's not even compatible with the keyboard used by any of AT&T's computers or terminals.

Pricing was as follows, the D series unit was exclusively for Merlin systems.

Quote#3701-010 (510A) $495
AT&T installation (optional) $65
512 Family Keyboard and Garage $100
AT&T Installation (optional) $15

#3750-512 (510D) $1795
AT&T installation (optional) $65
512 Family Keyboard and Garage $100
AT&T Installation (optional) $15

That $1300 price difference is nuts.

unbeldi

Quote from: MIPS on October 30, 2016, 07:00:57 PM
It is the same handset. I'm curious how mine ended up separated.
There's also an optional keyboard you could get for it.


It does NOT take a standard keyboard. It's not even compatible with the keyboard used by any of AT&T's computers or terminals.

Pricing was as follows, the D series unit was exclusively for Merlin systems.

That $1300 price difference is nuts.

Well, the pricing of all the Western Electric computers was nuts.
Great stuff, built like tanks, slow even for the time, but they had a captive market in telecom.
They were the Unix porting base for the 5ESS, if I remember correctly, or at least for Unix itself, can't remember now actually.