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PowerBook 180
The PowerBook 180 is a portable computer released by Apple Computer, Inc. along with the PowerBook 160 in October 1992. At the time, it constituted the new top-of-the-range model, replacing the previous PowerBook 170. Its case design and features are the same as that of the 170, but it shipped with the more powerful 33 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU and Motorola 68882 FPU. Along with the 160, it introduced a new power-saving feature which allowed the processor to run at a slower 16 MHz rate, the same speed as the original 140.
The PowerBook 180 came with a (diagonal) active matrix LCD screen capable of displaying 4-bit grayscale at a resolution of 640x400, and a trackball was mounted beneath the keyboard. A 1.44 MB floppy disk drive and 80 MB 2.5-inch hard drive were also standard.
The Apple Powerbook also gave an option of possible expansion to a 120 MB hard drive. They are equipped with keyboard stands to slant the keyboard.
Like the Macintosh Portable before it, with the addition of an external color video port (missing on the 170), the 180 became a full-featured, no-compromises desktop replacement, equivalent in performance to the Macintosh LC III+. It was sold until May 1994.
PowerBook 180c
In June 1993, Apple released an identical color version of this model, the PowerBook 180c (pictured below). It had an diagonal active matrix color LCD capable of displaying 256 colors and was the first PowerBook to natively display 640x480 (all previous PowerBooks had 640x400 resolution). As a result of the thicker color display, the exterior case lid was redesigned, more closely resembling that used on the PowerBook Duo series. This modification was used on the PowerBook 165c for the same reason.
References
External links
apple-history.com: PowerBook 180
180
68k Macintosh computers | laptop Build Quality | 0.314 | 14,400 |
Lenovo Erazer
The Lenovo Erazer is a line of desktop computers designed for gaming and other high-performance computing tasks.
Launch
The Erazer X700 was announced by Lenovo at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It launched in May 2013 with a starting price in the United States of $1,499.
Models
Erazer X700
Design
The Erazer X700 has a highly stylized case that TechRadar said is "like the sort of extraterrestrial hardware that comes from folks like Alienware." TechRadar added, "On the outside, the Erazer X700 looks an unused design from Prometheus. It's all blue lights, bubbled black plastic and geometric lines. With a power button labeled Engine Start in blue LED, it's your call whether the X700 is more racecar than spacecraft. Either way it's a tad gaudy, but no sci-fi nightmare. There are some functional touches amongst the glowing glamor."
Specifications and performance
The Erazer X700 is powered by Intel's i7 processor. The X700 can be configured with either dual GeForce GTX660 video cards or a single AMD Radeon HD 8950 video card. Up to 16GB of DDR3 SDRAM is supported. Users can choose standard configurations with 2TB or 1TB hard drives with bays sufficient for an additional 4TBs of hard drive capacity.
The X700 has what Lenovo calls "OneKey" overclocking ability that can be activated with a single case-mounted button. This functionality is supported by the Erazer X700's internal liquid cooling system. The X700 has USB ports and headphone jacks like other PCs, but also has connections for six displays.
Erazer X310 and X315
Erazer X510
Reviews
In its review of the x700 TechRadar said, "Our playtime with the Erazer X700 was limited, but we got the chance to put boots and tank treads on the ground with some Battlefield 3. The game's tense tank showdowns were big and bombastic as ever, and rig maintained the intense frame rate needed to control an F/a 18 jet on a strafing run." TechRadar also stated, "We're intrigued to see Lenovo enter the gaming space with a dedicated rig. Competition from a reputable manufacturer never hurts the consumer. With the launch of one system, this isn't exactly Dell's acquisition of Alienware, but it's an exciting start."
In a review for Techspot Rick Burgess wrote, "Despite its faults, the Erazer’s sharp-looking custom case, liquid cooling, X79-based motherboard, dual-graphics option, removable storage trays and overclocking all manage to plant one foot firmly in gamer country. The X700 can comfortably handle modern titles at 1920x1080 and high/ultra settings and most features enabled... as long as you don’t mind turning off MSAA. The possibility of adding a second GTX 660 GPU for SLI gaming also helps future proofing the X700."
In a review for PC Magazine Brian Westover wrote, "The Lenovo Erazer X700 is a fairly good entry-level gaming desktop in its own right, but unlike competing systems, it also boasts liquid cooling, simple overclocking, and plenty of opportunities to dip a toe into the murky waters of upgrading and tweaking PCs."
References
Lenovo computers
Computer-related introductions in 2013 | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,401 |
IBM ThinkPad T20 series
The IBM ThinkPad T20 series was a series of notebook computers introduced in May 2000 by IBM as the successor of the 600 series and the first model of the T-series which exists today under Lenovo ownership. Four models were produced, the T20, T21, T22, and T23; the series was succeeded in May 2002 by the ThinkPad T30, but was produced until July 2003.
Features
The T20 series succeeded the 600 series, adding new features such as S-Video output, an Ethernet port, and the UltraBay 2000 hot-swappable bay. The graphics card was upgraded from the 4MB NeoMagic 256ZX which was used in the 600X, to an 8MB S3 Savage (16MB on T23 models) which was capable of rendering 3D graphics in hardware. The ThinkPad T23 was also the first ThinkPad laptop model to offer an optional WiFi connection via a Mini-PCI card, using wireless antennas which were built into the lid on select upper-end models.
The T20 series originally shipped with either Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Linux, with later T23 models shipping with Windows XP. All T20 models were capable of running Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, OS/2 Warp 4, or Windows Me as well as various Linux distributions. Additionally, the T23 was capable of running Windows Vista or Windows 7, if equipped with at least 512MB of memory.
One common problem of the earlier T20 series was a hardware defect which caused the machine to suddenly stop working and begin blinking the hard drive and power indicators. The machine would not power on. This became known as the "Blink of Death". In addition, on some T23 models, the rear memory slot could fail, rendering the machine only able to use up to 512MB of memory, rather than 1GB. Another common issue with the T23 was that one of the coils, near the CPU, could break off the motherboard due to cold solder joints. This caused multiple issues, including the inability to boot or hard lockup/freeze.
Models
ThinkPad T20 - First model shipped, featured a Pentium III at 650, 700 or 750 MHz, all with SpeedStep technology. This model shipped with either a 13.3" XGA TFT or 14.1" XGA TFT display, and shipped with an external floppy drive, a swappable CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and a choice of a 6GB, 12GB, or a 20GB hard drive. The T20 also had optional Ethernet (consumer installable via mini-PCI on all models), one USB 1.1 port, PC Card Slot, and an S-Video output as standard features, and shipped with 128MB of RAM (upgradeable to 512MB using PC100 SODIMMs)
ThinkPad T21 - Featuring an upgraded Pentium III processor at either 750 MHz, 800 MHz, or 850 MHz, the T21 featured either a 13.3" XGA TFT, 14.1" XGA TFT, or a new 14.1" SXGA+ TFT display (exclusive to 850 MHz models). This model shipped with a swappable CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, and a choice of a 10GB, 20GB or 32GB hard drive. The T21 features either a mini-PCI modem card or an Ethernet/modem combo card, one USB 1.1 port, PC Card Slot, and 128MB of RAM standard (upgradeable to 512MB using PC100 SODIMMs).
ThinkPad T22 - Featuring an upgraded Pentium III processor at either 800 MHz, 900 MHz, or 1.00 GHz, the T22 featured either a 13.3" XGA TFT, 14.1" XGA TFT, or 14.1" SXGA+ TFT display as standard. This model shipped a mini-PCI modem card or an Ethernet/modem combo card, one USB 1.1 port, PC Card Slot, a swappable CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, either a 10GB, 20GB or 32GB hard drive, and 128MB or 256MB of RAM standard (upgradeable to 512MB using PC100 SODIMMs).
ThinkPad T23 - The final model of the T20 series, featuring the new Tualatin Pentium III-M at either 866 MHz, 1.00 GHz, 1.13 GHz, or 1.20 GHz (all with SpeedStep technology) and either a 13.3" XGA TFT, 14.1" XGA TFT, or 14.1" SXGA+ TFT display as standard. This model shipped with 2 USB 1.1 ports rather than only one, a 15GB to 60GB hard drive, a Mini-PCI Modem or Wireless card (on select models), a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW or combo (CD-RW/DVD) drive, and either 128MB or 256MB of RAM standard (upgradeable to 1GB using PC133 SODIMMs).
Comparison
See also
ThinkPad T Series
References
ThinkPad T20
T20 series | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,402 |
Amstrad CPC 464
The CPC 464 is the first personal home computer built by Amstrad in 1984. It was one of the bestselling and best produced microcomputers, with more than 2 million units sold in Europe. The British microcomputer boom had already peaked before Amstrad announced the CPC 464 (which stood for Colour Personal Computer) which they then released a mere 9 months later.
Amstrad was known for cheap hi-fi products but had not broken into the home computer market until the CPC 464. Their consumer electronic sales were starting to plateau and owner and founder Alan Sugar stated "We needed to move on and find another sector or product to bring us back to profit growth". Work started on the Amstrad home computer in 1983 with engineer Ivor Spital who concluded that Amstrad should enter the home computer market, offering a product that integrated low-cost hardware to be sold at an affordable "impulse-purchase price".
Spital wanted to offer a device that would not commandeer the family TV but instead be an all-in-one computer with its own monitor, thus freeing up the TV and allowing others to play video games at the same time.
Bill Poel, General Manager of Amsoft (Amstrad's software division), said during the launch press release that if the computers were not on the shelves by the end of June "I will be prepared to sit down and eat one in Trafalgar Square".
Technical specifications
The CPC 464 is powered by the Zilog Z80 processor after the original attempts to use the 6502 processor, being used in the Apple II amongst many other 8-bit computer families, failed. The Z80 runs at 4 MHz, has 64K of memory and runs AMSDOS, Amstrad's own OS. The unit includes a built in tape drive and the choice of a colour or green monochrome monitor.
The CPC 464 has 3 standard display modes, each using colours chosen from a palette of 27.
Mode 0 - 160×200, 16 colours
Mode 1 - 320×200, 4 colours
Mode 2 - 640x200, 2 colours
Its sound is supplied using the General Instruments AY-3-8912 sound chip that provides 3-voice, 8-octave sound capacity through a built in loudspeaker with volume control. Later versions of the 464 have a headphone jack that can also be used for external speakers.
The CPC 464's code name during development was 'Arnold'.
Reception
The 464 was popular with consumers for various reasons. Aside from the joystick port, the computer, keyboard, and tape deck were all combined into one unit that attached to the monitor via 2 cables. The monitor also contained the power supply unit which powered the whole unit via one wall plug. It did not have very many wires and was simple to install for even the most inexperienced user.
References
Amstrad CPC | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,403 |
Tyan
Tyan Computer Corporation (泰安電腦科技股份有限公司; also known as Tyan Business Unit, or TBU) is a subsidiary of MiTAC International, and a manufacturer of computer motherboards, including models for both AMD and Intel processors. They develop and produce high-end server, SMP, and desktop barebones systems as well as provide design and production services to tier 1 global OEMs, and a number of other regional OEMs.
Founding
The company was founded in 1989 by Dr. T. Symon Chang, a veteran of IBM and Intel. At that time, Dr. Chang saw an empty space in the market in which there were no strong players for the SMP server space, and as such he founded Tyan in order to develop, produce and deliver such products, starting with a dual Intel Pentium-series motherboard as well as a number of other single processor motherboards all geared towards server applications.
Since then, Tyan has produced a number of single and multi-processor (as well as multi-core) products using technology from many well-known companies (e.g. Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, Broadcom and many more). Notable design wins include that of Dawning corporation for the fastest supercomputer (twice); first to market with a dual AMD Athlon MP server platform; winner of the Maximum PC Kick-Ass Award (twice) for their contributions to the Dream Machine (most recently, the 2005 edition); and first to market with an eight (8) GPU server platform (the FT72-B7015).
Later company history
Tyan is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, separated between three buildings in the Nei-Hu industrial district. All three buildings belong to the parent company, MiTAC. The North American headquarters are in Fremont, California, which was also the previous corporate headquarters before the merger.
The merger in question was with MiTAC, a Taiwanese OEM which develops and produces a range of products (including servers, notebooks, consumer electronics products, networking and educational products - as well as providing contract manufacturing services), was announced in March 2007 and completed on October 1 of that year. Under the umbrella of MiTAC, Tyan acts as the brand leader and core engineering and marketing arm for delivery of server and workstation products to the distribution and reseller channel, and continues to act as a design and production services house for OEM customers.
MiTAC International Corp. spun off the Cloud Computing Business Group to the newly incorporated MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation on 1 September 2014. TYAN is a leading server brand of MiTAC Computing Technology Corp. under the MiTAC Group.
TYAN launched the first OpenPOWER reference system based on the IBM POWER8 architecture in Oct 2014. TYAN is one of the founding members of the OpenPOWER Foundation, which was established in 2013.
External links
Tyan Computer Corp.
MiTAC.com, Tyan's parent company
Tyan's Chinese website
1989 establishments in Taiwan
Companies established in 1989
Motherboard companies
Companies based in Taipei
Electronics companies of Taiwan
Taiwanese brands
Data centers | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,404 |
Mali-400 MP
Mali-400 MP is a Mali series GPU produced by ARM Holdings.
Is one of the world's most shipped mobile GPUs across multiple platforms. It was the first Mali GPU to offer multi-core implementation. The Mali-400 GPU scaled from 1–4 cores and was the world’s first OpenGL ES 2.0 conformant multi core GPU. Focusing on reduced power and bandwidth consumption, the Mali-400 GPU was selected for reduced cost devices.
There are several versions, the MP1 and the MP4, the most common and used, is the quad-core version, "Multi-core" also called "Mali-400 MP4" with frequencies ranging from 210 Mhz to 500 Mhz, develop respectively 12 Gigaflops and 18 Gigaflops of computing power. Semiconductors are manufactured by ARM Holdings, and ARM ASIC partner licenses. The core is mainly developed by ARM, at the former Falanx company.
It is the world's first OpenGL ES 2.0-compliant multi-core GPU capable of delivering 2D and 3D acceleration with performance up to 1080p resolution.
