The Tandy 1400 LT is the first

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 ...

compatible

laptop A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...

sold by Tandy Corporation. Introduced in November 1987, it had two 3.5 inch floppy drives and a flip-up monochrome LCD screen, powered by an internal battery.

Features

The 1400LT (catalog number 25-3500) had two 3.5 inch floppy diskettes with a capacity of 720 KB each. The processor was the

Intel 8088 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 and ...

–compatible

NEC V20 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 ...

, with a clock speed of 7.16 MHz or 4.77 MHZ for compatibility with

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

programs. The system came with 768 KB of

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. A socket was provided for an optional 8087 numeric coprocessor. The back-lit monochrome LCD screen had a resolution of 640 by 200 pixels and was IBM CGA compatible, mapping colors to greyscale. Text modes supported included 80 by 25 and 40 by 25. The computer came with a parallel printer port, 9-pin

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard originally introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such a ...

serial port, and a socket for an external color monitor and a composite video output. The system also had a DIN socket to accept a PC XT-style external keyboard. Two internal slots allowed for installation of an optional internal 1200-baud

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

or other devices. The system had an internal battery-backed real-time clock. The system could operate from AC power with an external adapter, which also charged the internal battery. The system could operate for about four hours on the battery, which was replaceable by the user. The unit weighed about 13.5 lbs (5 kg) and was approximately when closed. At introduction, the computer list price was

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

1599. For interchange of data with desktop systems, Tandy later made available an external 5.25-inch diskette drive. Later revised designs were the 1400 FD, which was lighter, omitted the composite video port, and had an external floppy drive connector. The 1400 HD was similar to the FD but replaced one internal floppy drive with a 20 megabyte hard drive. All members of the 1400 family were dropped from Radio Shack catalogs after 1991.

Similar systems

The "clamshell" configuration of the Tandy 1400 was similar to that of the earlier

Data General/One The Data General/One (DG-1) was a laptop introduced in 1984 by Data General. Description The nine-pound battery-powered 1984 Data General/One ran MS-DOS and had dual 3.5" diskettes, a 79-key full-stroke keyboard, 128 KB to 512 KB of RAM, and a m ...

and

IBM PC Convertible The IBM PC Convertible (model 5140) is a laptop computer made by IBM, first sold in April 1986. The Convertible was IBM's first laptop-style computer, following the luggable IBM Portable, and introduced the 3½-inch floppy disk format to the IB ...

. Although the battery life of the 1400 LT was less than that of the IBM Convertible, the system came with more standard peripheral connections and was priced significantly lower.

References

{{TRS-80 and Tandy computers IBM PC compatibles 1400LT Computer-related introductions in 1988