IBM5100 (In S;G: IBN5100)
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John mentions that the 5100 had some sort of inbuilt ability to translate computer languages that was unknown or unpublished before 2036.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.
(Source: John Titor Website)
