Editing IBM Beam Spring Keyboards (section)

==4978==
<gallery widths="320" heights="240" caption="IBM Series/1">
File:IBM 4978 Keyboard Front.jpg|IBM 4978 122 key standard layout (US version)
File:Ibm 4978 custom keyboard cropped.png|4978 terminal with specially configured keyboard displayed at the IBM/Celestica alumni reunion March 2018
File:4978 keys off.jpg|4978 with the keys and case cover removed
File:4978IBM4110.jpg|Portable ruggedized 4978 attached to 4110 "Green Machine" featuring keyboard with a ruggedized case
</gallery>The IBM 4978 Display Station is a terminal for the IBM Series/1 minicomputer. The default keyboard configuration from IBM came with a 122-key layout, including 32 relegendable programmable function keys. The 4978 terminal was offered by IBM two years after the initial launch of the Series/1 as a response to customer requests for improvement to the 4979 Display Station, which was previously the only operator data entry terminal for the Series/1. As opposed to the predefined layout of the 4979, the keyboard for the 4978 was offered as a use-case configurable RPQ, (IBM's abbreviation for "request for price quotation", meaning that a given item was nonstandard but was available upon request) and according to the Series/1 system summary guide from September 1979, "Several keyboards are available [with the 4978 terminal] to permit a variety of display station configurations"<ref>http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/series1/GA34-0035-5_Series_1_System_Summary_Sep79.pdf</ref>. The extent of what other keyboard models were available is unknown, but from the examples that remain, it seems that IBM used a standard PCB and mounting plate on which keys were configured or rearranged at the factory to match a customer's needs. The unused holes for keys were covered up with tape (shown above) and a custom made case top would be made to fit around the desired layout. 

IBM designed a special ruggedized version of the Series/1 specifically for the US Marine Corps in 1980 called the IBM Series/1 model 4110 Automated Data Processing Equipment for the Fleet Marine Force (ADPE-FMF). This version of the Series/1 included a ruggedized, portable version of the 4978 that was protected from water, dust, sunlight, shock, and vibration<ref>https://archive.org/stream/automateddatapro00aday/automateddatapro00aday_djvu.txt</ref>. The original 4978 terminals for the 4110 used keyboards with the standard 122 key layout, but featured black metal cases styled similarly to the 3277 keyboards (shown above). The 4110 was dubbed by Marine Corps operators "The Green Machine" because of the main unit's green color and the green screens of the terminals.