Cortron ITW keyboard

[SHAGUAR]

Hey y'all, I've had this ITW switch board for awhile now, and I continuously can't find any information about it online. It works with modern computers, its basically plug and play with a couple of adapters (a DIN to PS2 and a PS2 to usb in my case). I wanted to know if anyone else has one of these boards or knows anything about it or what computer it would even come from.

[Muirium]

Starting with the basics: it's an "AT clone" as you've verified by the fact you can use it with simple adapters. The keyboard it's "cloning" is this IBM bad boy:



That's the IBM PC AT keyboard from 1984. It's the first real modification to the IBM PC keyboard since the 1981 original, and a major improvement. The layout is functionally identical to yours, and they speak the same protocol: AT later became PS/2 just piped through a smaller connector.

The fact it's AT suggests a PC of some sort, rather than anything more exotic. Your keyboard's production date of 1986 is right when this layout was current. IBM soon replaced it with Model M in 1987. AT layout stuck around for a while in third party keyboards but everyone moved eventually.

As for ITW and Cortron: your keyboard's underside shows how closely connected they were just by the logo! I don't know much about them myself, just what I've read on the DT wiki. I’m guessing your board isn't loud and clicky like the IBM, however. Those Model Fs were (and are) a glorious racket.

[Chyros]

Cortron still exist and still produce ruggedised keyboards, though nowadays it's foam and foil if I remember correctly, but it's been so long since I looked into it that my memory might be failing. ITW are the ones who patented the switch originally. I think Cortron were the ones who actually made them.

The switches are among the most complicated keyboard switches ever devised, I had to study for days before I understood it. I covered the switch years ago in an old video: