Talk:IBM 6640

I can verify through personal experience that everything stated is accurate. I used to repair them for IBM. There is much left out. There is also an amazing lack of information on this entire product line. CapnMike (talk) 01:41, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I found references to the 6640 on http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1976.html and the System 6 on http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1977.html but there is no detail. I attempted to add these as references, but I did not succeed. CapnMike (talk) 01:56, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

I too worked on 6640 or 46/40 as it was originally known and have added a little about it and Office System/6. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.134.52.124 (talk) 12:14, 7 December 2010 (UTC) I added a little more technical information today. I'll put some more on how the box worked when I have more time.

Guard Drops

Since I wrote that that the whole article was true, someone added, "For example, a drop used for printing a letter was immediately followed by several "guard drops" that were deliberately deflected down into the gutter so as to avoid slip streaming." This is not at all acurate as I recall. 1st of all, the drops were never deflected down. When a drop had no charge, it went straight into the gutter because it was not deflected up. When the ink valve was open, enough ink drops were streaming to make the entire print area solid black (118,000/sec as I recall). Individual drops were charged to deflect to their appropriate positions to create the characters. All the drops flew just over the deflection plate that was charged at -5500 volts (as I recall - available details are very sketchy) and flew about an inch before either hitting the paper or the gutter when all was right. When all was not right they hit the deflection plate and shorted it put causing an error or ended up in the drip pan in what was referred to as a flood. — Preceding unsigned comment added by CapnMike (talk • contribs) 01:36, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

First cut sheet printer?

Was this IBMs first cut sheet printer? The Series III was the first cut sheet copier that came out the same year. The 6670 Printer based on the Series III didn't come out till 1979. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AVandewerdt (talk • contribs) 10:54, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

IBM confirmed it themselves in Think magazine AVandewerdt (talk) 09:48, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Think Magazine

There is a really interesting article on the 6640 here:

https://ia801803.us.archive.org/7/items/think-magazine-1977-12/think-magazine-1977-12.pdf

When I find time I will review to see if any of the detail in the magazine can help with this topic page

AVandewerdt (talk) 06:04, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

And another one!

https://ia801801.us.archive.org/18/items/think-magazine-1976-08/think-magazine-1976-08.pdf AVandewerdt (talk) 21:18, 28 March 2026 (UTC)

I answered my own request. Really interesting articles. AVandewerdt (talk) 09:49, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Does the "Commercial failure" section belong here or in the OS/6 page?

The majority of IBM 6640 § Commercial failure appears to be a discussion of the failure of OPD and the OS/6 line in general, not specifically the failure of the 6640. Should it be moved to IBM OS/6? Guy Harris (talk) 02:09, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

Its a good suggestion, I moved the bulk of the text across. AVandewerdt (talk) 07:50, 10 May 2026 (UTC)