TheCompaq Portable series was a series ofportable computers that comprisedCompaq 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 16 inches (410 mm) deep, 8 inches (200 mm) tall, and approximately 20 inches (510 mm) 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 originalPortable and thePortable II, hadCRT monitors, while later thePortable III and thePortable 386) had flat, monochrome, usuallyamber,plasma displays. The portables came/could come with internalhard disk drives on 0.5" shock mount springs;diskette drives, usually5-1⁄4" 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. TheCompaq Portable 486 included mono and color LCD screens and were battery powered.
TheCompaq Portable is an earlyportable computer which was one of the first 100%IBM PC compatible systems. It wasCompaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and laterCompaq Deskpro series.
The Compaq Portable was announced in November 1982 and first shipped in March 1983,[2] priced atUS$2,995 (equivalent to $9,500 in 2024) with a single half-height5¼"360 kB diskette drive or$3,590 for dual, full-height diskette drives. The 28 lb (13 kg) Compaq Portable folded up into aluggable case the size of a portablesewing machine. Compaq sold 53,000 units in the first year with a total of$111 million in revenue, an American Business record. In the second year revenue hit$329 million setting an industry record. Third year revenue was at$503.9 million, another US business record.[2]
The computer was an earlyall-in-one, becoming available two years after theCP/M-basedOsborne 1, one year after theKaypro II, in the same year as the8088 andMS-DOS-based (but not entirely IBM PC compatible) DynalogicHyperion, and a year before theCommodore SX-64. Its design was influenced by that of theXerox NoteTaker, a prototype computer developed atXerox PARC in 1976. Other portable "work-alikes", that were notPC compatible clones include theSeequa Chameleon, andCorona Data Systems' Model PPC-400, andEagle Computer's Eagle Spirit Portable. They were all short-lived competitors.
IBM responded to the Compaq Portable with theIBM Portable PC, developed because its sales force needed a comparable computer to sell against Compaq.[3]
The Compaq Portable has basically the same off-the-shelf hardware as anIBM PC, transplanted into a luggable case (specifically designed to fit as carry-on luggage on an airplane), with Compaq'sBIOS instead of IBM's.[2] All Portables shipped with 128k of RAM and 1-2 double-sided double-density 360 KB disk drives.
The machine uses a unique hybrid of theIBM MDA andCGA which supports the latter's graphics modes but contains both cards' text fonts in ROM.[4] In text modes, the 9x14 font is used on the internal monochrome monitor, and the 8x8 font is used on an external monitor. (The user switches between internal and external monitors by pressingCtrl+Alt+>.) The user can use both IBM video standards, for graphics capabilities and high-resolution text. The same graphics hardware is also used in the originalCompaq Deskpro desktop computer.
The internal CRT monitor has a low refresh rate and exhibits heavy ghosting; this was not a Compaq choice but a consequence of replicating the IBM MDA design, which uses a 50 Hz refresh rate and a long-persistence P39 green phosphor CRT (in theIBM 5151 video display). IBM chose this design to provide high vertical resolution—for sharp text—with low flicker for low eye strain over long (all-workday) periods of use.
Compaq used a “foam and foil” keyboard from Keytronics, with contact mylar pads that were also featured in the Tandy TRS-80, Apple Lisa 1 and 2, Compaq Deskpro 286 AT, some mainframe terminals, SUN Type 4, and some Wang keyboards. The foam pads the keyboards used to make contact with the circuit board when pressed disintegrate over time, due to both the wear of normal use and aging degradation.
Compaq's efforts were possible because IBM had used mostlyoff-the-shelf parts for the PC and published full technical documentation for it, and becauseMicrosoft had kept the right to licenseMS-DOS to other computer manufacturers. The main difficulty was the BIOS, because it contained IBM's copyrighted code. Compaq solved this problem by producing aclean room workalike that performed all documented functions of the IBM PC BIOS, but was completely written from scratch.
Although numerous other companies soon also began selling PC compatibles, few matched Compaq's achievement of essentially-complete software compatibility with the IBM PC (typically reaching "95% compatibility" at best).ThenPhoenix Technologies and others began selling similarly reverse-engineeredBIOSs on the open market.[5]
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 theIBM 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.
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 testedIBM PC DOS,CP/M-86,WordStar,SuperCalc, and several other software packages, and found that all worked except one game.[4]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".[6]
The Compaq Portable Plus simply had ahard 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 thePC AT was offered in the original Compaq Portable chassis; equipped with6/8 MHz 286 and a high-speed20 MBhard driveTheCompaq Portable II – was smaller and lighter version of Compaq Portable 286; it was less expensive but with limited upgradability and a slowerhard drive.
TheCompaq Portable III was another AT-compatible computer released in 1987.[7] It was advertised as being much smaller and lighter than the previous portablex86-PCs, however it was still quite large by today's standards. Three models were announced at release. The Model 1 had alist price ofUS$3,999 and was equipped with a12 MHzIntel 80286,640 KBRAM,1.2 MB5.25″floppy, and a10″amber coloredgas-plasma display.[8] Other options included the Model 20 atUS$4,999 which added a20 MBhard disk,[9] orUS$5,799 for the Model 40 with the upgraded40 MB hard disk.[7] There was also an optionalISA Expansion chassis allowed for 2 full length 16-bitISA add-in cards[7] forUS$199.[9] Power is supplied using amains electricity outlet, no battery exists.[7]
TheCompaq Portable III,Compaq Portable 386,Compaq Portable 486 and Compaq Portable 486c were later in the series.
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