It is a pure 3D engine that renders the graphics in memory and passes the rendered image onto another core which manages the display. ARM provides the tools necessary to create OpenGL ES shaders exact names: Mali GPU Shader Development Studio and Mali GPU Engine User Interface. It is mounted on various System-on-a-chip (SoC) including: the Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy S3.
Specifications
References
Graphics processing units | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,405 |
Iomega
Iomega (later LenovoEMC, sometimes styled Lenovo | EMC²), was a producer of external, portable, and networked storage products. Established in the 1980s in Roy, Utah, United States, Iomega sold more than 410 million digital storage drives and disks, most notably the Zip drive floppy disk system. Formerly a public company, it was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2008, and subsequently by Lenovo, which rebranded the product line as LenovoEMC, until it was eventually discontinued in 2018.
Operations
Lenovo announced the construction of a research and development facility near São Paulo, Brazil, in November 2013. This facility would be dedicated to enterprise software and supporting LenovoEMC's development of high-end servers and cloud storage. Construction would cost $100 million and about 100 would be employed at the facility. It would be located in the University of Campinas Science and Technology Park, about 60 miles from São Paulo.
History
Iomega started business in Roy, Utah, U.S. in 1980 (the firm moved its headquarters to San Diego, California in 2001). For many years, the firm was a significant name in the data storage industry. Iomega's most famous product, the Zip Drive, was revolutionary as it offered relatively large amounts of storage on easily portable compact cartridges. The original Zip disk's 100MB capacity was a huge improvement over the 1.44MB limitation of floppy disks. The Zip Drive became a common internal and external peripheral for IBM-compatible computers and Macs. However, Zip disk cartridges sometimes failed after a short period, (commonly referred to as the "click of death"). This problem, combined with competition from CD-RW drives, caused Zip Drive sales to decline dramatically, despite later efforts to introduce larger 250MB and 750MB disk versions. Iomega eventually launched a CD-RW drive.
Without the revenue from its proprietary storage cartridges, Iomega's sales and profits declined considerably. Iomega's stock price, which was over $100 at its height in the 1990s, dipped to around $2 in the mid-2000s. Trying to find a niche for itself, Iomega released devices such as the HipZip MP3 player, the FotoShow Digital Image Center, and numerous external hard drives, optical drives, and NAS products. None of these products were successful.
In 2012, reporter Vincent Verweij of Dutch broadcaster Katholieke Radio Omroep revealed that the contents of at least 16,000 Iomega NAS devices were publicly available on the internet. This was due to the devices being sold with password security disabled by default. Among those affected were KLM, ING Group, and Ballast Nedam, who all had confidential material leaked in this manner. Iomega USA acknowledged the problem and said future models (starting February 2013) would come with password security enabled by default. The company said it would clearly instruct users about the risks of unsecured data.
Acquisition by EMC
On April 8, 2008, EMC Corporation announced plans to acquire Iomega for US$213 million. The acquisition was completed in June 2008, making Iomega the SOHO/SMB arm of EMC. EMC kept the Iomega brand name alive with products such as the StorCenter NAS line, ScreenPlay TV Link adapter, and v.Clone virtualization software.
Joint venture with Lenovo: LenovoEMC
In 2013, EMC formed a joint venture with Chinese technology company Lenovo, named LenovoEMC, that took over Iomega's business. LenovoEMC rebranded all of Iomega's products under its name. LenovoEMC designs products for small and medium-sized businesses that cannot afford enterprise-class data storage. LenovoEMC is part of a broader partnership between the two companies announced in August 2012. The partnership also includes an effort to develop x86-based servers and allowing Lenovo to act as an OEM for some EMC hardware. Lenovo is expected to benefit from the relatively high profit margins of the NAS market. LenovoEMC is part of Lenovo's Enterprise Products Group.
1980–1999
1980: April 1, Iomega Founded
1982: Released First Bernoulli Box Drive (10MB)
1987: September, Shipped first Bernoulli Box II model (20 MB)
1988: Released Bernoulli Box 44 MB drive
1991: July, Shipped Bernoulli Box 90 MB drive
1992: October, Shipped Bernoulli MultiDisk 150 drive.
1994: October, Shipped Bernoulli 230 drive.
1995: January, Shipped Iomega Ditto Tape Drive
1995: March, Released Zip 100MB Drive
1995: December, Shipped Jaz Drive 1GB Drive
1997: June, Announced Buz Multimedia Producer
1997: November, Unveiled Clik! 40MB Drive
1998: February, Shipped Jaz 2GB Drive
1998: December, Shipped Zip 250MB Drive
1999: Shipped First Internal CD-RW Drive
2000–present
2000: September, Launched HipZip Digital Audio Player
2000: October, Shipped FotoShow Digital Image Center
2000: December, Shipped First External CD-RW Drive
2001: January, Announced Peerless Drive System
2001: March, Shipped DataSafe Network Attached Storage (NAS) Server
2001: July, eliminating .. one-third of its work force, planning to move from Utah to California.
2002: April, Announced Portable and External Hard Drive Family
2002: August, Shipped Zip 750MB Drive
2002: November, Launched USB Mini Flash Drive
2003: March, Launched iStorage Online Storage
2003: March, Announced External Standard Floppy Drive
2003: June, Announced first DVD-RW drive, shipped 50 millionth Zip drive
2003: November, Introduced Super DVD QuikTouch
2004: February, Shipped CD-RW/DVD-ROM 7-in-1 Card Reader
2004: April, Shipped REV 35GB Drive, shipped Floppy Plus 7-in-1 Card Reader
2004: September, Introduced Wireless NAS Server
2004: October, Introduced REV Autoloader 1000
2005: November, Announced ScreenPlay Multimedia Drive
2006: September, Introduced desktop RAID storage
2008: January, Announced eGo Portable Hard Drive
2008: April, EMC acquired Iomega
2008: April, Announced ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive
2008: May, Announced eGo Desktop Hard Drive
2008: August, Introduced ScreenPlay TV Link Multimedia Adapter
2008: September, Announced the new eGo Helium Portable Hard Drive
2008: October, Announced StorCenter ix2, announced ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive
2009: January, Shipped Iomega Home Media Network Hard Drive
2009: February, Announced StorCenter ix4-100 Server
2009: April, Ships the StorCenter ix4-200r NAS
2009: May, New Generation of eGo Portable Hard Drives
2009: August, Announced StorCenter ix4-200d NAS
2009: October, Announced StorCenter ix2-200
2010: January, Shipped Iomega iConnect Wireless Data Station
2010: January, Announced ScreenPlay Media Player, Director Edition; announced v.Clone Technology: Take your PC Virtually Anywhere
2010: April, Iomega celebrates 30 years
2010: May, Announced StorCenter ix12-300r NAS
2010: June, Introduced Skin Hard Drive by Iomega
2011: March, introduced Cloud Edition IX series
2013: January, Iomega Corporation was renamed to LenovoEMC Limited, which is a joint venture between Lenovo Group Limited and EMC Corporation. Lenovo owns the majority stake in the new company.
Products
Iomega designed and manufactured a range of products intended to compete with and ultimately replace the 3.5" floppy disk, notably the Zip drive. Initial Iomega products connected to a computer via SCSI or parallel port; later models used USB and FireWire (1994).
PX4-400d
The 400d was a multi-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device. The 400d was powered by an Intel Atom processor running at 2.13 gigahertz, had 2 gigabytes of RAM, and a SATA 3 controller capable of moving data at 6 gigabits per second. The HDMI-out function enabled monitoring live feeds from surveillance cameras. The unit can be set up and managed without a PC using an external display, keyboard, and mouse. The 400d is LenovoEMC's first product sold with its LifeLine 4.1 software, which added functions such as a domain mode, enhanced Active Directory support and a more robust SDK. McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator was included for centralized security management. All THINK-branded systems from Lenovo pre-installed with Windows 8.1 included LenovoEMC Storage Connector in order make discovery and set-up of the 400d and other LenovoEMC NAS devices smoother.
Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Centre
At the 2014 International CES, LenovoEMC announced the Lenovo Beacon Home Cloud Centre. The Beacon is a storage device that allows remote sharing of data such as music, pictures, and video. The Beacon allows music and video streaming to multiple devices. Android phones and tablets can be used to control the Beacon. It also has an HDMI port to allow connection to a television or monitor. Up to 6 terabytes of storage, RAID 0 and 1, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth are all supported.
Product discontinuation
Technical support, service, and security updates for all Iomega devices ended in 2015.
As of 2018, lenovoemc.com now redirects to lenovo.com, and Lenovo has retired all of the LenovoEMC products on their product page advising that its products are no longer available for purchase on lenovo.com.
Technical support, service, and security updates for all LenovoEMC / Lenovo NAS devices ended March 31, 2020.
See also
Nomaï, a competitor that was acquired and closed down
SyQuest Technology
References
External links
Computer storage companies
Defunct computer companies based in California
Hard disk drives
Defunct manufacturing companies based in California
Technology companies based in San Diego
Computer companies established in 1980
American companies established in 1980
1980 establishments in Utah
2008 mergers and acquisitions
Joint ventures
Lenovo
Dell EMC
2018 disestablishments in the United States
Defunct technology companies based in California | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,406 |
Anker Innovations
Anker Innovations Co., Ltd, most commonly known just as Anker, is a Chinese electronics company based in Changsha, Hunan. The company is known for producing computer and mobile peripherals such as phone chargers, power banks, earbuds, headphones, speakers, data hubs, charging cables, torches, screen protectors, and more under its multiple brands.
History
Anker was founded in 2011 by Steven Yang at Shenzhen, Guangdong, but the company would soon move its headquarters to Changsha, Hunan. In 2011, Anker expanded its focus from replacement laptop batteries to smartphone battery chargers, wall chargers, portable power and conferencing gear. In early 2014, Anker Innovations hired Zhao Dongping, Google's then-head of sales in China.
In 2020, Zhao became president of Anker.
Availability
Aside from its domestic market in China, Anker also maintains subsidiaries in Japan, Singapore, United States and the United Kingdom. Prior to 2016, Anker products were almost exclusively sold on the Amazon Marketplace; it is now available on various e-commerce websites such as Shopee or other third-party websites in agreement with Anker.
Brands and products
Anker makes power banks, charging cables, wall adapters, power strips, USB hubs, and torches under the Bolder sub-brand. Soundcore makes Bluetooth earbuds, headphones, and speakers. Eufy produces smart home appliances and security devices. Nebula makes portable video projectors. Roav makes car accessories. Zolo was a precursor to the Soundcore brand. KARAPAX made phone cases.
Anker's line of charging cables have the trademarked name PowerLine, with the latest being PowerLine III. These cables have an MFi (Made for iPhone) certification from Apple.
Gallery
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Companies based in Shenzhen
Mobile technology companies
Technology companies established in 2011
Chinese companies established in 2011
Chinese brands | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,407 |
Linutop
The Linutop is a small, light, environmentally friendly Nettop computer containing a metal case and no moving parts, that runs the Linutop OS (a customized version of Linux based on the Xubuntu and Ubuntu/XFCE distribution).
Linutop Kiosk software and Linutop Tv server offer a full Digital signage solution.
A variety of QT applications oriented towards secure web browsing and digital signage are available in the Operating system. Linutop is multimedia-capable and offers line-out/mic-in for sound. The device can be configured easily into a LTSP thin client. Linutop is suited for use in internet cafés, public libraries and schools.
History
Linutop 1
The first device was based on the ThinCan reference design from Estonian company Artec Group.
Linutop 2
On February 20, 2008, the company unveiled the Linutop 2 based on the FIC ION A603 mini PC (like Works Everywhere Appliance). Linutop 2 had a stronger Geode processor and more memory, allowing it to run OpenOffice.org. It has 512 MB RAM and 1 GB flash memory storage.
Hardware
Specifications
Linutop XS
The Linutop XS is the smallest computer offered by Linutop. Due to its small size, and the absence of fan making it very silent, it is often hidden behind the dynamic display screens by professionals. The compact Linutop XS comes in a small aluminum case with dimensions 9 x 6 x 2 cm ( 3,5 x 2,3 x 0,8in ) for a weight of 92 grams (3 oz) and a power consumption of 3 Watts. On board, there is a processor running at 900 MHz, a RAM of 1 GB and an 8 GB flash memory.
Connectors: HDMI, mini-jack audio, RJ-45 Ethernet, four USB 2.0, 5-volt micro USB power.
The Linutop XS is a professional packaging of the Raspberry Pi 2 and incorporates a 1080p HD video Hardware accelerator. With this compact configuration, designed for the fields of education, transport, trade and health for
the dissemination of information.
Linutop 6
Linutop 6 is the most powerful Linutop.
The Linutop 6 microcomputer is in the form of a small fanless metal case with dimensions 9.5 x 9.1 x 3.6 cm (3,7 x 3,6 x 1,4in ) for a weight of 350 grams (12 oz) and an energy consumption of 14 Watts. On board, there is an Intel ATOM x5-Z8350 processor, a 2GB RAM and a 16GB flash memory.
Connectors: HDMI, RJ-45 Ethernet, four USB 2.0, 5-volt power supply.
With this configuration, the Linutop 6 computer targets a varied use where compactness and power are required.
Linutop OS
Linutop Kiosk
Linutop Kiosk is a software in Linutop OS that allows you to easily configure:
A secure Internet access point.
A dynamic display, multi-format (photos, HD videos, MP3, web pages, music, PDF ...)
Linutop OS 14.04 for PC
Linutop OS 14.04 is based on Xubuntu / XFCE
It contains features designed for business use cases:
Firefox 44, Libre Office 4, et VLC 2, Terminal server client, pdf viewer, GNU Paint, Mirage, Archive Manager, VNC, Gedit, Samba
Internet kiosk : Full screen, toolbar management, white/blacklist management.
Display kiosk : user can define a playlist loop of URLs, photos, video and PDF
Configuration panel allows the user to "lock" the configuration, to backup or restore on bootable USB Key.
size 850 MB for USB key, Hard Drive or flash memory
minimum PC requirements : PIII 800 MHz, 512MB RAM
Linutop OS XS for Raspberry Pi
Linutop OS XS is based on Raspbian / XFCE
It contains features designed for business use cases:
Epiphany web browser, Libre Office 3, et VLC 2 (with hardware acceleration), Terminal server client, pdf viewer, GNU Paint, Mirage, Archive Manager, VNC, Gedit, Samba
Internet kiosk : Full screen, toolbar management, white/blacklist management.
