[ltp] Thinkpad names

[Douglas Bridges]

A bit of history on Thinkpad Names:

The first IBM thinkpads that used a 486 class processor was the 700 line.  
The 700 line was an MCA based thinkpad meant for business users. The 720 was 
a follow-on to that machine with faster processor and larger hard drive. IBM 
also released the Thinkpad 350 line.  The 350 was the beginning of the 
low-end business/home office line of thinkpads. After those thinkpads, IBM 
came out with a new line of thinkpads that were designed by engineers in 
their Japanese research division.  This was the beginning of the ascendance 
of IBM Thinkpads.  Two lines were introduced: a Thinkpad 360 line for 
home/small business, and the Thinkpad 750 for large business. Both of these 
lines of thinkpads were normal sized laptops.  Smaller notebooks 
(sub-notebooks) were becoming popular in some areas, so IBM released the 
Thinkpad 500, a very small and light thinkpad. IBM followed the 500 with the 
550, which was had a faster processor.  The 750 line was enhanced with the 
755C/CS line.

The next big breakthrough was the 755CD/CX/CV line of thinkpads because of 
their inclusion of the MWave processor.  The laptops were still targeted 
toward the high-end business users. IBM introduced the 365 line of thinkpads 
as a newer version of the home/home-office line.  The 500 line of thinkpads 
had been criticized for having far too small of keyboards, so IBM came out 
with the 701 "butterfly" line.  This was the first annoying break from the 
naming conventions between 3xx/5xx/7xx.  The 701 was a subnotebook, but IBM 
was trying to push it as a full business class thinkpad.  The 701 was 
hampered by its slower processor (486/100 max) even though it was a really 
cool machine.

IBM continued to run this separation between home-machines being 3xx, 
subnotebooks 5xx, and large business being 7xx.  Some of the 7xx machines 
were stripped down in features and marketed towards home users as a 
"business class machine" good for home users. Nothing like IBM marketing.  
IBM introduced the 560 line of Thinkpads as a subnotebook, but as opposed to 
being a smaller screen and keyboard, the 560 started the line of "thin" 
Thinkpads. The 600 series followed the 560 line of "thin" laptops.

IBM introduced the "i" line of thinkpads as a replacement to the 3xx line. 
The "i" line of Thinkpads were meant for home users, and were significantly 
cheaper than many of the other lines. Unfortunately, at this point, the IBM 
numbering scheme was very confusing, so IBM wisely instituted a clean-up of 
their numbering that makes much more sense. This leads to our current 
generation of machines.

First, let me describe what spindles are.  Laptop can be characterized by 
how many  "spindles" they have.  This is a description of the number of 
rotating components they have. A laptop that has a hard-drive, a 
floppy-drive, and cd-rom all internal is a three spindle laptop.  If it only 
has a hard-drive and (floppy or cd-rom) internal, it is two-spindle. If it 
can only have the hard-drive interal, it is a one-spindle machine.  
Obviously, the less spindles that a laptop has, the lighter and small the 
thinkpad can be.

Txx - Pushed as the replacement of the 7xx (and to some degree the 6xx), the 
T series is the highest end laptops IBM makes. They are two-spindle laptops 
that generally use the configuration of harddrive+cdrom. These thinkpads are 
very-fast, and moderately light, but also can be expensive.

Axx - Pushed as the replacement of the 3xx series, and initially the 
iSeries, the Axx series are three spindle laptops.  Because they have 
everything internal, the A series are the heaviest thinkpads that IBM makes. 
The A series are less expensive than the T series, and they lack some of the 
features that the T series has, but they are very solid laptops that I find 
to be a good compromise on price and features. (I have a A20m).

Xxx (heh) - The X series laptops were introduced as a replacement for the 
5xx and 6xx series with an emphasis on being small and light.  These 
thinkpads are one-spindle machine, having only an internal hard-drive. These 
laptops are less expensive than the T series, and are very small and light. 
For students and people who travel, these laptops are quite good.

Rxx - IBM realized there was a need for a good educational/home-use laptop 
to replace the iSeries.  The R Series are two spindle machines that do not 
have the extra features that the T Series uses.  So the R series machine are 
least expensive machines, and they have a good compromise on features and 
size.  They are slightly heavier than the T series, but lighter than the A.

I did almost all of this off the top of my head, so please correct the 
mistakes that I know are in there. I did leave out the international laptops 
that never really showed up in the US (240) and the Power series (the first 
laptop I ever saw with an attached webcam).

Doug

_________________________________________________________________
MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: 
http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx


----- The Linux ThinkPad mailing list -----
The linux-thinkpad mailing list home page is at:
http://www.bm-soft.com/~bm/tp_mailing.html