The Poqet PC is a very small,

portable Portable may refer to: General * Portable building, a manufactured structure that is built off site and moved in upon completion of site and utility work * Portable classroom, a temporary building installed on the grounds of a school to provide a ...

IBM PC compatible IBM PC compatible computers are similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT, all from computer giant IBM, that are able to use the same software and expansion cards. Such computers were referred to as PC clones, IBM clones or IBM PC clones. ...

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

, introduced in 1989 by

Poqet Computer Corporation The Poqet PC is a very small, portable IBM PC compatible computer, introduced in 1989 by Poqet Computer Corporation with a price of $2000. The computer was discontinued after Fujitsu Ltd. bought Poqet Computer Corp. It was the first subnotebook ...

with a price of $2000. The computer was discontinued after Fujitsu Ltd. bought Poqet Computer Corp. It was the first

subnotebook Subnotebook, also called ultraportable, superportable, or mini notebook, was a marketing term for laptop computers that are smaller and lighter than a typical notebook-sized laptop. Types and sizes As typical laptop sizes have decreased over t ...

form factor IBM PC compatible computer that ran

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

. The Poqet PC is powered by two AA-size batteries. Through the use of aggressive

power management Power management is a feature of some electrical appliances, especially copiers, computers, computer CPUs, computer GPUs and computer peripherals such as monitors and printers, that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power stat ...

, which includes stopping the

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

between keystrokes, the batteries are able to power the computer for anywhere between a couple of weeks and a couple of months, depending on usage. The computer also uses an "instant on" feature, such that after powering it down, it can be used again immediately without having to go through a full booting sequence. The Poqet PC is comparable to the

HP 95LX The HP 95LX Palmtop PC (F1000A, F1010A), also known as ''project Jaguar'', was Hewlett Packard's first MS-DOS-based pocket computer, or personal digital assistant, introduced in April 1991 in collaboration with Lotus Development Corporation. ...

HP 100LX The HP 200LX Palmtop PC (F1060A, F1061A, F1216A), also known as project ''Felix'', is a personal digital assistant introduced by Hewlett-Packard in August 1994. It was often called a Palmtop PC, and it was notable that it was, with some mi ...

HP 200LX The HP 200LX Palmtop PC (F1060A, F1061A, F1216A), also known as project ''Felix'', is a personal digital assistant introduced by Hewlett-Packard in August 1994. It was often called a Palmtop PC, and it was notable that it was, with some m ...

and the

Atari Portfolio The Atari Portfolio (Atari PC Folio) is an IBM PC-compatible palmtop PC, released by Atari Corporation in June 1989. This makes it the world's first palmtop computer.

handheld computers.

Poqet PC, "Classic" and Prime

Three variants were produced. The Poqet PC was the first to be introduced and the Poqet PC Prime followed shortly after. (The original version was subsequently renamed the Poqet PC "Classic"). Several years later, the Poqet PC Plus was introduced. The main difference between the Poqet PC Classic and the Prime was the expansion 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 ...

from 512 to 640 KB and enhancement of the power management features.

Specifications

* Size: x x * Weight: with batteries * Battery life: 50–100 hours (expect a lot less if running long, CPU-intensive programs (10-20 h approx.)) * Microprocessor:

80C88 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers an ...

/ 7 MHz * Memory: 640 KB SRAM * Display: Reflective DSTN (no backlight) * Display compatibility:

MDA MDA, mda, or ''variation'', may refer to: Places * Moldova, a country in Europe with the ISO 3166-1 country code MDA Politics * Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (2018), ruling coalition government in the Indian State of Meghalaya led by National Pe ...

: 80 × 25 characters
CGA: 640 × 200 pixels *

PCMCIA The Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA) was a group of computer hardware manufacturers, operating under that name from 1989 to 2009. Starting with the PCMCIA card in 1990 (the name later simplified to ''PC Card''), i ...

: 2 × Type I, Revision 1.0 memory card slots * Secondary storage: Drive A: 512 KB-2 MB PCMCIA (not included)
Drive B: 512-2 MB PCMCIA (not included)
Drive C: 768 KB ROM drive with MS-DOS 3.3 and PoqetTools
Drive D: 22 KB volatile RAM drive * Built-in software:

MS-DOS 3.3 MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...

, PoqetLink, and PoqetTools

Poqet PC Plus

Several years after the Poqet Prime and Classic, and some time after

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

purchased Poqet Computer Corp., the new and improved Poqet PC Plus was introduced. The Poqet PC Plus had significant differences from the Classic and Prime models, some better than others. It features a rechargeable battery pack that holds a smaller charge than the "Classic", enhanced

PC Card In computing, PC Card is a configuration for computer parallel communication peripheral interface, designed for laptop computers. Originally introduced as PCMCIA, the PC Card standard as well as its successors like CardBus were defined and devel ...

slots that now support more PC Cards, a transflective backlit

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but in ...

and 2 MB of RAM (640 KB to DOS, 64 KB shadow, and 1-1344 KB for a RAM disk). The Poqet "Classic"'s LCD didn't have a backlight and was more prone to breaking than the Poqet PC Plus. It also only took Type I, Release 1.0 SRAM cards, as opposed to Type II cards and Release 2.0 cards, including flash, SRAM, and a few modem cards. The Plus also had more memory. Despite many improvements, the Plus also had its drawbacks. The Poqet PC Plus was considerably larger and heavier than its predecessors. It weighed approximately as opposed to the Classic's . It also has a very odd miniature 26-pin serial connector for which there is no currently available adapter. However, many

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 ...

external floppy drives and dongles used this same JAE connector. An amateur radio hobbyist who uses a Poqet has found a way to make a suitable adapter. It also is not totally PCMCIA Release 2.0 compatible, so not all memory cards will work, and, as Bryan Mason says on his Poqet site, only the "PNB Samantha modem, Megahertz 14.4 kbit/s modem with XJACK, and the AT&T Paradyne KeepInTouch 14.4 kbit/s modems" will work in it. In addition, not all CompactFlash cards work in the Poqet. Users have found that many machines do not work with newer CF cards.