Display kiosk : user can define a playlist loop of URLs, photos, video and PDF
Configuration panel allows the user to "lock" the configuration, to configure the graphics.
size 2900 MB for Micro SD flash memory
Raspberry Pi compatibility : Zero, Zero W, A, A+, B, B+, 2, 3
a demo version of Linutop OS is available for free
Also available in NOOBS format.
Linutop TV
Linutop tv has been designed to manage a network of connected digital signage screens and allows centralized management via an http interface. Each screens needs a player (PC, Raspberry Pi, or Linutop Mini PC), running Linutop Kiosk software, connected to the server in order to update display content automatically.
Linutop tv is a server solution available in two versions:
SaaS (or "cloud") server: accessible via Internet.
Private (local) server: works on the local network. This solution is often used in corporations intranet. It offers maximum security.
References
Linutop XS introduction
External links
Linutop Wiki
Linutop Video
FIC ION A603 mini PC
Linutop 2 Mini PC review - TrustedReviews
Linutops fanless linux pc review - Slashgear
Tiny Linutop 3 computer - Technabob
Linutop 5 fanless mini linux desktop - Ubergizmo
Sources
Official website
Linutop Blog
See also
fit-PC
EeePC
Zonbu
Koolu
Raspberry Pi
Ubuntu (operating system)
Digital Signage
Interactive kiosk
Computers and the environment
Linux-based devices
Nettop | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,408 |
Software quality
In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:
Software functional quality reflects how well it complies with or conforms to a given design, based on functional requirements or specifications. That attribute can also be described as the fitness for purpose of a piece of software or how it compares to competitors in the marketplace as a worthwhile product. It is the degree to which the correct software was produced.
Software structural quality refers to how it meets non-functional requirements that support the delivery of the functional requirements, such as robustness or maintainability. It has a lot more to do with the degree to which the software works as needed.
Many aspects of structural quality can be evaluated only statically through the analysis of the software inner structure, its source code (see Software metrics), at the unit level, system level (sometimes referred to as end-to-end testing), which is in effect how its architecture adheres to sound principles of software architecture outlined in a paper on the topic by Object Management Group (OMG).
However some structural qualities, such as usability, can be assessed only dynamically (users or others acting in their behalf interact with the software or, at least, some prototype or partial implementation; even the interaction with a mock version made in cardboard represents a dynamic test because such version can be considered a prototype). Other aspects, such as reliability, might involve not only the software but also the underlying hardware, therefore, it can be assessed both statically and dynamically (stress test).
Functional quality is typically assessed dynamically but it is also possible to use static tests (such as software reviews).
Historically, the structure, classification and terminology of attributes and metrics applicable to software quality management have been derived or extracted from the ISO 9126 and the subsequent ISO/IEC 25000 standard. Based on these models (see Models), the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) has defined five major desirable structural characteristics needed for a piece of software to provide business value: Reliability, Efficiency, Security, Maintainability and (adequate) Size.
Software quality measurement quantifies to what extent a software program or system rates along each of these five dimensions. An aggregated measure of software quality can be computed through a qualitative or a quantitative scoring scheme or a mix of both and then a weighting system reflecting the priorities. This view of software quality being positioned on a linear continuum is supplemented by the analysis of "critical programming errors" that under specific circumstances can lead to catastrophic outages or performance degradations that make a given system unsuitable for use regardless of rating based on aggregated measurements. Such programming errors found at the system level represent up to 90 percent of production issues, whilst at the unit-level, even if far more numerous, programming errors account for less than 10 percent of production issues (see also Ninety-ninety rule). As a consequence, code quality without the context of the whole system, as W. Edwards Deming described it, has limited value.
To view, explore, analyze, and communicate software quality measurements, concepts and techniques of information visualization provide visual, interactive means useful, in particular, if several software quality measures have to be related to each other or to components of a software or system. For example, software maps represent a specialized approach that "can express and combine information about software development, software quality, and system dynamics".
Software quality also plays a role in the release phase of a software project. Specifically, the quality and establishment of the release processes (also patch processes), configuration management are important parts of a overall software engineering process.
Motivation
Software quality is motivated by at least two main perspectives:
Risk management: Software failure has caused more than inconvenience. Software errors can cause human fatalities (see for example: List of software bugs). The causes have ranged from poorly designed user interfaces to direct programming errors, see for example Boeing 737 case or Unintended acceleration cases or Therac-25 cases. This resulted in requirements for the development of some types of software, particularly and historically for software embedded in medical and other devices that regulate critical infrastructures: "[Engineers who write embedded software] see Java programs stalling for one third of a second to perform garbage collection and update the user interface, and they envision airplanes falling out of the sky.". In the United States, within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the FAA Aircraft Certification Service provides software programs, policy, guidance and training, focus on software and Complex Electronic Hardware that has an effect on the airborne product (a "product" is an aircraft, an engine, or a propeller). Certification standards such as DO-178C, ISO 26262, IEC 62304, etc. provide guidance.
Cost management: As in any other fields of engineering, a software product or service governed by good software quality costs less to maintain, is easier to understand and can change more cost-effective in response to pressing business needs. Industry data demonstrate that poor application structural quality in core business applications (such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) or large transaction processing systems in financial services) results in cost, schedule overruns and creates waste in the form of rework (see Muda (Japanese term)). Moreover, poor structural quality is strongly correlated with high-impact business disruptions due to corrupted data, application outages, security breaches, and performance problems.
CISQ reports on the cost of poor quality estimates an impact of:
$2.08 trillion in 2020
$2.84 trillion in 2018
IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2020 estimates that the average global costs of a data breach:
$3.86 million
Definitions
ISO
Software quality is "capability of a software product to conform to requirements." while for others it can be synonymous with customer- or value-creation or even defect level.
ASQ
ASQ uses the following definition: Software quality describes the desirable attributes of software products. There are two main approaches exist: defect management and quality attributes.
NIST
Software Assurance (SA) covers both the property and the process to achieve it:
[Justifiable] confidence that software is free from vulnerabilities, either intentionally designed into the software or accidentally inserted at any time during its life cycle and that the software functions in the intended manner
The planned and systematic set of activities that ensure that software life cycle processes and products conform to requirements, standards, and procedures
PMI
The Project Management Institute's PMBOK Guide "Software Extension" defines not "Software quality" itself, but Software Quality Assurance (SQA) as "a continuous process that audits other software processes to ensure that those processes are being followed (includes for example a software quality management plan)." whereas Software Quality Control (SCQ) means "taking care of applying methods, tools, techniques to ensure satisfaction of the work products towards quality requirements for a software under development or modification."
Other general and historic
The first definition of quality history remembers is from Shewhart in the beginning of 20th century: "There are two common aspects of quality: one of them has to do with the consideration of the quality of a thing as an objective reality independent of the existence of man. The other has to do with what we think, feel or sense as a result of the objective reality. In other words, there is a subjective side of quality."
Kitchenham and Pfleeger, further reporting the teachings of David Garvin, identify five different perspectives on quality:
The transcendental perspective deals with the metaphysical aspect of quality. In this view of quality, it is "something toward which we strive as an ideal, but may never implement completely". It can hardly be defined, but is similar to what a federal judge once commented about obscenity: "I know it when I see it".
The user perspective is concerned with the appropriateness of the product for a given context of use. Whereas the transcendental view is ethereal, the user view is more concrete, grounded in the product characteristics that meet user's needs.
The manufacturing perspective represents quality as conformance to requirements. This aspect of quality is stressed by standards such as ISO 9001, which defines quality as "the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements" (ISO/IEC 9001).
The product perspective implies that quality can be appreciated by measuring the inherent characteristics of the product.
The final perspective of quality is value-based. This perspective recognizes that the different perspectives of quality may have different importance, or value, to various stakeholders.
Tom DeMarco has proposed that "a product's quality is a function of how much it changes the world for the better." This can be interpreted as meaning that functional quality and user satisfaction are more important than structural quality in determining software quality.
Another definition, coined by Gerald Weinberg in Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking, is "Quality is value to some person." This definition stresses that quality is inherently subjective—different people will experience the quality of the same software differently. One strength of this definition is the questions it invites software teams to consider, such as "Who are the people we want to value our software?" and "What will be valuable to them?".
Other meanings and controversies
One of the challenges in defining quality is that "everyone feels they understand it" and other definitions of software quality could be based on extending the various descriptions of the concept of quality used in business.
Software quality also often gets mixed-up with Quality Assurance or Problem Resolution Management or Quality Control or DevOps. It does over-lap with before mentioned areas (see also PMI definitions), but is distinctive as it does not solely focus on testing but also on processes, management, improvements, assessments, etc.
Measurement
Although the concepts presented in this section are applicable to both structural and functional software quality, measurement of the latter is essentially performed through testing [see main article: Software testing]. However, testing isn't enough: According to a study, individual programmers are less than 50% efficient at finding bugs in their own software. And most forms of testing are only 35% efficient. This makes it difficult to determine [software] quality.
Introduction
Software quality measurement is about quantifying to what extent a system or software possesses desirable characteristics. This can be performed through qualitative or quantitative means or a mix of both. In both cases, for each desirable characteristic, there are a set of measurable attributes the existence of which in a piece of software or system tend to be correlated and associated with this characteristic. For example, an attribute associated with portability is the number of target-dependent statements in a program. More precisely, using the Quality Function Deployment approach, these measurable attributes are the "hows" that need to be enforced to enable the "whats" in the Software Quality definition above.
The structure, classification and terminology of attributes and metrics applicable to software quality management have been derived or extracted from the ISO 9126-3 and the subsequent ISO/IEC 25000:2005 quality model. The main focus is on internal structural quality. Subcategories have been created to handle specific areas like business application architecture and technical characteristics such as data access and manipulation or the notion of transactions.
The dependence tree between software quality characteristics and their measurable attributes is represented in the diagram on the right, where each of the 5 characteristics that matter for the user (right) or owner of the business system depends on measurable attributes (left):
Application Architecture Practices
Coding Practices
Application Complexity
Documentation
Portability
Technical and Functional Volume
Correlations between programming errors and production defects unveil that basic code errors account for 92 percent of the total errors in the source code. These numerous code-level issues eventually count for only 10 percent of the defects in production. Bad software engineering practices at the architecture levels account for only 8 percent of total defects, but consume over half the effort spent on fixing problems, and lead to 90 percent of the serious reliability, security, and efficiency issues in production.
Code-based analysis
Many of the existing software measures count structural elements of the application that result from parsing the source code for such individual instructions tokens control structures (Complexity), and objects.
Software quality measurement is about quantifying to what extent a system or software rates along these dimensions. The analysis can be performed using a qualitative or quantitative approach or a mix of both to provide an aggregate view [using for example weighted average(s) that reflect relative importance between the factors being measured].
This view of software quality on a linear continuum has to be supplemented by the identification of discrete Critical Programming Errors. These vulnerabilities may not fail a test case, but they are the result of bad practices that under specific circumstances can lead to catastrophic outages, performance degradations, security breaches, corrupted data, and myriad other problems that make a given system de facto unsuitable for use regardless of its rating based on aggregated measurements. A well-known example of vulnerability is the Common Weakness Enumeration, a repository of vulnerabilities in the source code that make applications exposed to security breaches.
The measurement of critical application characteristics involves measuring structural attributes of the application's architecture, coding, and in-line documentation, as displayed in the picture above. Thus, each characteristic is affected by attributes at numerous levels of abstraction in the application and all of which must be included calculating the characteristic's measure if it is to be a valuable predictor of quality outcomes that affect the business. The layered approach to calculating characteristic measures displayed in the figure above was first proposed by Boehm and his colleagues at TRW (Boehm, 1978) and is the approach taken in the ISO 9126 and 25000 series standards. These attributes can be measured from the parsed results of a static analysis of the application source code. Even dynamic characteristics of applications such as reliability and performance efficiency have their causal roots in the static structure of the application.
Structural quality analysis and measurement is performed through the analysis of the source code, the architecture, software framework, database schema in relationship to principles and standards that together define the conceptual and logical architecture of a system. This is distinct from the basic, local, component-level code analysis typically performed by development tools which are mostly concerned with implementation considerations and are crucial during debugging and testing activities.
Reliability
The root causes of poor reliability are found in a combination of non-compliance with good architectural and coding practices. This non-compliance can be detected by measuring the static quality attributes of an application. Assessing the static attributes underlying an application's reliability provides an estimate of the level of business risk and the likelihood of potential application failures and defects the application will experience when placed in operation.
Assessing reliability requires checks of at least the following software engineering best practices and technical attributes:
Application Architecture Practices
Coding Practices
Complexity of algorithms
Complexity of programming practices
Compliance with Object-Oriented and Structured Programming best practices (when applicable)
Component or pattern re-use ratio
Dirty programming
Error & Exception handling (for all layers - GUI, Logic & Data)
Multi-layer design compliance
Resource bounds management
Software avoids patterns that will lead to unexpected behaviors
Software manages data integrity and consistency
Transaction complexity level
Depending on the application architecture and the third-party components used (such as external libraries or frameworks), custom checks should be defined along the lines drawn by the above list of best practices to ensure a better assessment of the reliability of the delivered software.
Efficiency
As with Reliability, the causes of performance inefficiency are often found in violations of good architectural and coding practice which can be detected by measuring the static quality attributes of an application. These static attributes predict potential operational performance bottlenecks and future scalability problems, especially for applications requiring high execution speed for handling complex algorithms or huge volumes of data.
Assessing performance efficiency requires checking at least the following software engineering best practices and technical attributes:
Application Architecture Practices
Appropriate interactions with expensive and/or remote resources
Data access performance and data management
Memory, network and disk space management
Compliance with Coding Practices (Best coding practices)
Security
Software quality includes software security. Many security vulnerabilities result from poor coding and architectural practices such as SQL injection or cross-site scripting. These are well documented in lists maintained by CWE, and the SEI/Computer Emergency Center (CERT) at Carnegie Mellon University.
