IBM 5100

[Sliders]

Could anyone (in the entire internet) explain why the U.S. Gov would need and IBM 5100 in the year 2036 ? this is a technical question. Technical answers are preferred.

Maybe this might help:

"Although IBM's launch of the Personal Computer (IBM 5150) in 1981 set the industry standard for personal computing, IBM had introduced a variety of small computers for individual users several years before that. So while now is certainly an appropriate moment to salute the legendary IBM PC on its 20th birthday, it's also a good time to take a brief look back at some of the pioneering IBM products that immediately preceded it.
One of the earliest IBM attempts to move computing into the hands of single users was the "SCAMP" project in 1973. This six-month development effort by the company's General Systems Division (GSD) produced a prototype device dubbed "Special Computer, APL Machine Portable" (SCAMP) that PC Magazine in 1983 called a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer." To build the prototype in the short half-year allowed, its creators acquired off-the-shelf materials for major components. SCAMP could be used as a desktop calculator, an interactive APL programming device and as a "dispenser" of canned applications. The successful demonstration of the prototype in 1973 led to the launch of the IBM 5100 Portable Computer two years later."

IBM Archives: IBM Personal Computer

 

[Samstwitch]

Here's what Oliver Williams wrote about it on his Website: John Titor - 5100 Computer

JOHN TITOR AND THE IBM 5100 COMPUTER

HOST: The stated reason John was here in our time was to obtain an IBM computer built in 1975 called a 5100. The 5100 does exist and was manufactured and sold by IBM. It is historically remembered as one of the first portable computers ever mass-produced but it arrived before computers were marketed to the public and quickly passed away in the early eighties.

John claimed he was related to one of the IBM engineers or programmers who worked on the 5100 and that's why he was chosen for this mission. By putting the pieces of his posts together, it appears he journeyed to Rochester Minnesota in 1975 (where the 5100 was created and manufactured), met with his relative who worked on the computer, obtained a 5100 from him and had it altered in some way for use in 2036.

John mentions that the 5100 had some sort of inbuilt ability to translate computer languages that was unknown or unpublished before 2036. The computer would then have been used back in his time to translate or fix broken computer systems.

Based on his explanation, it would appear there must have been an easier way to solve this problem in 2036. If you can travel in time, why go back for a piece of old technology that we find useless? This may seem logical until you realize that even today, NASA scours the Internet looking for old computer parts to keep their systems running.

What may be more interesting is the fact that John had a consistent reason he was willing to discuss for being here at all.

 

[titorite]

Yeah I think Sam put it well enough...

It wasn't just that computer by itself. It was that computer altered in some fashion to suit the mission needs...

And sometimes ... sometimes long term projects require long term parts that weren't originally planned for.

Nasa maintains those computer systems because some of their satellites and probes are still running, far exceeding their life expectancy but not their usefulness.

This is to say nothing of his world line being different from our world line. At this point I would say the divergence would be radical.
....It would of been too much divergence from the very beginning. Their was no point in even going and I do not think he visited us willingly but under the coercion of his grand father in exchange for his cooperation in tweaking the 5100.

It is the only thing that makes sense to me regarding his reasoning.

 

[Samstwitch]

This is to say nothing of his world line being different from our world line. At this point I would say the divergence would be radical.
....It would of been too much divergence from the very beginning. Their was no point in even going and I do not think he visited us willingly but under the coercion of his grand father in exchange for his cooperation in tweaking the 5100.

It is the only thing that makes sense to me regarding his reasoning.

Agreed!

 

[TimeTravel_00]

Management Information Systems, Laudon & Laudon, 9th edition. Chapter 4, Page 119:
Systems integration means ensuring that the new infrastructure works with the firm's older, so-called legacy systems and that the new elements of the infrastructure work with one another. Legacy systems are generally older transaction processing systems created for older computers that continue to be used to avoid the high cost of replacing or redesigning them.