OFFICE SYSTEMS REPORT

Year Published: 1983

Description:

"Office Systems Report"; a vintage office technology promo film created by IBM, showcases some of the company's 'new' technologies and the "office of the future". It promotes the Displaywriter Microcomputer system and reassures clients that IBM products in this era are compatible with one another, resulting in a highly efficient office. The 5520 Administrator System and 8100 Distributed Office System are discussed. The 5520 Administrative System was first announced by IBM General Systems Division (GSD) in 1979; it was intended to complement existing products lines with text editing and data processing power and bolster the company in a market share fight against rival Wang. The IBM 8100 Information System, announced Oct. 3, 1978, was at one time IBM’s principal distributed processing engine, providing local processing capability under two incompatible operating systems (DPPX and DPCX) and was a follow-on to the IBM 3790.

The film opens with images of an IBM secretary slipping a large floppy disk into an IBM Displaywriter Computer terminal (1:05). The secretary works on an IBM 3120 (1:15). Tony Stefanis, division director of small and office system marketing for IBM (1:16), Stefanis discusses document interchange capabilities, compatibility between computers, terminals and printers, and discusses the company's objective to meet the viewers' offices' needs. The 6670 laser printer is discussed (2:05). At (2:07) a view of New York City and the twin towers of the World Trade Center is shown with picture-in-picture images of a Displaywriter printing. An African American executive requests an inventory file from a secretary named Erin, who types at a keyboard (3:27). Personal computing is discussed in relation to the office setting (3:59). A close shot of the secretary's display screen follows (4:06). An IBM personal computer is discussed (4:11). The Display Writer's personal computing capability follows (4:25). The IBM logo closes the film (4:56). 

The IBM Displaywriter System 6580 was a dedicated microcomputer-based word processing machine that IBM's Office Products Division introduced in June 1980. The system consisted of a central processing unit, based on the Intel 8086, in a desktop case, a monochrome CRT monitor atop the CPU, a detached keyboard, a detached dual disk drive that used 8-inch floppy disks, and a detached daisy wheel printer. The system booted from an 8-inch floppy disk that stored IBM's internally developed word processing software. The operator stored the "documents" (i.e., data files) on additional diskettes.

A basic system — consisting of a display with a typewriter-like keyboard and a logic unit, a printer and a device to record and read diskettes capable of storing more than 100 pages of average text — cost $7,895 and leased for $275 a month. The basic word-processing software was Textpack E, with simple mail merge; Textpack 2 added support for double-sided disks, networking, spellchecking, and print spooling; Textpack 4 added automatic hyphenation, columns, and more sophisticated merging; and Textpack 6 added automatic footnoting and outlining. Other options included multilingual dictionaries, graphics, and reports.

The Displaywriter's features were comparable to other dedicated word processing machines of its era. The features included mail-merge, with fields designated as a01, a02, a03, etc. Elementary arithmetic could be applied to the fields.The basic IBM Displaywriter was a standalone system. An optional central storage and management unit was available, which permitted multiple Displaywriters to share storage and a printer.

Transcription

[Music] information takes many different forms for today's modern office to grow into the office of the future there must be a compatibility a way to access and distribute all forms of information on a timely [Music] basis IBM is committed to a systems architecture or framework that enables IBM equipment to communicate through a compatible information [Music] system some fast thinking executives are already doing business in the office of the future and uh we're going to need sales data on the northern region can you print it out for the 2:00 meeting Hansen's going to be here sure Mr Blakeley right away Executives need systems that can access information and deliver it to decision makers pran in the budget report make sure we include the San Francisco figures Broman sent us we'll do IBM has set an objective to build the office of the future for its customers today with a report on that commitment here is Tony stefanis division director of small and office system product marketing for the IBM National marketing division our commitment is really a simple one we want to make all IBM office systems compatible in short to make it possible for our systems to handle each of your office needs and still talk to each other how are we doing let's take a look workstations need to support electronic document distribution as well as create or revise text our display writer system does just that and more we told you we would provide the ability to attach the 6670 laser printer to our data processors and word processors and we did it Mr Broman the budget report from Atlanta just came in we promised the 5520 and the display writer would be able to access a host computer and perform data processing functions from the same keyboard they now have this capability what makes this important to our customers is it eliminates the need for a separate terminal in the same work area yeah this 150 flight to Houston looks good we said we would establish a Communications capability to make IBM office systems part of a compatible information and data processing Network we've done it through IBM document interchange architecture and document content architecture these disciplines establish a framework for consistent interchange and structuring of office information and we use systems Network architecture the world's most widely used telecommunications technique for linking information processing systems today our customers can choose from a family of products that address the needs for either a workstation distributed processor or host connected system regardless of which you choose you can be confident that they all work together and can transmit information to the people who need [Music] it an would you pull up the inventory file please uh let's see what it shows for Irving Dale all right a workstation should be able to do more than just word processing it should perform key data processing functions and Link into existing systems this ensures that your data processing investment is protected as new products are added IBM compatible architectures provide the base to make this possible this includes in addition to text and data non-coded or image information such as signatures pictures and drawings today personal computing is an important factor in the office for all levels of management including top [Music] Executives the IBM personal computer can be attached as a workstation on our 5520 administr system and our 8100 distributed office system personal Computing functions are also required across workstations and we provide this in many of our products for example the display writer now has a powerful personal Computing capability in the final analysis our customers will def def find their own office of the future it begins with the executives and reaches the end user departments critical to the successful automation of the office is a common architecture for all products involved IBM is providing it today as technology of our systems continue to advance this will protect your most important investment your information that too is IBM's commitment to [Music] you


1 user has this film:
Periscope Film


No related films.