Compaq Portable series

200px|thumbnail|The Compaq logo as used on the first Compaq portables

thumb|Compaq Portable II

The Compaq Portable series was a series of portable computers that comprised Compaq Computer Corporation's first products. Initial entries in the series sported the "luggable" form factor; late entries were smaller and were termed "lunchbox computers". These computers measured approximately deep, tall, and approximately wide. As the products evolved, laptops and notebooks were created offering a new level of portability that caused the market to explode.

Some of the portables, such as the original Portable and the Portable II, had CRT monitors, while later the Portable III and the Portable 386) had flat, monochrome, usually amber, plasma displays. The portables came/could come with internal hard disk drives on 0.5" shock mount springs; diskette drives, usually 5-" double- or quadruple-density drives; batteries; and/or a dual-ISA expansion chassis, about one full-drive-height wide. Note this was before the term "ISA" became a standard. The Compaq Portable 486 included mono and color LCD screens and were battery powered.

Machines of the series

Compaq Portable – Compaq's first computer; first 100% IBM PC compatible
Compaq Portable Plus – Compaq's version with built-in hard drive
Compaq Portable 286 – Compaq's version of the PC AT in the original Compaq Portable chassis; equipped with 6/8-MHz 286 and a high-speed 20-MB hard drive
Compaq Portable II – smaller and lighter version of Compaq Portable 286; it was less expensive but with limited upgradability and a slower hard drive
Compaq Portable III
Compaq Portable 386
Compaq Portable 486 and Compaq Portable 486c

The Compaq Portable is an early portable computer which was one of the first 100% IBM PC compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and later Compaq Deskpro series.

Initial Production and Competition

The Compaq Portable was announced in November 1982 and first shipped in March 1983, priced at with a single half-height 5¼" diskette drive or for dual, full-height diskette drives. The Compaq Portable folded up into a luggable case the size of a portable sewing machine. Compaq sold 53,000 units in the first year with a total of in revenue, an American Business record. In the second year revenue hit setting an industry record. Third year revenue was at , another US business record.

Design

The Compaq Portable has basically the same off-the-shelf hardware as an IBM PC, transplanted into a luggable case (specifically designed to fit as carry-on luggage on an airplane), with Compaq's BIOS instead of IBM's.

The first Portables used MS-DOS essentially identical to PC DOS 1.10 except for having a standalone BASIC that did not require the IBM PC's ROM Cassette BASIC, but this was superseded in a few months by MS-DOS 2.00 which added hard disk support and other advanced features. The initial Portables are similar to the 16K-64K models of the IBM PC in that the BIOS was limited to 544K of RAM and did not support expansion ROMs, thus making them unable to use EGA/VGA cards, hard disks, or similar hardware. After DOS 2.x and the IBM XT came out, Compaq upgraded the BIOS. Although the Portable was not offered with a factory hard disk, users commonly installed them. Starting in 1984, Compaq began offering a hard-disk equipped version in the Portable Plus. The original hard disks offered would be 10 or 21 megabytes, although bad sectors often reduced the space available for use.

Reception

BYTE wrote, after testing a prototype, that the Compaq Portable "looks like a sure winner" because of its portability, cost, and high degree of compatibility with the IBM PC. Its reviewer tested IBM PC DOS, CP/M-86, WordStar, SuperCalc, and several other software packages, and found that all worked except one game. PC Magazine also rated the Compaq Portable very highly for compatibility, reporting that all tested applications ran. It praised the "rugged" hardware design and sharp display, and concluded that it was "certainly worth consideration by anyone seeking to run IBM PC software without an IBM PC".

Later Models

The Compaq Portable Plus simply had a hard drive to replace one floppy disk drive, and logos and badges with gold backgrounds instead of silver. Independent computer stores were previously doing this upon request of users, and Compaq saw this as a lost revenue opportunity. In 1985, Compaq introduced the Portable 286, although it was replaced by the more compact Portable II in a redesigned case within a few months. The Portable 286 featured a full height hard disk, and the options of one half-height floppy drive, two half-height floppy drives, or a half-height floppy drive and a tape backup drive The Compaq Portable 286, Compaq's version of the PC AT was offered in the original Compaq Portable chassis; equipped with 286 and a high-speed hard drive

The Compaq Portable II – was smaller and lighter version of Compaq Portable 286; it was less expensive but with limited upgradability and a slower hard drive.

The Compaq Portable III was another AT-compatible computer released in 1987. Other options included the Model 20 at which added a hard disk, Power is supplied using a mains electricity outlet, no battery exists.

The Compaq Portable III, Compaq Portable 386, Compaq Portable 486 and Compaq Portable 486c were later in the series.

References

External links

Old Computers - Compaq Portable
CED in the History of Media Technology - Compaq Portable
Obsolete Computer Museum - Compaq Portable description