The DVW Husky is a handheld British

rugged computer A rugged computer or ruggedized computer is a computer specifically designed to operate reliably in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures and wet or dusty conditions. They are designed from incepti ...

issued in 1981 by DVW Electronics. The Husky was designed to be used in harsh conditions, such as wet and cold weather, by users such as the military. It is waterproof and can be dropped from a considerable height onto a hard surface without sustaining damage. The computer is handheld, with a

membrane keyboard A membrane keyboard is a computer keyboard whose "keys" are not separate, moving parts, as with the majority of other keyboards, but rather are pressure pads that have only outlines and symbols printed on a flat, flexible surface. Very little, ...

similar to that of the

ZX81 The ZX81 is a home computer that was produced by Sinclair Research and manufactured in Dundee, Scotland, by Timex Corporation. It was launched in the United Kingdom in March 1981 as the successor to Sinclair's ZX80 and designed to be a low-cos ...

, and a 32x4 alphanumeric LCD. The Husky's CPU is compatible with the

Z80 The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975. The first working samples were ...

, and the computer has built-in Basic, 32K non-volatile RAM, and 16K

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

. It was initially manufactured in response to a request from

Severn Trent Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales. It is traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Severn Trent, the ...

and was later used by the Ministry of Defence in the Rapier Missile project. It was superseded by the Husky Hunter in 1983. The Hunter has a

chiclet keyboard A chiclet keyboard or island-style keyboard is a computer keyboard with keys that form an array of small, flat rectangular or lozenge-shaped rubber or plastic keys that look like erasers or "Chiclets", a brand of chewing gum manufactured in the s ...

, 40x8 display, 48K ROM, and up to 208K RAM. Several Husky variants existed for specific applications. Husky model352KEL zeissRec500

Reception

BYTE The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

'' in 1985 described the Husky as "the first lap-held computer". The writer reported that the Hunter "makes every other computer that I've handled feel quite flimsy", and concluded that "not everyone needs one, but if you do, you really need one".{{cite news , url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-09/1985_09_BYTE_10-09_Homebrewing#page/n367/mode/2up , title=Seventh Anniversary of Microcomputing , work=BYTE , date=September 1985 , accessdate=20 March 2016 , author=Pountain, Dick , pages=385

References

External links

Old Computers Museum
Portable computers