Assessing security requires at least checking the following software engineering best practices and technical attributes:
Implementation, Management of a security-aware and hardening development process, e.g. Security Development Lifecycle (Microsoft) or IBM's Secure Engineering Framework.
Secure Application Architecture Practices
Multi-layer design compliance
Security best practices (Input Validation, SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting, Access control etc.)
Secure and good Programming Practices
Error & Exception handling
Maintainability
Maintainability includes concepts of modularity, understandability, changeability, testability, reusability, and transferability from one development team to another. These do not take the form of critical issues at the code level. Rather, poor maintainability is typically the result of thousands of minor violations with best practices in documentation, complexity avoidance strategy, and basic programming practices that make the difference between clean and easy-to-read code vs. unorganized and difficult-to-read code.
Assessing maintainability requires checking the following software engineering best practices and technical attributes:
Application Architecture Practices
Architecture, Programs and Code documentation embedded in source code
Code readability
Code smells
Complexity level of transactions
Complexity of algorithms
Complexity of programming practices
Compliance with Object-Oriented and Structured Programming best practices (when applicable)
Component or pattern re-use ratio
Controlled level of dynamic coding
Coupling ratio
Dirty programming
Documentation
Hardware, OS, middleware, software components and database independence
Multi-layer design compliance
Portability
Programming Practices (code level)
Reduced duplicate code and functions
Source code file organization cleanliness
Maintainability is closely related to Ward Cunningham's concept of technical debt, which is an expression of the costs resulting of a lack of maintainability. Reasons for why maintainability is low can be classified as reckless vs. prudent and deliberate vs. inadvertent, and often have their origin in developers' inability, lack of time and goals, their carelessness and discrepancies in the creation cost of and benefits from documentation and, in particular, maintainable source code.
Size
Measuring software size requires that the whole source code be correctly gathered, including database structure scripts, data manipulation source code, component headers, configuration files etc. There are essentially two types of software sizes to be measured, the technical size (footprint) and the functional size:
There are several software technical sizing methods that have been widely described. The most common technical sizing method is number of Lines of Code (#LOC) per technology, number of files, functions, classes, tables, etc., from which backfiring Function Points can be computed;
The most common for measuring functional size is function point analysis. Function point analysis measures the size of the software deliverable from a user's perspective. Function point sizing is done based on user requirements and provides an accurate representation of both size for the developer/estimator and value (functionality to be delivered) and reflects the business functionality being delivered to the customer. The method includes the identification and weighting of user recognizable inputs, outputs and data stores. The size value is then available for use in conjunction with numerous measures to quantify and to evaluate software delivery and performance (development cost per function point; delivered defects per function point; function points per staff month.).
The function point analysis sizing standard is supported by the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG). It can be applied early in the software development life-cycle and it is not dependent on lines of code like the somewhat inaccurate Backfiring method. The method is technology agnostic and can be used for comparative analysis across organizations and across industries.
Since the inception of Function Point Analysis, several variations have evolved and the family of functional sizing techniques has broadened to include such sizing measures as COSMIC, NESMA, Use Case Points, FP Lite, Early and Quick FPs, and most recently Story Points. However, Function Points has a history of statistical accuracy, and has been used as a common unit of work measurement in numerous application development management (ADM) or outsourcing engagements, serving as the "currency" by which services are delivered and performance is measured.
One common limitation to the Function Point methodology is that it is a manual process and therefore it can be labor-intensive and costly in large scale initiatives such as application development or outsourcing engagements. This negative aspect of applying the methodology may be what motivated industry IT leaders to form the Consortium for IT Software Quality focused on introducing a computable metrics standard for automating the measuring of software size while the IFPUG keep promoting a manual approach as most of its activity rely on FP counters certifications.
CISQ defines Sizing as to estimate the size of software to support cost estimating, progress tracking or other related software project management activities. Two standards are used: Automated Function Points to measure the functional size of software and Automated Enhancement Points to measure the size of both functional and non-functional code in one measure.
Identifying critical programming errors
Critical Programming Errors are specific architectural and/or coding bad practices that result in the highest, immediate or long term, business disruption risk.
These are quite often technology-related and depend heavily on the context, business objectives and risks. Some may consider respect for naming conventions while others – those preparing the ground for a knowledge transfer for example – will consider it as absolutely critical.
Critical Programming Errors can also be classified per CISQ Characteristics. Basic example below:
Reliability
Avoid software patterns that will lead to unexpected behavior (Uninitialized variable, null pointers, etc.)
Methods, procedures and functions doing Insert, Update, Delete, Create Table or Select must include error management
Multi-thread functions should be made thread safe, for instance servlets or struts action classes must not have instance/non-final static fields
Efficiency
Ensure centralization of client requests (incoming and data) to reduce network traffic
Avoid SQL queries that don't use an index against large tables in a loop
Security
Avoid fields in servlet classes that are not final static
Avoid data access without including error management
Check control return codes and implement error handling mechanisms
Ensure input validation to avoid cross-site scripting flaws or SQL injections flaws
Maintainability
Deep inheritance trees and nesting should be avoided to improve comprehensibility
Modules should be loosely coupled (fanout, intermediaries) to avoid propagation of modifications
Enforce homogeneous naming conventions
Operationalized quality models
Newer proposals for quality models such as Squale and Quamoco propagate a direct integration of the definition of quality attributes and measurement. By breaking down quality attributes or even defining additional layers, the complex, abstract quality attributes (such as reliability or maintainability) become more manageable and measurable. Those quality models have been applied in industrial contexts but have not received widespread adoption.
Trivia
"A science is as mature as its measurement tools."
"I know it when I see it."
"You cannot control what you cannot measure." (Tom DeMarco)
"You cannot inspect quality into a product." (W. Edwards Deming)
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of meeting the schedule has been forgotten." (Anonymous)
"If you don't start with a spec, every piece of code you write is a patch." (Leslie Lamport)
See also
Anomaly in software
Accessibility
Availability
Best coding practices
Cohesion and Coupling
Cyclomatic complexity
Coding conventions
Computer bug
Dependability
GQM
ISO/IEC 9126
Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination - ISO/IEC 15504
Programming style
Quality: quality control, total quality management.
Requirements management
Scope (project management)
Security
Security engineering
Software quality assurance
Software architecture
Software quality control
Software metrics
Software reusability
Software standard
Software testing
Testability
Static program analysis
Further reading
Android OS Quality Guidelines including checklists for UI, Security, etc. July 2021
Association of Maritime Managers in Information Technology & Communications (AMMITEC). Maritime Software Quality Guidelines. September 2017
Capers Jones and Olivier Bonsignour, "The Economics of Software Quality", Addison-Wesley Professional, 1st edition, December 31, 2011,
CAT Lab - CNES Code Analysis Tools Laboratory (on GitHub)
Girish Suryanarayana, Software Process versus Design Quality: Tug of War?
Ho-Won Jung, Seung-Gweon Kim, and Chang-Sin Chung. Measuring software product quality: A survey of ISO/IEC 9126. IEEE Software, 21(5):10–13, September/October 2004.
International Organization for Standardization. Software Engineering—Product Quality—Part 1: Quality Model. ISO, Geneva, Switzerland, 2001. ISO/IEC 9126-1:2001(E).
Measuring Software Product Quality: the ISO 25000 Series and CMMI (SEI site)
MSQF - A measurement based software quality framework Cornell University Library
Omar Alshathry, Helge Janicke, "Optimizing Software Quality Assurance," compsacw, pp. 87–92, 2010 IEEE 34th Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference Workshops, 2010.
Robert L. Glass. Building Quality Software. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1992.
Roland Petrasch, "The Definition of 'Software Quality': A Practical Approach", ISSRE, 1999
Software Quality Professional, American Society for Quality (ASQ)
Software Quality Journal by Springer Nature
Stephen H. Kan. Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, second edition, 2002.
Stefan Wagner. Software Product Quality Control. Springer, 2013.
References
Notes
Bibliography
External links
When code is king: Mastering automotive software excellence (McKinsey, 2021)
Embedded System Software Quality: Why is it so often terrible? What can we do about it? (by Philip Koopman)
Code Quality Standards by CISQ™
CISQ Blog: https://blog.it-cisq.org
Guide to software quality assurance (ESA)
Guide to applying the ESA software engineering standards to small software projects (ESA)
An Overview of ESA Software Product Assurance Services (NASA/ESA)
Our approach to quality in Volkswagen Software Dev Center Lisbon
Google Style Guides
Ensuring Product Quality at Google (2011)
NASA Software Assurance
NIST Software Quality Group
OMG/CISQ Automated Function Points (ISO/IEC 19515)
OMG Automated Technical Debt Standard
Automated Quality Assurance (articled in IREB by Harry Sneed)
Structured Testing: A Testing Methodology Using the Cyclomatic Complexity Metric (1996)
Analyzing Application Quality by Using Code Analysis Tools (Microsoft, Documentation, Visual Studio, 2016)
Systems thinking
Quality
Source code | laptop Build Quality | 0.313 | 14,409 |
Digital Retro
Digital Retro: The Evolution and Design of the Personal Computer is a coffee table book about the history of home computers and personal computers. It was written by Gordon Laing, a former editor of Personal Computer World magazine and covers the period from 1975 to 1988 (the era before widespread adoption of PC compatibility). Its contents cover home computers, along with some business models and video game consoles, but hardware such as minicomputers and mainframes is excluded.
In writing the book, the author's research included finding and interviewing some of those who worked on the featured hardware and founded the companies. Such hardware was borrowed from private collections and computer museums, with more than thirty coming from the Museum of Computing in Swindon.
Contents
Topics covered include choice of video chip and how designers of sound chips later proceeded to make synthesisers. A number of British computers "that most Americans have probably never encountered in person" are included, such as the Acorn Atom, and Grundy NewBrain. Almost forty computers are included in total.
Reception
It has been described as a "beautifully illustrated" "well written" book which "drips detail", with the author being noted as a "perfectionist". The photographs depict "external views of each machine from several angles". Omissions (such as the ) were noted by Mike Magee in The Inquirer. There are internal photographs in a few cases.
Writing in The Register, Lance Davis commented on the importance of such books, stating "... history isn't just about dead people who wore crowns."
References
External links
Coffee table books | laptop Build Quality | 0.312 | 14,410 |
List of computer size categories
This list of computer size categories attempts to list commonly used categories of computer by the physical size of the device and its chassis or case, in descending order of size. One generation's "supercomputer" is the next generation's "mainframe", and a "PDA" does not have the same set of functions as a "laptop", but the list still has value, as it provides a ranked categorization of devices. It also ranks some more obscure computer sizes. There are different sizes like-mini computers, microcomputer, mainframe computer and super computer.
Large computers
Supercomputer
Minisupercomputer
Mainframe computer
Midrange computer
Superminicomputer
Minicomputer
Microcomputers
Interactive kiosk
Arcade cabinet
Personal computer (PC)
Desktop computer—see computer form factor for some standardized sizes of desktop computers
full-sized
All-in-One
compact
Home theater
Home computer
Mobile computers
Desktop replacement computer or desknote
Laptop computer
Subnotebook computer, also known as a Kneetop computer; clamshell varieties may also be known as minilaptop or ultraportable laptop computers
Tablet personal computer
Handheld computers, which include the classes:
Ultra-mobile personal computer, or UMPC
Personal digital assistant or enterprise digital assistant, which include:
HandheldPC or Palmtop computer
Pocket personal computer
Electronic organizer
Pocket computer
Calculator, which includes the class:
Graphing calculator
Scientific calculator
Programmable calculator
Accounting / Financial Calculator
Handheld game console
Portable media player
Portable data terminal
Handheld
Smartphone, a class of mobile phone
Feature phone
Wearable computer
Single board computer
Wireless sensor network components
Plug computer
Stick PC, a single-board computer in a small elongated casing resembling a stick
Microcontroller
Smartdust
Nanocomputer
Others
Rackmount computer
Blade server
Blade PC
Small form factor personal computer (SFF, ITX, DTX.etc.)
Distinctive marks
The classes above are not rigid; there are "edge devices" in most of them. For instance, the "subnotebook" category can usually be distinguished from the "PDA" category because a subnotebook has a keyboard and a PDA has not; however, tablet PCs may be larger than subnotebooks (making it seemingly correct to classify them as laptops) and also lack a keyboard, while devices such as the Handspring Treo 600 have something that might charitably be called a keyboard, but are still definitely in the "smartphone" category.
In the higher end of the spectrum, this informal and somewhat humorous rule might help:
You can throw a laptop if you wanted to
You can lift a workstation if you need to
You can tilt a minicomputer if you need to
You cannot move a mainframe, even if you tried
Categories
:Category:Supercomputers
:Category:Mainframe computers
:Category:Minicomputers
:Category:Portable computers
:Category:Mobile computers
:Category:Laptops
:Category:Notebooks
:Category:Tablet computers
:Category:Subnotebooks
:Category:Portable computers
:Category:Pocket computers
:Category:Personal digital assistants
:Category:Calculators
:Category:Handheld game consoles
:Category:Information appliances
:Category:Wearable computers
:Category:Embedded systems
:Category:Wireless sensor network
See also
Classes of computers
Computer form factor
Form factor (design)
References
List of computer size categories
Computer size categories | laptop Build Quality | 0.312 | 14,411 |
Acer Value Line
Acer Value Line is a product line of low-cost LCD monitors manufactured by Taiwan-based computer company Acer. Most of the liquid crystal display monitors from the Value Line series are dedicated to home or office users. Most of them have a classic design and standard functions ideal for home of office use. Value Line monitors are one of the most popular Acer products and they are available worldwide. At the end of 2008, Acer's Value line was discontinued.
Technical overview
Monitors are marked "AL XX YY ZZ". This is acronym for Acer, LCD, screen size in inches, model number, additional info (widescreen, speakers, color of monitor's cover). For example AL1715SM or AL1916W. Than AL1916W monitor have 19 inch screen, it is the 16th acer model and it has a wide screen.
The older models were marked "AL XXX"; it is the same marking, but only one number is used for parameter description.
