Editing IBM Beam Spring Keyboards (section)

==SCAMP==

<gallery widths="250" heights="187" caption="IBM SCAMP Prototype">
File:Ibmscamp2.png|IBM SCAMP prototype
File:Scampfolded2.png|SCAMP prototype with the screen compacted but the lid still open.
File:Ibm scamp.jpg|SCAMP on display in the Smithsonian
</gallery>IBM's SCAMP (Special Computer, APL Machine Portable), is a prototype computer developed in 1973. If not the world's first portable desktop computer, it is the world's first portable APL computer. Created in the span of 6 months, the design concept went on to become the commercially available 5100 and 5110 computers, and the SCAMP's short development cycle and design philosophy of using off the shelf parts would become defining features of the development of the IBM PC 5150. The computer could fold its screen down to become a compact briefcase sized package, which is an idea, used slightly differently, to great success by Osborn and Compaq almost a decade later. Because there is only one SCAMP computer and it's located at the Smithsonian, it's not fully confirmed whether it has beam spring switches. However, there are a few factors that strongly suggest that the computer does in fact use them in its keyboard. The Smithsonian confirms that the computer used existing components in order to expedite the creation of the prototype, and also confirms that one of those standard components was the keyboard which came from the IBM's Raleigh, North Carolina location<ref>https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_334628</ref> (the same location where beam springs and buckling springs were invented). It can be seen that the keyboard layout is the same as a 3277 66 key keyboard. IBM did have a Microswitch version of this keyboard, but a Microswitch keyboard can be ruled out, because IBM's Microswitch keyboards did not use stepped keys for the 1 and back tab, and had larger reset and enter keys than are on the beam spring version<ref>[[IBM 3277 typewriter keyboard]]</ref>. The keys on the SCAMP are the exact size and shape that would be expected on the beam spring version of the 3277. Furthermore, by 1973 IBM had already all but finished transitioning away from Microswitch keyboards to beam spring ones, and in the third picture shown above where SCAMP is on display, it can be seen that some of the keys are bent left or right at odd angles but not bent at all up or down, which is a hallmark of the metal stem used in the beam spring switch mount.