IBM 3277 Terminal

Here are some pictures of my IBM 3277 terminal.  I got it recently and cleaned it up including disassembling and cleaning up the keyboard.  This is the 3277 Model 2 that has an 80 columns by 25 characters screen.  You can see some burn-in on the CRT.  I’m sure this was a workhorse that was on 24×7 and has seen plenty of work.

I would have loved to know what it was attached to and where but this comes from someone who purchased it on Craigslist in California so I don’t have specific details.  Information on IBM 3270 based terminals is well documented in Wikipedia here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_3270 along with specifics on the 3270 protocol.  If you ever heard the term “green screen”, this is where it came from.

This particular terminal has a classic IBM Beam Spring keyboard.  You can see an alternate Micro Switch based Typewriter style keyboard I also have here.

 

 

 

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4 Responses

  1. y11971alex says:

    A 3277 was attached to a 3274 communication controller, which was connected to one of the channels of a System/370 computer.

  2. John M. Burt says:

    I’m pretty sure “dissembling and “disassembling” are not synonymous.
    Just sayin’.

  3. Lin Lyons says:

    Yes, I used one (mod-3, 80×43 lines) for decades, in San Francisco (at a large bank on the west coast) as did virtually all IBM 360, 370, VM, etc, programmers across the country.
    The only drawback was that the keyboard housing was metal, and sucked heat of of the heal of your hand.
    But I wrapped a couple paper towels around the edges of the keyboard which solved that problem.
    I still think it was the best keyboard that I ever used.
    And, if you want to see the SPF editor, you can download SPFLITE which has all the original editing commands and expands on many of them.

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