For market reasons Acer uses serial numbers in conformation "ET.LXXXX.XXX".
Design
Monitors have a classic design, most of them have a white, black, or silver-black colored cover.
Casing of monitors is thin with big screen and 5 buttons and LED indicator under the screen.
1st button is using for turn on/off monitor and last for Automatic configuration, other buttons are used for OSD menu control.
References
External links
Acer website
Value Line | laptop Build Quality | 0.311 | 14,412 |
IBM ThinkPad 360
The IBM ThinkPad 360 series was a notebook computer series introduced in 1994 by IBM as part of their ThinkPad laptop series. It was succeeded in late 1995 by the IBM ThinkPad 365 series.
History
On October 17th, 1994, the ThinkPad 360 CE and CSE were released. Both had a Intel 486DX-2 50 MHz processor, 4 MB of memory, a 1.44 MB floppy disk drive, and a 250, 340, 540, or 810 MB hard disk drive with PC DOS 6.0/Windows 3.1 and various included software. Both units came with a Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery pack that could last 2.9 hours in a CSE and 3.2 hours in a CE, while only taking 1.5 hours to charge. Both the CE and CSE were mainly the same in terms of specifications, with the only notable difference of a 9.5in 640x480 DSTN screen for the CSE and a 8.4in 640x480 TFT screen for the CE. It cost between $2,649 and $4,199 for a unit depending on the configuration.
Many of the models in the 360 series were discontinued by IBM on december 21, 1995. This included the CS, C, P, CSE, and CE.
Features
Most models in the 360 series shipped with IBM PC DOS 6.3 and Windows 3.11 as the included operating system, while some such as the 360P and PE shipped with DOS 6.21 and PenDOS 2.2.
All models in the series featured an Intel 486SX or DX2 processor running at 33 to 50 MHz, and a WD90C24A2 or WD90C24 video controller with 1 MB of video memory. A standard of 4 MB RAM was installed, which was soldered onto the motherboard. The ram could be upgraded to up to 20 MB in total if the user had a IC DRAM Card, which goes into a slot under the floppy disk drive.
The standard hard drive size was 170 or 340 MB, later adding the option to 540 MB. All models in the series had a 1.44 MB floppy disk drive in an ultrabay.
Two notable models in the series, the 360P and 360PE, featured a pen touch display, which could also fold back and down to close like a tablet.
Models
IBM ThinkPad 360 — One of the first models in the series, it introduced a Intel 486SX processor running at 33 MHz. It had 4 MB of ram, which could only be upgraded to a maximum of 20 MB with a IC DRAM Card. It featured a 9.5-inch monochrome screen, and could hold a battery charge up to 10 hours. Other features included: 170 or 340 MB hard drive options, a 3.5-inch 1.44 MB removable floppy drive, Trackpoint II pointing device, and 1 Type III or 2 Type II or 2 Type I PCMIA slots.
IBM ThinkPad 360C — Released the same time as the 360, the 360C model was basically identical to the 360 but with a 8.5-inch TFT color screen, and a decrease to 5 hours of battery life. It had a .5lb increase in weight, and it cost over $4,399 if it came with 8 MB of RAM and a 170 MB Hard Disk.
IBM ThinkPad 360CS — Also released the same time as the 360C and 360 base model, the 360CS model was also identical to the 360C and 360, with only a few differences. It had a 9.5-inch DSTN screen, a slight increase in battery life from 7 to 8 hours, and a slight weight increase of 0.1lb.IBM ThinkPad 360P — The 360P model introduced at $3,399 was a unique model, as it featured a pen touch display. The pen was a pressure-sensitive input device (Stylus). It had a DSTN 9.5-inch 640×480 display. The machine ran DOS 6.21 with PenDOS 2.2 and had a battery life of about 5 hours. Other features included: Ultrabay with 1.44 MB floppy drive, Trackpoint II pointing device, and 1 Type III or 2 Type II or 2 Type I PCMIA slots.
IBM ThinkPad 360PE — The 360PE model was almost identical to the 360P, having a small upgrade to a Intel 486 DX2 running at 50 MHz, a 17 Mhz increase in speed. It also offered a slightly larger hard drive size option of 540 MB, and was the first and only model in the series to offer built-in audio with a CS4248 audio controller. The 360PE cost $300 more than the 360P at $3,699.
IBM ThinkPad 360CE — One of the final models, the 360CE was a slight upgrade from the earlier 360/C/CS models, offering a Intel 486 DX2 running at 50 MHz, a 8.4-inch 640×480 TFT display, and an additional 540 MB option for hard disk size. Other features included: Ultrabay with 1.44 MB floppy drive, Trackpoint II pointing device, and 1 Type III or 2 Type II or 2 Type I PCMIA slots.IBM ThinkPad 360CSE — The last model of the series, the 360CSE was again another nearly identical model as the previous unit, only offering a 9.5-inch 640×480 DSTN display rather than the 360CE's TFT display.
Comparison
References
IBM laptops
ThinkPad | laptop Build Quality | 0.311 | 14,413 |
ThinkPad E series
The ThinkPad E Series (formerly ThinkPad Edge) is a notebook computer series introduced in 2010 by Lenovo. It is marketed to small and medium-sized businesses.
Launch and reviews
The Edge series of ThinkPad computers was introduced at the 2010 International CES in Las Vegas and became available for sale in April of the same year.
For the Thinkpad Edge 13, a review on the Engadget web site said that even though, "it may not carry the premium features of [Lenovo Thinkpad] X301..., but for a budget ultraportable... [there is] little to complain about." Engadget also tested the battery life of the Edge 13 and discovered that "Lenovo's battery life prediction of seven hours is pretty on the mark." The Edge 13's battery lasted 5 hours and 12 minutes.
Laptop Magazine reviewed the Thinkpad Edge 14 and found it was "the most compelling 14-inch small business notebook on the market today."
NotebookReview reviewed the Thinkpad Edge 15 and said that its "build quality seems to be a step down from the 13 and 14 inch." The website also mentioned that the Edge series in general "feels under built...[and] the Edge 15 fares much worse".
Reviews of the latest E220s and E420s have been more positive, citing better build quality than other models in the Edge line.
Features
The ThinkPad Edge series uses processors from both AMD and Intel. AMD processors offered include the Athlon II dual-core, the Turion II Dual-core, Phenom II Triple-core and Ryzen 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Generation mobile Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). Intel processors used include the Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7.
Voice Over IP (VoIP) features including high resolution cameras and an HD LED screen are also included. All four models offer a glossy LED back-lit 16:9 display capable of playing 720p video. However the Edge 11 and 13 does not include an optical drive. The laptops came in three colors: Midnight Black (Smooth), Midnight Black (Gloss), and Heatwave Red (Gloss).
Design
Lenovo designed the laptops to "reflect a new progressive and strikingly clean appearance while retaining ThinkPad durability and reliability". For example, along with the new Island-style keyboard, the Edge series had some keyboard design changes: uniform black keys and the removal of the embedded number pad. The Function keys were re-designed so users could use one finger to access functions such as multimedia keys. Some keys which were rarely used like SysRq were removed.
Models
Gen 1 (2010)
Edge 11
The ThinkPad Edge 11 laptop was not released in the United States, with the X100e serving as an 11-inch laptop solution in the US.
The laptop was 1.1 inches thick and weighed 3.3 lbs.
Like other laptops in the series, the Edge 11 was made available in glossy black, matte black and glossy red. Despite the low starting price, the Edge 11 laptop included some of the traditional ThinkPad durability features, including solid metal hinges.
The battery life was better than both the IdeaPad U160 and the ThinkPad X100e laptops.
Edge 11 (DER Special Edition)
A special edition laptop was provided for Australian Year 9 students as part of the Digital Education Revolution (DER) program in 2011.
Edge 13
The ThinkPad Edge 13 laptop was released on January 5, 2010. It was 1.2 inches thick, weighed 3.5 lbs (1.6 kg), and fit into a backpack. The Edge 13 laptop was capable of handling Windows 7 Pro with ease, with multiple applications like Firefox, Microsoft Word 2007, GIMP, TweetDeck, and iTunes at the same time. It did not feature Intel’s Arrandale platform on release, and was launched with an older generation CULV processor. The lack of processing speed, however, was compensated by a gain in battery life. The laptop delivered 6 hours and 58 minutes of battery life in MobileMark 2007 tests.
Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core2 Duo or Intel i3 380 or AMD Athlon Neo X2
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Display: 13.3" Glossy (1366×768) TN
Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD
Color: Midnight Black (Glossy, Matte), Heatwave Red (Glossy)
RAM: up to 8GB DDR3 (1066 MHz)
Storage: 250GB 5400RPM SATA HDD
Networking: 10/100 Ethernet; Integrated Wireless 802.11abgn
Battery: 4- or 6--Cell Li-Ion (swappable)
Edge 14 and 15
The ThinkPad Edge 14 and 15 laptops were both launched on March 22, 2010. A web review noted build quality above average, yet not the same as professional grade ThinkPad laptops. One difference was smaller screen hinges which were plastic-faced instead of metal. While the Edge 14 laptop did not have a roll cage, it was still durable, with no flex on the palm rest, keyboard and touchpad.
The Edge 15 laptop was noted for having the same features as the smaller laptops in the series, with lower build quality. The right side of the palm rest displayed flex under moderate pressure. The keyboard tray also displayed slight inward flexing at the optical drive area. Some positive features included a keyboard that was noted as being very easy to type on. The touchpad was also noticeably easy to use, with fast response time, no discernible lag, even without adjustments. But also at the Lenovo support forum, lots of keyboard failures were reported. The price was viewed favorably, with user experience and feature set receiving praise.
Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i5-560M; i5-460M; i3-390M; Mobile Intel 5 Series Dicrete GFX Chipset
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, or Professional (32 or 64-bit)
Display: 14.0", 16:9 HD (1366×768), LED-backlight; 15.6", 16:9 HD (1366×768), LED-backlight
Color: Midnight Black (Glossy, Matte), Heatwave Red (Glossy)
RAM: up to 8GB DDR3 1066 MHz
Storage: 320 (5400/7200rpm), 500GB (5400/7200rpm) SATA HDD
Gen2 (2011)
Edge E220s, E320, E325, E420, E420s
The ThinkPad Edge E220s and E420s were released in Spring 2011, as an updated, "more premium" line of the ThinkPad Edge. These newer series are significantly thinner, and include more of the traditional ThinkPad line of features such as the integrated 720p web-cam. Also notable is the return to use of metallic hinges versus the less durable plastic seen on earlier Edge models. Both the E220s and E420s can be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor, which offers a higher level of performance than other notebooks of this size category. The surfaces have been accented with a chrome finish around the exterior, and the addition of the "infinity glass" screen, which features edge-to-edge glass paneling on the display. Many design aspects of the E220s line have been seen in the recently unveiled ThinkPad X1, including the keyboard and touchpad design.
Edge E520, E525
Gen3 (2012)
Edge 11" (E130, E135)
Edge 14" (E430, E430c, E431, E435)
The E430 is powered by second and third generation Intel Core processors with Intel HD Graphics or Nvidia Graphics. Battery life is increased with Nvidia's Optimus power management technology. Dedicated keys for controlling audio and video functions, Dolby Advanced Audio rated speakers, and an optional 720p camera were added to improve the experience for users of VOIP. The E430 makes use of USB 3.0 to improve data transfer speeds.
Edge 15" (E530, E531, E535)
Gen4 (2013)
Likewise a parallel T-series models (T440/T540), Gen4 E-series don't have a touchpad\trackpoint physical buttons.
Edge 11" (E145)
Edge 14" (E440)
The ThinkPad Edge E440 was released in 2013, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 430. The new E440 includes new Intel 4th Gen Haswell Processors and 1920x1080 FHD Screen options.
Edge 15" (E540, E545)
The ThinkPad Edge E540 was released in 2013, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 530. The new E540 includes new Intel 4th Gen Haswell Processors, 1920x1080 FHD Screen options, and Nvidia Graphics
The ThinkPad Edge E545 was released in 2013, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 535. The new E545 includes new AMD Richland Series APUs and AMD Graphics
Gen5 (2014)
14" (E450, E455)
The ThinkPad Edge E450 was released in 2015, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 440. The new E450 includes new Intel 5th Gen Broadwell low power processors, 1920x1080 FHD Screen options, and new AMD R7 Mobile Dedicated Graphics.
The ThinkPad Edge E455 was released in 2015, as a new 14" ThinkPad with AMD Mobile APU Processors. The new E455 includes new AMD Kaveri Processors, 1920x1080 FHD Screen options, and new AMD Graphics.
15.6" (E550, E555)
The ThinkPad Edge E550 was released in 2015, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 540. The new E550 includes new Intel 5th Gen Broadwell low power processors, 1920x1080 FHD Screen options, and new AMD R7 Mobile Dedicated Graphics.
The ThinkPad Edge E555 was released in 2015, as an update to the ThinkPad Edge 545. The new E555 includes new AMD Kaveri Processors, 1920x1080 FHD Screen options, and new AMD Graphics.
Gen6 (2015)
14" (E460, E465)
The E460 and E465 have a 14-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 7 (Pro) or Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E460 uses Intel Skylake (6th Generation) processors.
The E465 is similar to the E460 but it uses an AMD processor.
15" (E560, E565)
The E560 and E565 have a 15.6-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 7 (Pro) or Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E560 uses Intel Skylake (6th Generation) processors.
The E565 is similar to the E560 but it uses an AMD processor.
Gen7 (2016)
14" (E470, E475)
The E470 and E475 have a 14-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E470 uses Intel Kaby Lake (7th Generation) processors.
The E475 is similar to the E470 but it uses an AMD processor.
15" (E570, E570c, E570p, E575)
The E570 and E575 have a 15.6-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E570 uses the 7th Generation Intel Core processors.
The E575 is similar to the E570 but it uses an AMD processor.
The E570p was released in 2017 and has a high power CPU and mainstream GPU.
Gen8 (2017)
14" (E480, E485)
The E480 and E485 have a 14-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 64-bit system. USB type-C is used for charging for the first time in the ThinkPad E series. The USB-C port can also connect to most USB-C docks allowing 4K display output, additional USB ports, networking, and charging from a single cable.
