"The computers, the trackballs, the keypad, the touch screen, we even built our own programming for the computers."
That is Jeremy Hindle, the production designer who built Severance's refinement floor — terminals, trackballs, keypads and touchscreens engineered from scratch, with software written in-house rather than vintage machines a props department found — built on a Bronx soundstage, not inside the New Jersey office building that plays Lumon's exterior. There is also a replica keyboard, the MDR Dasher, which comfortably beat its funding target on Kickstarter. As of 16 August 2026, the maker's own shop lists it nowhere for sale — a famous object, a real product, and no way to purchase it today, which is not what the coverage says.
The terminals were built, software included
Jeremy Hindle designed the show. Asked about the machines, he is unambiguous:
"The computers, the trackballs, the keypad, the touch screen, we even built our own programming for the computers."
His reasoning for not simply dressing the set with old hardware was that "the show deserved its own look."
This matters more than it sounds. A period-correct 1970s terminal is a findable object — they turn up at auction and in collections. A machine that never existed is not. Every "Lumon computer for sale" listing is therefore describing something else: a lookalike, a vintage terminal of roughly the right era, or a replica of the keyboard alone.
The touchscreen is the tell. The design deliberately combines an archaic-looking monitor with a touch interface and an oversized trackball — a combination no real machine of that era had. It is an object assembled to feel wrong in a way you cannot immediately name, which is the same trick the show plays with the corridors.
The Data General ancestor, and who is actually claiming it
You will see the terminal identified as a Data General Dasher D2 or D3, the real late-1970s terminals.
Be precise about where that comes from. The production designer, in the interview above, talks about building rather than copying. The Dasher attribution is the description used by the people making the replica keyboard and repeated widely in coverage — it is a statement about design lineage, not a claim that Lumon's machines are rebadged Data General units.
Both things are true at once: the shape and key layout descend visibly from that family of terminals, and the object on screen was fabricated for the show.
If you want the real ancestor, actual Data General Dasher terminals exist on the used and collector market. Fallout went the other way entirely — its Pip-Boy replica was manufactured from the show's own CAD geometry. That is the genuinely authentic purchase, it is a 1970s serial terminal, and it will not do anything a modern computer does. We mention it because it is the only real hardware in this story.
The replica keyboard: funded, delayed, and not on sale
Here is the part people are searching for.
Atomic Keyboard built the MDR Dasher — a 73-key, 70 percent layout with no Escape, no Control and no Option keys, an integrated trackball beside the numpad, and a CNC-machined aluminium case. Swappable layouts, framed in the show's terms as Outie and Innie.
It went to Kickstarter and did very well. Per Tom's Hardware, it launched at $599 for early backers against a $899 retail figure, with shipping estimated from November. PetaPixel reported the campaign comfortably beating its target.
Now the part nobody has updated. We checked the maker's own storefront on 16 August 2026. shop.atomickb.com is a live shop — it responds, it is set to US dollars, it has a working cart — and it lists zero products. The main site still shows a sign-up form to be notified when the keyboard launches.
Read that carefully, because it is easy to get wrong. This is not "sold out." A sold-out product has a page with an unavailable badge. This is a catalog with nothing in it, alongside a notify-me form — the signature of a product that has not opened to general sale yet.
So can you get one?
Three honest answers, in order of realism.
If you backed it: yours comes through the campaign. Nothing here changes that.
If you did not: there is currently no route. No pre-order page, no waitlist position that costs money, no retail listing. The only action available is the notify-me form, and we would treat any third-party listing claiming stock with real suspicion — a keyboard with no open retail channel and a large enthusiast audience is exactly the conditions that produce fake listings.
If you want the aesthetic now: the keycap route is the practical one. Keycap sets in Lumon's colorway have been produced for ordinary mechanical keyboards, and a set of keycaps on a board you already own gets you most of the visual effect for a fraction of a $599 keyboard. It will not have the trackball, and it will have an Escape key.
What we would actually tell a friend
Do not spend $899-equivalent on a resale listing. The campaign funded heavily and units exist; a general sale is the likely eventual outcome. Waiting costs nothing except patience.
Be clear about what the keyboard is. It is a well-made enthusiast keyboard shaped like a prop from a television show. The missing Escape key is a joke, and it is a joke you will be living with. Anyone who uses a terminal or a text editor should sit with that for a minute before pledging at any price.
And the terminal itself is not coming. The screen, the software, the whole assembly — that was built for a production and there is no consumer version of it, which is true of almost everything on that set by design. The keyboard is the only piece of this that was ever going to become a product, which is probably why it is the piece that did.
Why this page is different from the others
Search results for this object are frozen at the campaign launch. They quote $599, they say shipping from November, and they were written when both were current. None of them went back to look at whether a shop exists.
Checking took us four minutes. The store responds, reports its currency, and returns an empty product list. That is a fact anyone could establish, and it changes the answer from "buy it here" to "you cannot buy it yet" — which is the difference between a useful page and a stale one.
FAQ
Can you buy the Severance keyboard right now? No. The maker's own shop is live but lists zero products, and the main site shows a notify-me sign-up rather than a purchase page. Backers of the crowdfunding campaign receive theirs through that campaign.
How much does the MDR Dasher keyboard cost? It launched at $599 for early crowdfunding backers against a $899 retail figure. Those are campaign-era numbers; no current retail price is published because it is not currently sold.
Are the computers in Severance real vintage machines? No. Production designer Jeremy Hindle says the team built the computers, trackballs, keypads and touchscreens, and wrote the software running on them, because he felt the show deserved its own look.
Is the Lumon terminal a Data General Dasher? Not literally. The Dasher D2/D3 of the late 1970s is cited as the design ancestor, mainly by the replica maker and in coverage. The on-screen machines were fabricated for the production.
Did the screens actually work during filming? The design brief extended to the software, per Hindle's own description of building the programming for the computers, rather than compositing screens in afterwards.
Why does the keyboard have no Escape key? Because the on-screen one does not. The replica reproduces the layout faithfully, which means living without Escape, Control and Option keys.
Is there a cheaper way to get the look? Keycap sets in the Lumon colorway have been made for standard mechanical keyboards. That gets you the visual character on hardware you already own, without the trackball.
Where can I get a real Data General Dasher? The used and collector market. It is a genuine 1970s serial terminal rather than a modern computer, so treat it as a collectible rather than something to work on.