IBM System/23 Datamaster

Announced by GSD in July 1981 — one month before the IBM Personal Computer — the System/23 Datamaster was another demonstration of IBM's efforts to shrink the size and cost of computing. The new system combined word processing and data processing in a machine to give small businesses the big benefits of information processing.
With a viewing screen, keyboard and diskette drives packaged in a single desktop console, the Datamaster was designed to be taken out of the carton, set up, checked out and operated by first-time users. It offered a choice of two printers, up to 4.4 megabytes of diskette storage, along with Business Management Accounting and Word Processing programming.
The IBM System/23 Datamaster could include two computer workstations (as shown above), which permitted two people to use the system simultaneously. Datamaster could be used for a wide variety of commercial applications in both small businesses and larger companies with standalone data processing needs within departments.
A full-function data processing installation, with a single computer workstation and an 80 character-per-second printer, cost $9,830, making Datamaster IBM's lowest-priced small business system. The cost of the word processing option, with associated hardware and software, ranged from $1,100 to $2,200.