The E480 uses Intel Core processors (up to i7-8550U), and is equipped with the integrated intel UHD 620 graphics card or optionally the AMD RX550-2gb discrete graphics card. The E480 did not have adequate cooling system on the higher end models, especially those with the dedicated AMD RX 550 graphics card, leading to unit overheating. Lenovo released a firmware update that addressed the problem, but substantially limited the performance of the graphics card.
The E485 is similar to the E480 but it uses an AMD Ryzen processor. The AMD Ryzen processors use Radeon Vega integrated graphics which outperforms similar intel integrated graphics.
15" (E580, E585)
The E580 and E585 have a 15.6-inch display.
The E580 uses Intel Core processors.
The E585 is similar to the E580 but it uses an AMD Ryzen processor.
Gen9 (2018)
The Intel models were announced in 2018. The AMD ones in 2019.
14" (E490, E490s, E495)
The E490, E490s and E495 have a 14-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E490 and E490s use 8th Generation Intel Core processors.
The E495 is similar to the E490 but it uses 3rd gen AMD Ryzen processor.
15" (E590, E595)
The E590 and E595 have a 15.6-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 64-bit system.
The E590 uses 8th Generation Intel Core processors.
The E595 is similar to the E590 but it uses an AMD Ryzen processor.
Gen10 (2019)
The Intel models were announced in October 2019. The AMD ones in May 2020.
14" (E14)
The E14 has a 14.0-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 Home or Pro 64-bit operating system. It uses 10th Generation Intel Core or 3rd-gen Ryzen Mobile CPUs.
15" (E15)
The E15 has a 15.6-inch display and optionally come with a Windows 10 Home or Pro 64-bit operating system. It uses 10th Generation Intel Core or 3rd-gen Ryzen Mobile CPUs.
References
External links
Lenovo laptops
E series
Computer-related introductions in 2010 | laptop Build Quality | 0.311 | 14,414 |
HP 64000
The HP 64000 Logic Development System, introduced 17 September 1979, is a tool for developing hardware and software for products based on commercial microprocessors from a variety of manufacturers. The systems assisted software development with assemblers and compilers for Pascal and C, provided hardware for in-circuit emulation of processors and memory, had debugging tools including logic analysis hardware, and a programmable read-only memory (PROM) chip programmer. A wide variety of optional cards and software were available tailored to particular microprocessors. When introduced the HP 64000 had two distinguishing characteristics. First, unlike most microprocessor development systems of the day, such as the Intel Intellec and Motorola EXORciser, it was not dedicated to a particular manufacturer's microprocessors, and second, it was designed such that up to six workstations would be connected via the HP-IB (IEEE-488) instrumentation bus to a common hard drive and printer to form a tightly integrated network.
Models
64100A, introduced in 1979. It was a desktop workstation which contained ten expansion slots for various optional cards. The initial offering of this workstation required an external hard disk for all disk storage, although the disk could be shared by up to six workstations via the HP-IB (IEEE-488) instrumentation bus. Later, a dual floppy drive option was added so that a workstation could be used without the shared hard drive. This workstation used the same custom HP 16-bit microprocessor found in the HP 9845C workstation. Software and hardware was offered to develop 8-bit and 16-bit microprocessors.
64110A, a more portable workstation with five card slots, was introduced in 1983. It used the same HP processor as the 64100A.
64120A card cage introduced in 1986. It fit the same option cards as the 64100A and 64110A, and was connected via an IEEE-488 bus to a standard HP 9000 Series 300 workstation running the HP-UX operating system rather than using a specially designed workstation such as the 64100A and 64110A. The name "HP 64000-UX Microprocessor Development Environment" was used with these systems. Software and hardware was introduced for development of 32-bit microprocessors.
64700A card cage was introduced in 1988. It was marketed as a lower cost development system (compared to the 64120A) that could be operated with an IBM PC-compatible personal computer rather than a workstation. Cards for this system carried the numbers 647xx, and were not compatible with the other systems.
Description
Terminology
As shown in the block diagram to the right, a 64000 system consisted of a number of components whose names had specific definitions:
Mainframe is the physical workstation or card cage holding the option cards.
Host is the processor that operates the mainframe. In the 64100A and 64110A the Host Bus is the workstation processor's address, data, input/output and control buses, which also connect to the cards in the card cage.
User system is the microprocessor system being developed. The terms user processor and user memory describe those components in the system being developed.
Emulation or Emulator refers to optional cards and other hardware that are connected to the mainframe via the plug-in cards and can replace the processor and/or memory in the user system. Emulation and analysis cards are interconnected with an Emulation Bus that is completely separated from the Host Bus.
Software Development
The 64000 provided a file system and text editor for writing software. There was a generic assembler / linker (manual Bitsavers), Pascal compiler (manual Bitsavers), and C compiler (manual Bitsavers), which were supplemented with add-on cross-assemblers and cross-compilers for each particular microprocessor. A list of these by product number is:
* HPCM is the Hewlett Packard Computer Museum
In addition, there was a Pascal "Host Compiler", product number 64817A manual at Bitsavers, disk image at HPCM, which could be used to write programs to execute on the workstation host processor.
In-Circuit Emulation
The 64000 system, through the use of optional cards and software, could perform in-circuit emulation of a variety of microprocessors and their memory. A complete emulation system typically consisted of:
A microprocessor emulator controller card, specific to each microprocessor.
An emulation "pod" or "probe", which contained interface electronics and was an external module to the mainframe. The processor in the user system was removed from its socket, and a cable from the emulation pod was connected in its place. The emulation pod contained a copy of the user processor that ran program code just as the user processor would, and it appeared to the user system as the normal processor.
An emulation memory controller card and one or more emulation memory cards. The emulation memory could be used to substitute for memory in the user system so that, for instance, user program code could be placed in the emulation memory and executed rather than needing to program ROM chips.
An "internal" analyzer card, which was a logic analyzer that monitored the operation of the emulated processor and memory.
Emulator software that allowed the operator to start and stop the emulated processor, examine the contents of memory and register locations, measure signal timing, observe program flow, and so on.
The photo at right shows a 64100A workstation emulating the processor of a user system via an emulator pod. The photo also shows a data acquisition pod for an "external" logic analyzer card in the 64100A that was measuring additional digital signals in the user system.
* HPCM is the Hewlett Packard Computer Museum
Emulator control boards connected to both the host (mainframe) bus and the emulation bus. They acted to pass control signals and data between the host and emulated systems. Depending on the model, the control board might also contain hardware to flag illegal opcodes or memory accesses or to act as an internal logic analyzer.
Memory Emulation allows RAM and/or ROM in the user system to be replaced by memory in the 64000 system. Two emulation memory controller boards were offered:
64151A Emulation Memory Controller (manual at Bitsavers), which had 16 address lines so could address 64 KB of memory, and
64155A Wide Address Memory Controller (manual at Bitsavers), which had 24 address lines so could address 16 MB of memory.
Memory maps for the user system could be specified in terms of RAM, ROM and protected memory. Attempted writes to ROM or accessing of protected memory was detected by the memory controller and could trigger actions such as program breakpoints.
Memory cards of various capacities of static RAM were offered. The 64152B, 53B and 54B cards provided 32, 16 and 8 KB, respectively, and the 64161A, 62A and 63A cards provided 128, 64 and 32 KB, respectively. They could each be configured for 8-bit or 16-bit data buses. Memory cards were connected together and to the memory controller through an emulation memory bus. Accesses to emulation memory by either the host or user systems was through the controller card.
Once the emulated processor and memory took the place of the processor and memory in the user system, the designer could write and compile program code, load it into emulation memory and start the user system, running the program in the emulated processor.
Analysis
A 64000 system could act as a logic analyzer to measure digital signals within the user system. Two types of logic analysis cards were offered, "internal" analyzers which measured signals directly off the emulation bus within the mainframe, and "external" analyzers which used separate probes to physically connect to elements of the user system. Similar to the processor and memory emulation products, analysis functions were often divided into controller cards and data acquisition cards. Some of the emulation processor controller cards offered internal analysis functions without separate hardware.
Logic analysis hardware was also divided into state analyzers and timing analyzers. The former measured signals in synchronization with a system clock and could, for example, record the states of the address, data and control buses in the user system at each CPU cycle. This data was normally presented as a trace, showing the value on each bus for each CPU cycle. For many microprocessors, an "inverse assembler" was available that would convert values measured on the data bus to Opcodes for the user processor.
The second form of logic analysis was timing analysis. A timing, or asynchronous logic, analyzer measured digital signals at specified time intervals, not necessarily synchronized to the user system clock. Such analysis could be used to find glitches or verify digital signals had proper timings.
In addition to these logic analyzer functions, "software analysis" options were available. These tools acted as what are now commonly called debuggers and profilers.
A list of analysis products is:
Similar to the way the emulation hardware used "pods" with interface hardware tailored to each microprocessor, the analysis hardware used preprocessors to act as an interface to the microprocessor. Aside from the 64304A Emulation Bus Preprocessor (manual at Bitsavers), each of the CPU specific preprocessor interfaces was a circuit board that fit within the 64650A General Purpose Preprocessor module (manual at Bitsavers). That, in turn, connected to the logic analyzer card cables.
PROM Programmer
The 64100A has a space to the right of the keyboard that can accept a PROM programmer module. A common PROM programmer control card, the 64500A (manual at Bitsavers), was installed in the card cage. At least 11 programmer modules, numbered from 64502A to 64520A were available for a variety of PROM and programmable microcontroller chips from different manufacturers.
MAME Emulator
An emulation of the 64100A workstation is part of the MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) system, under Manufacturer HP and titled "HP 64000". The emulator is open source and the source code is available.
References
External links
PDF documentation for HP 64000 from Bitsavers
first 64000 system from HP Computer Museum
64000 | laptop Build Quality | 0.311 | 14,415 |
IBM ThinkPad 760
IBM ThinkPad 760 was a notebook computer introduced in 1995 by the IBM corporation into the market as part of the ThinkPad 700-series. It was succeeded in 1998 by the ThinkPad 770 series.
Features
The 760-series of the IBM ThinkPad was available at the time of its production as the most state of the art notebook available to the public by IBM. It featured the most advanced in mobile technology, and came standard with the latest of hardware available to laptops and notebooks of its time. It used the Intel Pentium processor, and utilized EDO RAM soldered onto the motherboard to prevent booting without usable RAM, and the ability to easily exchange critical hardware components, such as the Hard Drive, Battery, Option hardware that can fit in the UltraBay, and the RAM. This model also featured the unique keyboard that could slide upward on the back side on rails to "flip up" towards the user and provide a more ergonomic feel.
Models
Note – the "D" in the model number signifies the machine had the updated chassis with provision for fitment of a CD-ROM drive, or when using an adapter plate, an internal floppy disk drive. The models without the "D" didn't officially come with the updated chassis.
IBM ThinkPad 760C – Was the first model shipped, with the original 90/120 MHz Pentium processor. This shipped with a Floppy Drive, 810 MB hard disk drive, and Windows 3.1 preinstalled. It had 8 MB RAM (which was soldered onto the motherboard), with an option of upgrading. There was also the option of having a modem built in for internet connection, and a choice of 10.4" or 12.1" TFT displays, both with a maximum resolution of 800x600.
IBM ThinkPad 760CD – Produced as a small improvement over the original 760C, again with the improved 90/120 MHz Pentium processor and option of RAM expansion. The chassis was updated to allow the standard fitment of in internal CD-ROM drive.
IBM ThinkPad 760CDV – Similar to the 760CD, this unique model had a removable back cover on the LCD that would permit light to shine through for use on an overhead projector.
IBM ThinkPad 760L – With the original 90/120 MHz Pentium processor. This shipped with a floppy drive, 810 MB hard drive, and Windows 3.1 preinstalled. It had 8 MB RAM (which was soldered onto the motherboard), with an option of upgrading. There was also the option of 10.4" or 12.1" TFT displays, both with a maximum resolution of 800x600. These are effectively a 760C machine, but without the improved sound card/DSP.
IBM ThinkPad 760LD – Produced as a small improvement over the original 760L, again with the improved 90/120 MHz Pentium processor and option of RAM expansion. The chassis was updated to allow the standard fitment of in internal CD-ROM drive.
IBM ThinkPad 760E – This was the much improved model to be released, with the RAM expansion module standard and the better-performing 120/133/150 MHz Pentium. This was shipped with a Floppy Drive and allowed for up to a 2.1 GB hard drive option. This model also included Windows 95 as an option. This model also came with a RAM expansion module which had an additional 8 MB RAM to total 16 MB of usable RAM, and had 2 slots on it to allow up to 80 MB RAM to be installed (2x32 MB RAM modules in addition to the standard 8/16 MB). This option will be in all later 760 models. This model also introduced the option of a CD-ROM drive, these laptops can be distinguished with a modified front. It also had the option of an enhanced 12.1" TFT display with a maximum resolution of 1024x768.
IBM ThinkPad 760ED – This featured the CD-ROM edition of Windows 95 preinstalled which included Internet Explorer 2.0. This also featured software options and improved services over that of the 760E, including an enhanced video card with MPEG2 hardware decoding and a DSP card with built-in modem/fax functionality.
IBM ThinkPad 760EL – Was made alongside the 760ED, but standard configurations were of lower specification. 100/120/133 MHz processors, and the option of 12.1" 800x600 TFT or 11.3" 800x600 DSTN displays, with 810 MB – 1.2 GB hard drives.
IBM ThinkPad 760ELD – Every one of these made featured the modified front to fit the CD-ROM, but still offered a Floppy Drive option which would include a specially built bezel that fits in the front to help the floppy drive fit correctly. These featured all the options and services the 760EL offered.
IBM ThinkPad 760XL – Basically an SVGA+ screen version of the 760XD and without the DSP. Released 1997. Maximum RAM of 104MB.
IBM ThinkPad 760XD – This model, released in 1997, offered an XGA screen and received the more recently developed 166 MHz Intel Pentium MMX proccesor. A far improved model version of the 760. This model featured 48 MB RAM standard and a CD-ROM standard. Offered a 2.1 GB and 3.0 GB hard drive option and came pre-installed with Windows 95. The 760XD is also used on the International Space Station.
