The Compaq Portable III (Model 2660) is a PC/AT-compatible computer released by
Compaq Computer Corporation
Compaq Computer Corporation (sometimes abbreviated to CQ prior to a 2007 rebranding) was an American information technology company founded in 1982 that developed, sold, and supported computers and related products and services. Compaq produced ...
in 1987.
[ It was advertised as being much smaller and lighter than the previous portable ]x86
x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...
-PCs; however it was still quite large by today's standards.[http://oldcomputers.net/compaqiii.html oldcomputers.net] Three models were announced at release. The Model 1 had a list price
The list price, also known as the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), or the recommended retail price (RRP), or the suggested retail price (SRP) of a product is the price at which its manufacturer notionally recommends that a retailer ...
of and was equipped with a Intel 80286
The Intel 80286 (also marketed as the iAPX 286 and often called Intel 286) is a 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982. It was the first 8086-based CPU with separate, non-multiplexed address and data buses and also the fi ...
, 640 kilobytes of RAM
Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to:
Animals
* A male sheep
* Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish
People
* Ram (given name)
* Ram (surname)
* Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director
* RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch
* Ra ...
, floppy drive
A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...
, and a colored gas-plasma display.hard disk
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...
,[ or $5799 for the Model 40 with the upgraded forty megabyte hard disk.][
When Compaq launched its Portable III, the launch was timed to occurs simultaneously in twelve countries around the world, in keeping with Compaq's showmanship style.][ The Portable III was designed to be the smallest, lightest and fastest 386 machine, since Compaq was under the pressure from ]Toshiba
, commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure system ...
with its T1100 and T3100 and Zenith Data Systems
Zenith Data Systems (ZDS) was a division of Zenith Electronics founded in 1979 after Zenith acquired the Heath Company, which had entered the personal computer market in 1977. Headquartered in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Zenith sold personal compu ...
with its Z-181. Compaq only had 286 motherboards ready for mass production, so the 386 version, the Compaq Portable 386
The Compaq Portable 386 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. It was equipped with a Intel 80386 CPU, RAM, ROM, floppy, hard disk drive, priced at respectively, and a gas-plasma display.
Early versions of the ...
, would follow about one year later.[
The design of the Portable III had been deeply modified over the earlier ]Compaq portable series
Compaq's first computers' form factors were portable, also called "luggables", and then "lunchbox computers", and together constituted the Compaq Portable series. These computers measured approximately deep, tall, and approximately wide. As th ...
of machines. It was half the size and its footprint occupied half the space of the first Compaq Portable. The most remarkable feature was its gas plasma display which lifted up and swiveled so that it could be placed in a good position for reading. It also has a proprietary graphics mode that allows it to run at true 640 x 400 mode. Windows 2.11
Windows 2.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on May 27, 1988, as a successor to Windows 2.0.
It was released with two different variants with differing CPU compatibility, also known as Windows/286 and ...
had a Compaq Portable display driver for 640 x 400 mode.[
The optional 80287 coprocessor ran at 8 MHz regardless of the speed of the 80286, and the 640 KB of RAM were made up of 100-ns 256K-bit chips.][ The Portable III lacked the internal expansion ports of previous Portables and desktop PCs of the time, but Compaq offered an optional external expansion unit (model 2662A), that provided two full length, 16-bit ]ISA
Isa or ISA may refer to:
Places
* Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia
* Isa, Kagoshima, Japan
* Isa, Nigeria
* Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan
* Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain
* Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia
* Mount Is ...
add-in cards[ for $199.][net2000plus.tripod.com - Compaq Portable III computer]
/ref> The external expansion unit was electrically connected to the computer by a 96-pin port.
This unit was a more flexible option than the completely detached expansion units made for other portables. Because it gets
its power from the computer via this port, it could be securely attached it to the Portable III, and carried as if it were part of the machine. More than one expansion unit could be configured for different needs, allowing it considerable versatility for its time.[ Power is supplied using a ]mains electricity
Mains electricity or utility power, power grid, domestic power, and wall power, or in some parts of Canada as hydro, is a general-purpose alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electrical power that is delivered to h ...
outlet, it was not designed to run on batteries.[
]
References
External links
oldcomputers.net - Compaq III Portable computer
* archive.org/details/compaq-portable-3-operations-user-manual Compaq Portable III User Manual
3
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