Editing IBM 5100 (section)

== In Popular Culture: The John Titor Story ==

The 5100 is tied to the '''John Titor''' Internet hoax (2000–2001), in which an anonymous poster claiming to be a US military time-traveller from 2036 said he was sent back to 1975 to retrieve an IBM 5100 — because it could emulate IBM System/360 and System/370 instructions, a capability he claimed was needed to debug legacy systems in 2036 (a likely allusion to the Unix Year 2038 problem).<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor</ref>

'''What is true:''' The 5100's PALM microcode does contain a substantial '''IBM System/360-family emulator subset''', sufficient to run a slightly modified APLSV (originally for System/370) and a port of the System/3 BASIC interpreter. IBM did not advertise this in consumer literature; it is documented in the MIM appendix and was confirmed by engineers who worked on the machine. Some commentators concluded the hoaxer had insider knowledge of the architecture.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PALM_processor</ref>

'''What is myth:''' Everything else — the time machine, the predicted 2015 nuclear war, the civil-war predictions. A 2009 investigation by Italian TV programme ''Voyager'' pointed to Florida attorney Larry Haber (and his computer-scientist brother) as the likely originator. The Titor first IRC mention (14 October 2000) named the '''5110''', not the 5100; the poster switched to "5100" by 2 November with no acknowledgment of the discrepancy.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor</ref>

The machine also appears as the '''"IBN 5100"''' plot device in the 2009 visual novel and 2011 anime ''Steins;Gate''.<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100</ref>