On Wed, Apr 15, 2009 at 4:49 PM, Mike Cherba <[email protected]> wrote: > YUp, > I used to work a lot with the old Lunchbox style portables which were > essentially a detachable keyboard machine. > -Mike
Reminds of my old Zenith lunch box. But even earlier portables, e.g., the 29-pound KayPro line in the CP/M days, were designed so that the keyboard had to be detached (other than the connecting cable) before you could use it. There's a photo of a KayPro II here with keyboard detached. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaypro#Hardware>. The KayPro ate the market of a predecessor called the Osborne I. There's a photo here. <http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/osborne/>. IIRC, the Commodore SX 64 was roughly a contemporary of the KeyPro. The Commodore machine is pictured here. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64#The_C64_family>. The early DOS days brought the Hyperion, pictured here. <http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=339>. Two months later, the Compaq Portable followed, photo here. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq#Compaq_Portable>. IIRC, the lunchbox portables didn't come along until miniaturization and introduction of the flatter plasma and LED monitors made a more compact design possible. Undoubtedly I missed many in this trip down Memory Lane. There were a fair number of start-ups building portable computers in the first few years after the Osborne I. Most never gained any traction and died. Best regards, Paul -- Universal Interoperability Council <http:www.universal-interop-council.org> _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list [email protected] http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