Specifications

* Size: x x * Weight: w/batteries * Battery life: 3–12 hours (application dependent) * Microprocessor:

NEC V30 The NEC V20 is a microprocessor that was designed and produced by NEC. It is both pin compatible and object code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture (ISA) similar to that of the Intel 80188 with some extension ...

at 16 MHz * Memory: 2 MB (Memory above 640 KB is configurable as EMS or a RAM disk. 64 KB is reserved for shadow BIOS.) * Display: Transflective LCD with backlight on demand. diagonal size. * Display compatibility: MDA: 80 x 25 characters
CGA: 640 x 200 pixels * Expansion: 2 × Type II PCMCIA slots (nearly compatible with PCMCIA Revision 2.0.)
1 × TTL serial port
1 × TTL/RS-232 serial port (configurable) ** PCMCIA Compatibility: Supports SunDisk (SanDisk) ATA Flash, 3.3 V and 5 V SRAM; AT&T Paradyne KeepInTouch modem, Megahertz PCMCIA 14.4 kbit/s modem with XJACK, and PNB Samantha modem. * Secondary storage: Drive A: Left PCMCIA slot
Drive B: Right PCMCIA slot
Drive C: ROM drive with MS-DOS 5.0
Drive D: 784 KB Flash drive
Drive E: RAM drive (if configured) * Built-in software:

MS-DOS 5.0 MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

, EMS driver, RAM Disk driver, Flash utility, barcode reader, PenConnect serial communications software, PCMCIA driver.

Reception

The Poqet PC was one of the first subnotebooks to exist in the marketplace, and still today is one of the smallest, although it is beaten by the

. It was immediately recognized as a milestone in portable computing when

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

awarded the Poqet PC development team ( Ian H. S. Cullimore, John P. Fairbanks, Leroy D. Harper, Shinpei Ichikawa,

Stavro Evangelo Prodromou Stavro Evangelo "Stav" Prodromou ( gr, Σταύρος Ευάγγελος Προδρομου) (born May 30, 1944) is a Greek American businessman, and the founder and former chief executive officer of Poqet Computer Corporation. Prodromou has serve ...

) its coveted Technical Excellence Award for 1989. The same device that PC World called "one of the 50 greatest gadgets of the last 50 years" had a very short lifespan, from only about 1989-1994. After Poqet was bought by Fujitsu, the Poqet was soon axed. For a short time Poqet value declined, with the onset of

Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

. A similar decline in HP 200LX demand also occurred after the introduction of HP Windows CE machines. However, despite the new machines' power, their operating system soon proved to be inefficient. The Poqets and HP 'LX' DOS machines became very high in demand. Poqets also are in fairly high demand, but fetch somewhat lower prices. A Cherry Hill, NJ business, Disks 'n' Data, once had a stock of Classics and Pluses. As the owner of the store, Jerry Tessler, put it: "I sold them all in twenty minutes." Unlike running Windows CE, running DOS in near-standard specifications meant that everything from

Lotus 1-2-3 Lotus 1-2-3 is a discontinued spreadsheet program from Lotus Software (later part of IBM). It was the first killer application of the IBM PC, was hugely popular in the 1980s, and significantly contributed to the success of IBM PC-compatibles i ...

Zork ''Zork'' is a text-based adventure game first released in 1977 by developers Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling for the PDP-10 mainframe computer. The original developers and others, as the company Infocom, expanded and ...

worked as expected.

References

Sources

California Digital
2006. 2006-12-22. * Mason, Bryan
The Poqet PC Home Page
2006. 2006-12-25.

2005. 2006-12-22. * Wong, Al

2001. 2006-12-23.

Citations

External links

The Poqet PC Home Page
A collection of Poqet information, along with documentation, software downloads, and FAQs.
A Poqet PC Wiki
is a wiki about the Poqet PC that is currently under construction.
Fujitsu's Home Page
The company that eventually sold Poqets later on in the series' short lifespan.
Poqet PC ... QRPer's field computing dream!
A page on the Poqet used for ham radio. Many links and much info.

Making a Poqet PC Plus serial adapter.
California Digital
sells Poqet PC Pluses and accessories.
Poqet PC
A review of the Classic by Tom Carlson.

mentions the Poqet computer in a part of its article * PC Magazine also mentioned the Poqet P
in this article

by

John Markoff John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at ''The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture ...

IBM PC compatibles Personal digital assistants Subnotebooks Computer-related introductions in 1989

Poqet PC, "Classic" and Prime

Specifications

Poqet PC Plus

Specifications

Reception

See also

References

Sources

Citations

Further reading

External links