IBM ThinkPad 765D/L – This was the last of the 760 series made, featuring a 13.3" XGA screen, Pentium MMX processor rated at 166 MHz, and a maximum of 104 MB of RAM.
Model Comparison
References
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/vol4hmm.pdf
External links
ThinkPad 760ED: The Business Laptop With a Quirky Keyboard!
ThinkPad 760
760 | laptop Build Quality | 0.31 | 14,416 |
SilverStone Technology
SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd () is a company based in Taiwan that makes computer cases, power supplies, and other peripherals for personal computers. The company SilverStone Technology Co., Ltd was founded in 2003 by former Cooler Master employees.
SilverStone's cases compete in the enthusiast market with other computer case manufacturers including Antec, Cooler Master, Thermaltake, Lian Li and Zalman.
Silverstone's product range includes power supplies, cooling fans, and CPU heat sinks.
Enclosures
SilverStone produces a range of computer cases for different uses. Each of the case types is usually under a particular model name.
See also
List of companies of Taiwan
Antec
Cooler Master
Corsair
FSP Group
Lian Li
Thermaltake
Zalman
References
External links
Official English website
A review containing several Small Form Factor components from SilverStone
Computer enclosure companies
Computer hardware cooling
Computer power supply unit manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in New Taipei
Electronics companies of Taiwan
Taiwanese brands | laptop Build Quality | 0.31 | 14,417 |
HP TouchSmart
HP TouchSmart is a series of tablet PC laptops and touchscreen all-in-one desktop computers designed by HP. It features various Intel or AMD processors and runs Windows Vista or Windows 7 as standard.
HP TouchSmart All-in-One
Consumer version
HP TouchSmart Crossfire
The HP TouchSmart was first introduced by Bill Gates on January 7, 2007, becoming the first mass market touchscreen desktop PC.
Also known as the "Crossfire", the HP TouchSmart IQ770 featured a 19-inch touchscreen, an AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-52 processor, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600. It had a wide array of ports, including Ethernet, two FireWire, six USB 2.0 ports, one with HP printer power Y-cable connector, 5.1 + digital audio out, IR out, mini-VGA, FM coax, TV coax, ATSC, and two S-Video; however, the IQ770 did not have HDMI ports. PC World gave the machine a "very good" rating of 81/100, but noted that the use of mobile components slowed the computer
HP TouchSmart 2
On June 10, 2008, HP unveiled their new HP TouchSmart IQ500 series. The series featured a 22-inch widescreen touchscreen display, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 500GB disk, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300 M HS HD graphics, and 802.11n WiFi, along with an Energy Star qualification. The new TouchSmart featured a 2-inch profile in a piano-black finish.
The IQ500 series was followed by the IQ800 series, featuring a larger 25.5 inch touchscreen. Other features included a TV tuner with remote, integrated webcam, Bluetooth, HP Pocket Media drive bay and an ambient light to illuminate the keyboard. The more expensive IQ816 featured a 2.10 GHz T8100 Core 2 Duo on an 800 MHz bus with a 3MB cache, Blu-ray drive / dual-layer burner, and a GeForce 9600M GS chip. There is a choice of 640GB or 1TB hard drives.
TouchSmart 300
The TouchSmart 300 was released on October 13, 2009. The all-in-one features a AMD Athlon II X2 235e (Energy Efficient) Processor Dual core @2.7 GHz. The platform is Regor and can be updated up to a Propus Quad Core AMD Athlon II X4 605e. Several models were released in different countries, but have similar features:
4Gb RAM DDR3 PC-10600
500 GB HDD
20" Touchscreen (1440 x 900)
Windows 7 Home Premium
Wifi and Ethernet port
ATSC TV Tuner
Touchsmart 300 with AMD Processors uses an integrated ATI HD 3200 graphics card with shared memory that can allocate 256Mb to 1917Mb of RAM dynamically (up to 3GB with the latest AMD Catalyst drivers 13.9 released in October 2013), it also has an MXM 3.0 Type-A slot for an external graphics card (integrated graphics card is disabled when MXM slot is populated), an [MXM] nVidia GeForce G210 card (with 512MB of DDR3 dedicated memory) can be installed using the proper thermal module.
Initially only rev. C2 quad core processors were supported, latest BIOS allows user to upgrade with rev. C3 processors (Athlon II X3 405e and Athlon II X4 605e). HP states in its support website that Touchsmart 300 RAM is upgradeable to 8Gb RAM using 2 x 4gb modules but it's been proved it supports up to 16Gb DDR3 PC-12800 (2 x 8Gb) even if those are not recognized in the BIOS.
Touchsmart 500
The Touchsmart 500 was a series of Touchscreen PC's that featured the Windows Vista Home Premium and/or Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System. The computer featured a new tilt design that allowed it to be tilted up to 30 degrees backwards or forwards. The computer also featured an Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 (2.16 GHz), 4GB or RAM, 23" Glossed Sensitive Touchscreen with a 358MB Intel GMA Mobile 965 GPU (Before Late 2009) or a nVidia 9600M GS (After Late 2009). The HP Touchsmart 520 featured in the series was one of the more powerful units, with an Intel i3 Processor, 4GB of RAM & a 1TB Hard Drive. It also had a "23" Glossy Touchscreen.
TouchSmart 600
The TouchSmart 600 was released on October 13, 2009.
Business version
HP TouchSmart 9100
The TouchSmart 9100 is a business oriented all-in-one PC that bears a strong Recording Assistant to its consumer counterpart, the TouchSmart 600.
Tablet
TouchSmart tx2z
Released in December 2008, the TouchSmart tx2 was touted as the first consumer notebook and tablet PC with on-screen multi-touch control. The TouchSmart tx2 replaced the older HP Pavilion tx series.
TouchSmart tm2
The HP TouchSmart tm2 is a convertible laptop, with a multi-touch touch-screen. Converted into slate mode, the tm2 allows artists to draw using the included digital pen and also allows students to take notes in classes.
TouchSmart Mini 5102
HP's first touch-enabled netbook, enabling multitouch gestures and menus. It features an anodized aluminum case in black, red or blue and weights 2.6 lbs. It offers face recognition for log-on to Windows 7. The series features Intel Atom N450 CPU, mobile broadband, HP video playback and 10-hour battery run time.
Slate
At CES 2010, in conjunction with Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, HP announced the Windows 7 HP Slate PC.
See also
Asus EEE Top
Sony VAIO
References
External links
HP TouchSmart Australian microsite
HP TouchSmart IQ770 Review (cnet.com)
TouchSmart
Microsoft Tablet PC
Hewlett-Packard All-in-one computers | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,418 |
Bondwell
Bondwell was a US and Hong Kong manufacturer of personal computers during the 1980s (1981-1993).
History
In the early 1980s, Bondwell sold a line of Z80, CP/M-80 based Osborne-like luggables such as the models Bondwell-12, Bondwell-14 (1984) and Bondwell-16 (1985). An exceptional feature in these was a built-in speech synthesizer. Their prices were exceptionally affordable for the time, although significant trade-offs were made in regard to durability, for instance the chassis was rather flimsy plastic, falling far short of the ruggedness usually expected of luggables. The fanless power supply unit, located under the motherboard, often caused trouble. The choice of peripheral I/O devices made the use of interrupts virtually impossible.
The Bondwell-12 was a "luggable" portable computer with a built-in 9 inch (23 cm) monochrome CRT display, equipped with 64 KB of internal memory, CP/M 2.2 and two single-sided, double density, 5.25 inch floppy disk drives (180 KB).
The Bondwell-14 had 128 KB of memory, CP/M 3.0 and two double-sided drives (360 KB).
The Bondwell-16 had CP/M 3.0, one double-sided drive and a hard disk drive with a capacity of a bit less than 10 MB.
The Bondwell-2 (1985) was a portable computer with 64 KB of memory, CP/M 2.2 and one single-sided, double density 3.5 inch floppy disk (360 KB). 256 and 512 KB memory extensions were available. It was one of the earliest portables, as well as one of the few battery-powered CP/M computers.
The more advanced Bondwell-18 model featured MS-DOS and the x86 architecture.
Bondwell Model 8 (1985) was a 5.5 kg, 284 x 78 x 310 mm, lap-top portable computer. It featured an Intel 80C88 processor running at 4.77 MHz, a back-lit LCD display with 80 x 25 characters or 640 x 200 graphic a built in battery and a 3.5" 720 KB floppy drive.It had a 76 keys keyboard and the US version had a built-in 300 baud modem.
Bondwell also produced a range of 286-based portable computers such as the B310 Plus.
Circa 1988, Bondwell also got involved in creating one of the first universal remote controllers BW-5010. The BW-5010 could control up to 5 devices and featured a back light.
Bondwell was later transformed into Remotec Technology Ltd in 1993.
References
External links
Bondwell 12 & 14, Albert's Virtual Computer Museum
Computer companies disestablished in 1993
Electronics companies disestablished in 1993
Defunct computer hardware companies | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,419 |
Toshiba Thrive
The Toshiba Thrive (AT100 in the UK and Singapore) was a 10.1" tablet computer running Android 3.2.1. PC World praised its full-sized and versatile SD card slot, HDMI port, and USB ports with host functionality and the ability to handle large external drives (up to 2 TB) as well as standard peripherals like USB Keyboards, printers and cameras. The review concluded that there were minor disadvantages including a bulky form and poor sound quality. CNET's review said "Its grooved back, full HDMI and USB support, full SD card slot, and replaceable battery justify its very bulky design."
Features
The Toshiba Thrive has a capacitive touch screen, 10.1 inches diagonally measured, with 1280x800 resolution. It comes with one gigabyte of RAM, and 8, 16 or 32 gigabytes of flash NAND memory. Its CPU is the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core mobile processor, capable of common tablet tasks like Android games and other apps, e-books, music, and 720p video. There is a 5-megapixel camera on the back, a 2-megapixel camera on the front, and stereo speakers on the bottom. Users can easily remove the Thrive's back cover and replace the battery (which is not the case with many tablets). Though thicker relative to other tablets, the Thrive has rare full-sized USB and HDMI ports, and an SD card slot. There is a mini USB port for communications with a PC, and a port on the bottom edge for Toshiba's proprietary dock. The USB port is popular for external storage (such as flash drives and self-powered hard drives), mice, and keyboards.
The Thrive was first available online in the US on July 10, 2011. In early 2012, Toshiba quietly (without any press releases) introduced Thrive tablets (16 or 32 gigabytes of storage) with support for AT&T 4G HSPA+ mobile broadband. This capability added $80 to the standard prices.
A Thrive with a 7-inch screen was demonstrated in September 2011 and released in December 2011. It weighs 13.3 ounces and has a smaller form factor, 7.44"x5.04"x0.48". However, the battery is not removable, and unlike the bigger Thrive's connections, it has micro HDMI and mini USB ports, and micro SD slot. It features the same front facing 2-megapixel camera.
Upgrades
There were official announcements about the availability of an upgrade to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in early 2012, and in June 2012, it became available for certain Thrive models in the US, Canada and Australia. There have been numerous complaints about the stability of the stock release at the Thrive Forum, however. For other countries, the latest official version of Android available from Toshiba for this device is still 3.2.1.
The Thrive is rarely found new from U.S. retail outlets, although refurbished and used units are popular. Toshiba's Excite series of tablets was the successor to the Thrive series, launched on March 6, 2012, with 7.7-inch, 10.1-inch and 13-inch versions. Upgrades to Android 4.0.4 were available in August 2012. The Excite has also been discontinued by Toshiba, with refurbished and used units available from a variety of sources.
References
External links
ToshibaTablet.com
www.thetoshibatablet.com/pdf/Toshiba%20PDF_V2.pdf
reviews.cnet.com/tablets/toshiba-tablet
Toshiba Thrive Tablet
Toshiba
Android (operating system) devices
Tablet computers introduced in 2011
Tablet computers
Discontinued products | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,420 |
Compaq Portable 386
The Compaq Portable 386 was a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. Its street price upon its release was US$12,000–14,000 for a model equipped with an Intel 80386 CPU, RAM, , floppy, , priced at US$7,999 or US$9,999 respectively, and a colored gas-plasma display.
Early versions of the Compaq Portable 386 were sold with the Compaq Portable III case and badges. A differing screen bezel stating "386/20" was the only externally visible change.
Technical data in detail
CPU and FPU
The Portable 386 got its name due to the socketed Intel 386DX CPU with 20MHz. There is also an additional socket for a 20MHz 387 FPU option, which was not included in the basic configuration of the Portable. Since the whole system bus runs with CPU frequency, there is no way to improve the CPU performance by installing a 386DX CPU with more than 20MHz other than the rare Cyrix 486DRx2 20/40 which has a multiplicator of 2 for the frequency while being still pinout compatible with the 386 socket.
Memory
The mainboard can take up to four proprietary 512KB SIMMs which were called SC-RAM in the Portable manual. Additionally, there was an expansion slot inside the Portable which allowed to expand the memory by another 8MB alongside the 2MB on the mainboard by:
Installing the so-called 32bit Memory-/Modem board expansion offers a socket for another expansion card which has 4MB (8×512 kB 80 ns) of memory and another expansion socket installed on which the user can install a 3rd expansion card with another 4MB (again 8×512 kB 80 ns) of RAM. These RAM expansion cards were available through Compaq or third party manufacturers, such as Kingston Technology
Graphics card
The graphics card can be configured between CGA and MDA emulation mode whereas the CGA mode is mandatory for using Microsoft Windows' Compaq Plasma Driver and graphic capabilities in general. The internal CGA graphics card is able to display a resolution up to 640x400 pixels with a color depth of 2 bits (monochrome), which has been first seen in the AT&T 6300 built by Olivetti, surpassing the original IBM standard by 200 pixels in height while remaining fully CGA compatible elsewhere.
The internal gas plasma display is able to display 640x400 pixels with up to 16 shades of gray and is connected to the graphics card via a proprietary connector. Users can install a better graphics card via the Compaq Expansion Unit (more on it later), but cannot use it with the internal display for sure.
