[10] In 1983 IBM began encouraging value-added resellers to sell the CS9000 as an alternative to large computers like DEC Professional and Honeywell Level 6.
The 9001 was a renamed CS9000, which retained its focus on the instrumentation market, while the 9002 was a general-purpose business computer that ran the IBM CSOS or Microsoft Xenix operating systems and supported one to four users.
[10] IBM finally introduced a new model, the System 9003, in April 1985 as a computer-aided manufacturing computer,[16] but it was also unsuccessful.
As a result, manufacturing of the System 9000 family was stopped in January 1986,[10] and it remained in limited availability until it was discontinued on 2 December 1986.
[10] IBM closed its Instrument division in January 1987, reassigning the approximately 150 employees that had worked for it to other positions.
[18] Noting the obscurity of its 1982 release, BYTE in January 1983 called the System 9000 "IBM's 'Secret' Computer" and stated that it was "in its quiet way, one of the most exciting new arrivals on today's microcomputer scene".
[8] A later review by a member of Brandeis University's chemistry department criticized several aspects of the hardware and software, but praised the sophisticated BASIC and IBM's customer service.