Computer Transceiver Systems Execuport XL

The Execuport was a hybrid CP/M, MS-DOS system. You could start with the base Z80 model running CP/M and later upgrade to an 8086 or 80186 processor for MS-DOS compatibility. Many if not most of the CP/M system manufacturers took a similar approach at the time as a hedge against the growing dominance of MS-DOS.

Execuport XL
Source: Computer Transceiver Systems, 1983

The base Z80 model was called the Execuport XL, and the 8086/80186 model was the Execuport XL+. The XL+ could also run CP/M as well as several multi-user operating systems. Both models shared the same physical configuration with a built-in monitor in a reddish brown case. One unusual feature was the 132-character-wide screen. Most systems of the era offered 80-column screens.

Computer Transceiver Systems had earlier produced Execuport-branded portable terminals. The company launched in the late 1960s as a manufacturer of computer peripherals.

Introduced: 1983
Original Retail Price: $2,495 to $3,195
Base Configuration: 4MHz Z80A CPU, CP/M 2.2, 80K RAM (512K max), two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, monitor port, integral monochrome CRT, keyboard/keypad, two RS-232 and one parallel port
Video: 25-line x 132-column text, 960 x 288 graphics
Size/Weight: 18.12 x 15.62 x 6.5 inches, 28 lbs.
Important Options: 8MHz 8086 or 6MHz 80186 coprocessor, MS-DOS 2.11, 10MB hard disk drive, modem, portable printer

The Poqet PC

Poqet PC
Source: Poqet, 1989

At a time when manufacturers like NEC, Toshiba, and Compaq were racing to shrink the size of portable PCs, Poqet leapfrogged them with its one-pound Poqet PC. Reaching that size came with compromises. Its reflective LCD screen was small and hard to read. Memory and storage options were limited, and the keyboard was not optimal for tasks that involved a lot of writing.

Still, the Poqet PC had appeal as a travel-friendly DOS-compatible system. You could keep only the files you needed in RAM or on a PCMCIA storage card and use popular software such as Lotus 1-2-3. It would run for up to 100 hours on standard AAA batteries.

Source: Poqet, 1990

Introduced: September 12, 1989
Original Retail Price: $1,995
Base Configuration: 80C88 CPU, 512K RAM (640K max), 640K ROM, 2 RAM or ROM card slots, MS-DOS 3.3 in RAM, RS-232C port, 8-inch LCD, keyboard
Video: 80-character x 25-line, 640 x 200 pixel resolution
Size/Weight: 8.75w x 4.3d inches, 1 lb.
Important Options: 3.5-inch, 3.44MV floppy disk drive

Dolch PAC TFT Screen Portable PC

Volker Dolch was an engineer who designed microprocessors. He founded an instrumentation company in the 1970s, and then Dolch Computer Systems in 1987. Given his background in digital instrumentation equipment, it’s not surprising that the portable PC systems his company produced were prized by other engineers and technical professionals.

Dolch PCs were high-performance, ruggedized systems designed for industrial settings. The company was an early adopter of new technologies, as evidenced by the Dolch PAC (Portable Add-in Computer) line’s use of the then new active-matrix thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD color display in 1990.

Dolch PAC portable PC
Source: Dolch, 1990

The quality of color displays for portables at the time was not great. The technology was still young and trade-offs for cost, power consumption, and availability meant that most portable color displays were not good enough for some applications. The TFT technology started to change that. It had a much greater pixel density than other LCD technologies, offered better performance in terms of switching pixels on or off, and was brighter.

Diagram showing how TFT displays work
Source: Dolch, 1990

TFT displays were more expensive, but the people who bought Dolch systems were willing to pay for it. The TFT option added nearly $4,000 to the price of a Dolch PAC.

Introduced: June 3, 1990
Original Retail Price: $3,995
Base Configuration: 80286, 80386SX, 80386, or 80486 CPU; 1MB or 2MB RAM (16MB max); 20MB to 200MB hard drive; 5.25-inch floppy drive; 6 or 7 expansion slots
Graphics: CGA (VGA with TFT or gas plasma display)

Centronics 761 Printer

Before USB sticks and floppy disks, the primary option for output from a computer was the printer. At that time, printers were big, heavy industrial-class beasts designed for constant use. Centronics was an important leader in the printer market. In fact, its Centronics interface became a standard for parallel ports to this day.

