The Compaq Deskpro is a line of business-oriented

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or te ...

s manufactured by

Compaq 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 ...

, then discontinued after the merger with

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

. Models were produced containing microprocessors from the

8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allo ...

up to the x86-based Intel

Pentium 4 Pentium 4 is a series of single-core CPUs for desktops, laptops and entry-level servers manufactured by Intel. The processors were shipped from November 20, 2000 until August 8, 2008. The production of Netburst processors was active from 2000 ...

History

Deskpro (8086) and Deskpro 286

The original Compaq Deskpro (released in 1984), available in several disk configurations, is an XT-class PC equipped with an 8 MHz 8086 CPU and Compaq's unique display hardware that combined

Color Graphics Adapter The Color Graphics Adapter (CGA), originally also called the ''Color/Graphics Adapter'' or ''IBM Color/Graphics Monitor Adapter'', introduced in 1981, was IBM's first color graphics card for the IBM PC and established a De facto standard, de fact ...

graphics with high resolution

Monochrome Display Adapter The Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA, also MDA card, Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter, MDPA) is IBM's standard video display card and computer display standard for the IBM PC introduced in 1981. The MDA does not have any pixel-addressabl ...

text. As a result, it was considerably faster than the original IBM PC, the XT and the AT, and had a much better quality text display compared to IBM PCs which were equipped with either the IBM Monochrome Display Adapter or Color Graphics Adapter cards. Its hardware and

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization during the b ...

were claimed to be 100% compatible with the IBM PC, like the earlier

Compaq Portable The Compaq Portable was an early portable computer which was one of the first 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 serie ...

. This compatibility had given Compaq the lead over companies like

Columbia Data Products Columbia Data Products, Inc. (CDP) is a company which produced the first legally reverse-engineered IBM PC clones. It faltered in that market after only a few years, and later reinvented itself as a software development company. History 1976� ...

, Dynalogic,

Eagle Computer Eagle Computer of Los Gatos, California, United States, was an early microcomputer manufacturing company. Spun off from Audio-Visual Laboratories (AVL), it first sold a line of popular CP/M computers which were highly praised in the computer ma ...

and

Corona Data Systems Corona Data Systems, later renamed Cordata, was an American personal computer company. It was one of the earliest IBM PC compatible computer system companies. Manufacturing was primarily done by Daewoo of Korea, which became a major investor i ...

. The latter two companies were threatened by IBM for BIOS copyright infringement, and settled out of court, agreeing to re-implement their BIOS. Compaq used a

clean room design Clean-room design (also known as the Chinese wall technique) is the method of copying a design by reverse engineering and then recreating it without infringing any of the copyrights associated with the original design. Clean-room design is use ...

reverse-engineered Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompli ...

BIOS, avoiding legal jeopardy. In 1985, Compaq released the Deskpro 286, which looks quite similar to the

IBM PC/AT The IBM Personal Computer/AT (model 5170, abbreviated as IBM AT or PC/AT) was released in 1984 as the fourth model in the IBM Personal Computer line, following the IBM PC/XT and its IBM Portable PC variant. It was designed around the Intel 80 ...

Deskpro 386

In September 1986, the Deskpro 386 was announced after

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 ser ...

released its 80386 microprocessor, beating IBM by seven months on their comparable 386 computer, thus making a name for themselves. The IBM-made 386DX machine, the IBM PS/2 Model 80, reached the market almost a year later, PC Tech Journal honored the Deskpro 386 with its 1986 Product of the Year award. The Deskpro 386/25 was released August, 1988 and cost $10,299.

Other

The form factor for the Compaq Deskpro is mostly the desktop model which lies upon a desk, with a monitor placed on top of it. Compaq has produced many

tower A tower is a tall structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting structures. Towers are specific ...

upright models that have been highly successful in sales, and are usually convertible to a desktop form factor. An SFF ( small form factor) desktop version was also produced during the Deskpro's lifetime. The Deskpro was replaced by the Evo in 2001.

Models

The many different models include the: * Deskpro 286e * Deskpro 386: released as the first MS-DOS, PC-compatible 32-bit computer with 386 processor. * Deskpro 386S: Second Generation 386 introducing 16-bit bus 386SX processors * Deskpro XE 486 ISA and IDE * Deskpro XL: high-end workstation with EISA and SCSI either and 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro * Deskpro M: 386, 486 and 586 early Pentium models * Deskpro 2000: Pentium 1, Pentium Pro and Pentium 2 * Deskpro 4000: Pentium 1 with MMX & Pentium 2 * Deskpro 6000: Pentium 1, Pentium Pro and Pentium 2 and SCSI * Deskpro DX * Deskpro EXD, SB, EN, ENL: Pentium III-based * Deskpro EVO500 series: the last of the range with Pentium 4 processors

References

Bibliography

* Compaq Computer Corporation. ''Reference Guide: Compaq Deskpro 2000 Series of Personal Computers''. 3rd edition, January 1998. Part Number 278019-003. * Compaq Computer Corporation. ''Reference Guide: Compaq Deskpro 4000 Series of Personal Computers/Compaq Deskpro 6000 Series of Personal Computers''. 2nd edition, September 1997. Part Number 270844-002.

Weblinks

* : NYT article about the DeskPro 386-20. Deskpro IBM PC compatibles Business desktop computers {{microcompu-stub