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Laptops and portables
Here will be more simple and short explainations, not
so detailed as in 8-bit or Apple. Laptops and portable computers were
very expensive in 1980s and early 1990s, they were usually bought for a
company to use in special cases only. In late 1980s Schneider designed
PPC152 - they tried to make cheaper portable PC, but it was too big and
heavy for most typical applications.
In 1990s as miniaturization became a trend, portable computers became
cheaper and more popular. There were specialised portable computers,
with rugged cases for militiary/industrial applications (you can see few
of these in this page) or with special expansion ports for diagnostic or
data acquisition purposes.
There were also UMPCs, which stands for Ultra Mobile PC (Pocket PC name
is used more by Windows CE/Psion/Android toys than by Pocket PC
compatible computers). One of the
first is Atari Portfolio, a PC which could be taken to pocket. More
popular unit is HP 200LX from 1994, it is a full-featured IBM
PC-compatible computer powered by 2 AA batteries (letting 3 weeks of
typical use). it runs MS-DOS with PAL - a special application layer
which gives simple multi-program environment with program manager. UMPCs
were used as engineering aids, data collectors and planners.
Palmtop computers were specialised to be used as everyday PIM (Personal
Information Managers) and simple aids, usually with some calculation and
noting programs. They were not compatible with PCs, they only could be
connected to them to exchange data and programs. Lack of specific
standard made it obsolete very fast - after year or two palmtop was not
supported by most applications.
Click a computer to get information, photos and tips...
Year is not exact, you should use it to estimate unit's generation.
Other peripherals and accessories
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