Centronics 761
Source: Centronics, 1977

The Centronics 761 printer was typical for the late 1970s. By then the terminal printers were starting to shrink in size and generate a little less noise. Many retained a keyboard to communicate with the mainframe or minicomputer they typically connected to. A dot-matrix printhead was capable of producing output in multiple fonts.

The unit shown in the photo has a keyboard with the APL character set option. APL (A Programming Language) was developed at IBM and used on a number of its systems, which is why Centronics thought it important to offer the option.

Apple Lisa

The Lisa was not Apple’s first attempt at a business computer; that was the Apple III. Apple had started development of the Lisa at the same time as the Apple III, but it did not reach the market until 1983. The Lisa was a radically different (and more expensive) computer.

Apple Lisa
Source: Apple, 1983

Officially, Apple claimed that “Lisa” is an acronym that stands for Local Integrated Software Architecture. Legend has it, though, that the computer was named after either Steve Jobs’s daughter or the daughter of one of the engineers, but the true inspiration for the name has never been confirmed. Andy Hertzfeld, one of the creators of the Macintosh, says in his book, “Revolution in the Valley,” that the acronym explanation may have been invented after the fact in response to press queries about the name’s origin.

The original Lisa, referred to as the Lisa 1 by collectors, was technologically innovative, but a commercial failure for Apple. It popularized the concept of the GUI (graphical user interface) and could perform pre-emptive multitasking, meaning it could run multiple programs at once. However, it was overpriced and lacked adequate software and hardware support. Apple was able to make lemonade out of lemons by using lessons learned from the Lisa development on the Macintosh, one of the most successful microcomputers ever made.

Introduced: January 1983
Original Retail Price: $9,995
Base Configuration: 68000 CPU, three slots, 1MB RAM, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives (“Twiggy” drives), integral 12-inch monochrome monitor, keyboard/keypad, mouse, two serial and one parallel port, application suite
Video: 40-line x 132-column text, 720 x 364 graphics
Important Options: CP/M or Xenix, external 5MB ProFile hard disk drive, dot-matrix or daisy-wheel printer

Kaypro Robie CP/M Desktop

The IBM PC and compatibles had eaten up much of what had been the market for CP/M systems by 1983. The PC offered the same level of hardware and software support, and it also had the strength of the IBM brand.

Robie prototype
Source: Kaypro, 1983

Kaypro, a leader among the CP/M system manufacturers, tried to stem the tide with a new design. Called the Robie, it was a departure from Kaypro’s portable-only line-up, though the desktop system did have some resemblance to the boxy portable Kaypros. It was unusual in that the system hardware and storage were in a unit that sat on top of the monitor. Kaypro claimed this design made more efficient use of desk space.

Robie production model
Source: Kaypro, 1985

The Robie was announced at the end of 1983, started selling in early 1984, and lasted into 1985. It didn’t really offer more functionality than other CP/M systems. The design might have worked against it, too. Kaypro touted the “large” 9-inch monitor. It was large compared to what Kaypro’s portable models offered, but by the mid 1980s PC users had a range of monitor sizes much bigger than the Robie’s.

Introduced: February 1984
Original Retail Price: $2,295
Base Configuration: Z80 CPU, CP/M 2.2, 64K RAM, two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives, integral 9-inch monochrome CRT, keyboard/keypad, application suite, internal modem
Video: 24-line x 80-column text

Canada’s Telidon Videotex System

Before the World Wide Web, or even CompuServe or AOL, there was videotex, an interactive information network that typically required a dedicated terminal, though some services used a TV.

The content was crude by today’s standards with low-resolution graphics. Some were text only. The information videotex services provided were usually things like weather, stock reports, and general news. Some offered services like telebanking.

Telidon terminal
Source: Telidon, 1981

Telidon was Canada’s videotex service. Launched in 1978, it never gained the audience that was expected. The service closed 1986. The screen captures below show what the experience of using an early videotex system was like.

