Found in Spain - IBM System/23 Spanish keyboard internal assembly, still in its box
A few days ago, my father found this old spare keyboard still in its box. It is an early model F, destinated to a System/23 Datamaster keyboard. Since the internal assembly is the same for both the 5322 and 5324, it is impossible to know for which specific model was made. That being said, it is dated from 1983, months after the initial model, the 5322, had been discontinued. The conservation state isn't the best, and the keyboard has rust in it. Still, this was an awesome find and, considering the low impact of the System/23 in Spain, this one might be one of the last Spanish units found in its original box.
The System/23 keyboard is based around an Intel 8048 with a mask ROM inside. At the same time, the component reference was offuscated in order to avoid third parties to clone it. Years later, the model F-XT type 2 keyboard would reuse a similar matrix but would employ a serial interface instead of the 7-bit parallel one of the Datamaster.
The keyboard is a mandatory element for a System/23 during its IPL process. Test 35h during POD/PID-1200 consists in the motherboard strobing the reset signal of the keyboard and waiting for a sequence of values to be received. If the keyboard does not send the correct values due to malfunction, absence or pressed key, the test would fail and the computer wouldn't be able to reach the BASIC screen.