Telidon main menu
Source: Telidon, 1981

News story on Telidon
Source: Telidon, 1981

Graphics to support Telidon news
Source: Telidon, 1981

Telidon services for farmers
Source: Telidon, 1981

Telidon’s Farmer Magazine
Source: Telidon, 1981

Telidon graphics
Source: Telidon, 1981

Telebanking services on Telidon
Source: Telidon, 1981

Sharp Wizard PDA

Sharp Wizard OZ-7000. Source: Sharp, 1989

Before smartphones, we had personal digital assistants. The first PDAs were handheld devices that could run apps (either built-in or on an IC card), get email, and go online (but not the web–not invented yet). Video was oriented to text, so graphics and animation were a challenge.

Businesspeople using the Wizard. Source: Sharp, 1989

The Sharp Wizard was one of the more popular PDAs. Introduced in 1989 with the model OZ-7000 (IQ-7000 in Japan), the Wizard folded out with a keyboard on the right and a small screen and touchpad on the left. Touchpad overlays allowed for command shortcuts for apps. An Organizer Link kit connected the Wizard to a PC so users could create and edit documents on the PC and transfer them to the PDA.

Organizer Link for the Wizard. Source: Sharp, 1989

PDAs were cumbersome to use and had many limitations including inadequate memory, storage, and processing power. Their promise was not realized until smartphones–the Apple iPhone in particular–appeared nearly 20 years later.

Introduced: Januar 7, 1989
Original retail price: $299
Base Configuration: 32K RAM (96K max), alphanumeric keypad, 8-line by 16 character LCD touchscreen, IC card slot
Size/Weight: 4w x 6h inches, 8 oz.

Corona PC and Corona Portable PC

Corona Data Systems was another contender in the early IBM PC compatibles market. The company was moderately successful at first, selling 5,000 desktop and portable PCs from December 1983 to January 1984. In 1985, South Korea’s Daewoo Group bought a controlling interest, later renaming the company Cordata in 1986.

Source: Corona Data Systems, 1983

The Corona PC and Portable PC were the company’s first IBM compatibles. They had fairly standard PC configurations and were true IBM compatibles. That fact drew the attention of IBM, which sued Corona (along with Eagle Computer) for copyright infringement on the BIOS. Corona ultimately settled by agreeing to use BIOS code that did not violate IBM’s copyright.

Source: Corona Data Systems, 1983

Corona PC
Introduced: 1983
Original Retail Price: $2,595
Base Configuration: 8088 CPU, MS-DOS, four ISA slots, 128K RAM (512K max), 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, 12-inch monochrome monitor, keyboard/keypad, RS-232C and parallel ports, GW-BASIC, spreadsheet software
Video: 640 x 325 graphics
Important Options: CP/M-86, 10MB hard disk drive

Corona Portable PC
Introduced: 1983
Original Retail Price: $2,395
Base Configuration: 8088 CPU, MS-DOS, four ISA slots, 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, integral 9-inch monochrome CRT display, keyboard/keypad, RS-232C and parallel ports, spreadsheet software
Video: 640 x 325 graphics
Size/Weight: 9.6 x 18.6 x 19.8, 28 lbs.
Important Options: 10MB hard disk drive, carrying case

Bering Industries Totem Drive for the Macintosh

By the mid 1980s floppy drives just weren’t cutting it anymore. Database, spreadsheet, CAD, graphics and other files were getting too big, and people needed something that could store everything they needed to physically transfer to another location on a single storage medium.

The Bernoulli drive, also called the Bernoulli box, was one popular option. Invented by Daniel Bernoulli, it was similar to a floppy in that the storage medium was on a flexible magnetic platter. However, it was housed in a removable, rigid plastic case, and the drive itself spun at a very high rate of up to 3,000 rpm. The design allowed for the disc itself to spin close to the read/right head without the risk of a head crash.

Source: Bering Industries, 1986

Although the technology was popularized by Iomega, several other companies made Bernoulli drives. The Bering Industries Totem drive targeted the Macintosh market. That made perfect sense given the Mac’s popularity for applications that generate large files–e.g., desktop publishing, graphics design, and CAD.

The Totem’s capacity was 20MB, or as Bering described it, the equivalent to 25 floppy drives. Like other vendors, Bering claimed the Totem offered “unlimited” storage because it was removable. While technically true, there were practical limitations depending on how many disks you wanted to keep track of.

Introduced: November 25, 1986
Original Retail Price: $1,495
Base Configuration: 20MB 5.25-inch removable cartridge