Hard disk
The Portable offers two drive bays for 5.25" half-height drives where one is reserved for the hard disk and the other one for the internal floppy disk drive. Compaq originally offered a 40MB and 100MB hard disk option. Quite common back in the days, the BIOS of the Compaq only offers to select preconfigured hard disk configurations like Type 17 for 40MB or 42 for 504MB. There is no detailed information about the underlying CHS configuration of these types available. The device suffers from the wide-spread CHS barrier, not allowing hard disk drives greater than 504MB.
Floppy Disk Drive
In its basic configuration, Compaq offered only a single 5.25" 1.2MB floppy disk drive aside of the 40MB hard disk drive, but there was also a cheaper option for a secondary 5.25" 360KB floppy disk drive instead of the hard disk. Giving the fact that the Portable uses a standard floppy drive connector and has built-in support in the BIOS, one can easily replace the 5.25" with a 3.5" 1.44MB drive.
External expansion options
In order to better position the Portable as a professional office computer, Compaq also offered multiple external expansion which can be installed on the back of the Portable while the device is turned off.
Compaq Expansion Unit
As mentioned before, there is an expansion unit available which extends the Portable by two full-size 16bit ISA slots. Compaq advertised ISA cards like the COMPAQ-VG-Controller card to be used with the expansion unit. This card allows to display (for back-then standards) groundbreaking 720×400 pixels for text and 640×480 pixels for graphics with up to 256 colors (palette of 256.000 colors) at the same time on an external Compaq VG display.
Compaq Expansion Unit with a 40MB tape drive
There was also an expansion unit for a 40MB tape drive offered, which looks identical to the ISA expansion unit from outside, except for offering only a slot for the tape drive.
Internal expansion options
Compaq offered multiple expansion cards for the Portable 386, which can be installed inside the main housing. Similar to the external expansions, these internal expansion cards cannot be exchanged while the device is turned on.
32bit Memory-/Modem board expansion (carrier board)
This expansion card is mandatory for installing additional expansion cards. It is not only a carrier board for other expansions, but also offers a 2400 baud modem.
1-2MB memory expansion
The 1-2MB memory expansion must be installed on the 32bit carrier board and comes with 1MB of RAM preinstalled and offers two more SC-RAM slots for 1MB SC-RAM memory modules each. It cannot be used together with the other 4MB memory expansions due to a missing connector.
4MB memory expansion
This expansion also requires the carrier board to be installed and offers 4MB of preinstalled memory.
4MB additional memory expansion
This extension board for the 4MB memory expansion card just offers another 4MB of preinstalled memory and is installed on top of the 4MB memory expansion. It maxes out the supported memory of 10MB.
Asynchronous connection extension
This expansion card offers only an RS232 connector. It cannot be used together with the carrier board.
1200 resp. 2400 Baud Modem
This expansion was only available in form of a set including a 1200 or 2400 baud Hayes-compatible modem, an own carrier board, a housing cover with a modem connector and a telephone cable for the American and Canadian markets.
BIOS
The BIOS setup utility is not preinstalled in an EPROM chip, but comes on a single floppy disk. If a user is no longer owning such a disk, it can be still easily found at archive.org/details/CompaqPortableDiagnosticDisk
3.5″ 720KB version: SP0308.EXE / SP0308.ZIP or
5.25″ 360KB version: SP0316.EXE / SP0316.ZIP
Software
Compaq bundled Compaq-DOS in version 3.31 with the Portable 386, a variant of MS-DOS 3.2 which already offered support for FAT16 and hard disk partitions with more than 32MB. A Windows 2.01 OEM version was also available which makes use of the 386 memory management. There was also a User Programs disk bundled with the Portable which offers tools for memory management and adapting the CPU speed (between 6, 8 and 20MHz):
ADAPT.COM (Advanced Display Attribute Programming Tool) a TSR application to configure the CGA/MDA charsets on the fly.
CACHE.EXE (Compaq Disk Cache) works similar to the commonly known SmartDrive in alter MS-DOS versions
CEMM.EXE (386 CPU) / CEMMP.EXE (286 CPU),Compaq Expanded Memory Manager, a memory manager which is incompatible with Windows 3.x.
CHARSET.COM installs an alternative character set and font (called THINUS) to improve the text display on the internal gas plasma display
CLOCK.SYS a driver for the real time clock of the Portable 386
MODE.COM replaced the default MODE.COM application of MS-DOS and allows additional commands like "MODE SEL MDA", "MODE SEL CGA", "MODE SPEED HIGH", "MODE SPEED LOW" to switch on the fly between the Portable's graphics and CPU frequency modes.
VDISK.SYS is a virtual disk driver which makes use of the RAM.
See also
Rabbit 286, a clone by Chicony Electronics
References
386 | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,421 |
ECS G10IL
The ECS G10IL is a netbook computer designed by ECS. Using an Intel Atom N270 processor, it includes a built-in tri-band HSDPA and HSUPA, the "Super 3G". The notebook is available with Linux or Windows XP.
In line with other ECS laptop products, it is expected that most sales of this computer will be through OEM channels, rebadged with other brand names.
For example, the G10IL was released in the UK in September 2008 as the Advent 4213, fitted with a 160Gb hard disk, 1Gb RAM and Windows XP.
Other versions are:
FTEC eBook G10 – Malaysia
Airis – France
Averatec Buddy – United States
Q10 Air – Austria
Elisa Miniläppäri – Finland
Specifications
CPU: Intel Atom N270 (aka "Diamondville")
Chipset: Intel 945 GSE, ICH7M
Operating System: Windows XP/Linux
Memory: 1 slot SODIMM 200-pin DDR2 533/667, up to 2GB
Screen: LCD Size 8.9" / 10.2" 1024 x 600 pixels
Ports: 3xUSB 2.0, Card Reader (SD, SDHC, MMC, MS), VGA out
Webcam: 1.3 mega pixel CCD
Storage: HDD or SSD
Battery: 4 / 6 cell
Dimensions: 259 x 180 x 28.5 (mm)
References
See also
Comparison of netbooks
Netbooks | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,422 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 is a hybrid laptop/tablet Windows RT-based computer released in late 2012. The Yoga 11 gets its name from its ability to change form factors thanks to the two-way hinge used to mount its display. It was discontinued on July 17, 2013, due to the poor sales of Windows RT devices.
Features
Design
The Yoga 11 and Yoga 13 computers get their name from their unique design that enables the devices to rotate their screen backwards to become tablet devices. According to PC Pro, "The hybrid design is immensely flexible. Prop the Yoga 11 up in 'tent mode', and the touchscreen can be angled just so. Lay the keyboard facing the desk, and the screen can be tilted back and forth while sturdy-feeling hinges keep the display from flopping backwards. Fold the screen all the way back, and hidden magnets hold it clamped shut against the underside, transforming it into a tablet." The Yoga 11 has slim chassis with a matte orange exterior finish and an all-black interior that weighs 2.79 pounds. It has a full-size QWERTY keyboard. According to TechRadar, the "large, well-cushioned keys offer a far better experience than Microsoft Surface, and there's a large trackpad as well."
Specifications
The Yoga 11 is powered by a quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 that runs at a maximum clock speed of 1.3GHZ and features an integrated graphics processor. The Tegra 3 is also found in numerous Android-based tablets. 2GB of RAM comes standard. This relatively small amount of RAM is sufficient due to the reduced memory requirements of Windows RT applications. The Yoga 11 is sold with solid state drives in 32GB and 64GB capacities. The Yoga 11 runs the Windows RT operating system. Microsoft Office 2013 ships pre-installed. Like all Windows RT devices, the Yoga 11 cannot run software designed for earlier versions of Windows, only apps designed for the new Metro interface are compatible.
According to performance tests run by TechRadar using SunSpider and Peacekeeper benchmarking software, the Yoga 11 runs slightly slower than the Microsoft Surface RT, which uses the same processor. The Yoga 11 was able to run 9 hours and 32 minutes in battery tests, significantly outperforming the Microsoft Surface RT. In a test conducted by PC Pro the batteries took 11 hours and 58 minutes to run down.
The Yoga 11 has an 11.6-inch glossy screen that makes use of in-plane switching technology and runs at a resolution of 1366x768. The screen has a maximum brightness of only 344 nits, but has a measured contrast ratio of 1,146:1. There are two USB 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a standard HDMI output. There is a built-in 720P webcam.
System restore
Windows RT comes with an integrated system restore utility. It is also possible to create a USB recovery drive. An external USB recovery drive is essential in case the data on your hard disk has been compromised up to the point where the system can no longer boot from the hard drive. Reportedly the key combination to have the Lenovo Yoga 11 UEFI firmware boot an external USB drive is "Volume Up" plus the "Windows Key" directly below the screen.
Reviews
In its review TechRadar stated, "The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11 is a stylish, lightweight and durable laptop that neatly doubles as a tablet. At 11 inches, it's portable and thin enough to be used in tablet form, but like its bigger brother, having the keys on the reverse affecting your grip makes it far from ideal.If you're looking for a laptop form factor for work, which doubles as a tablet for basic apps and sofa surfing, then the Yoga 11 is worth serious consideration, although we'd advise you to head to your nearest PC superstore to give it the once over. It's not for everyone, and we'd primarily recommend it to someone looking for a small Windows 8 laptop who doesn't want to miss out on enjoying all the touchscreen goodness that Windows 8 has to offer."
In its review PC Pro wrote, "Place Windows 8 at the helm, and the Yoga 11 would be a tantalising prospect: after all, it’s an excellent laptop with a 12-hour battery life and useful tablet functions. With most Ultrabooks still struggling to push past the nine-hour mark under the lightest usage, the promise of a well-designed 1.19kg hybrid that lasts all day is incredibly attractive. Once you factor in the presence of Windows RT, however, the appeal of this hybrid swiftly wanes." PC Pro concludes by stating, "Don’t abandon hope yet, however: with Lenovo set to release a Windows 8, Intel-powered Yoga 11S sometime this year, we’d keep that credit card at the ready."
In its review of the Yoga 11, The Inquirer wrote, "The Lenovo Ideapad Yoga 11 has a very unique construction and in terms of design alone is perhaps one of our favourite hybrid devices out there now for this reason. It's an ultra-flexible laptop with the option to convert into various different modes, making it a close to ideal multimode device. Its HD display offers a good touchscreen experience as well as high display resolution for its size, and its keyboard performed well, too. However, we feel the Yoga 11 is severely held back by Windows RT, rendering it half as useful as it could be due to the lack of apps and application programs available to download onto it."
References
External links
Yoga 11 | laptop Build Quality | 0.309 | 14,423 |
Acer AspireRevo
The Acer AspireRevo was a line of nettop computers from Acer Inc., first released at the end of April 2009. It is one of the first desktop computers to pair the NVIDIA ION chipset with Intel's Atom CPU.
When the AspireRevo first launched, model R1600, its basic specs were an Intel Atom 230 processor (1.6 GHz), 1 GB of RAM and the NVIDIA ION graphics motherboard with Windows XP. Since then, the models of this PC have been upgraded with the launch of Windows 7. The R3600 model now features a single core Intel Atom 230 (64-bit, hyperthreading), 1 GB of RAM, a 320 GB hard-drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Windows 7 Home Premium edition at $329.00 US. The higher-end model R3610 features a dual core Intel Atom 330, 2 GB of RAM, a 500 GB hard-drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Windows 7 Home Premium at $399.00 US. Both models feature the NVIDIA ION, as well as the RAM boost, DirectX 10 support of Windows 7, graphics and overall performance increases. Although not officially supported for reasons unknown, Windows Vista also runs well if installed.
The combination of low power, relatively low price and support for hardware accelerated video make it suitable for many uses, including as a Home Theater PC (HTPC) or Media Center — for example, running Kodi (formerly Xbox Media Center).
The Acer Veriton models N260G, N270G, N281G and N282G are using the same small form factor case and partly identical hardware as the AspireRevo.
See also
Nvidia Ion
ASUS EeeBox PC
MSI Wind PC
Dell Studio Hybrid
Mac Mini
References
Nettop
AspireRevo | laptop Build Quality | 0.308 | 14,424 |
NEC ProSpeed
The ProSpeed was a line of laptop computers developed by NEC in 1988. It was introduced simultaneously with their slimmer and less heavy UltraLite line of notebook computers. The i386SX-equipped CSX model, released in September 1989, was the first laptop with a color LCD. It was also one of the first laptops with to be offered with a docking station. The CSX model was featured on the front cover of PC Magazine.
Models
References
Computer-related introductions in 1988
ProSpeed | laptop Build Quality | 0.308 | 14,425 |
Pentagon (computer)
The Pentagon (Пентагон) home computer was a clone of the British-made Sinclair ZX Spectrum 128.
It was manufactured by amateurs in the former Soviet Union, following freely distributable documentation. Its PCB was copied all over the ex-USSR in 1991-1996, which made it a widespread ZX Spectrum clone.
The name "Pentagon" derives from the shape of the original PCB (Pentagon 48), with a diagonal cut in one of the corners.
Many simple devices (upgrades) were invented to connect to the Pentagon with some soldering.
Versions
Pentagon 48K (1989 by Vladimir Drozdov)
Pentagon 128K (1991)
Pentagon 128K 2+ (1991 by ATM)
Pentagon 128K 3+ (1993 by Solon)
Pentagon 1024SL v1.x (2005 by Alex Zhabin)
Pentagon-1024SL v2.x (2006 by Alex Zhabin)
Pentagon ver.2.666 (2009 by Alex Zhabin)
The Pentagon 1024SL v2.3 included most of the upgrades of the standard Spectrum architecture, including 1024 KB RAM, Beta 128 Disk Interface and ZX-BUS slots (especially for IDE and General Sound cards). This model also featured a "turbo" mode (7 MHz instead of the original's 3.50 MHz).
Upgrades from the original ZX Spectrum
Extra RAM ranging from 256 KB to 4 MB
Several sound card possibilities such as Covox (usually named as SounDrive) or DMA UltraSound
Additional video modes: 512x192 monochrome, 384x304, 256x192x15 (with no Attribute clash)
CMOS with persistent real-time clock
IDE Controller for hard drives
"Turbo Mode" that clocks the CPU up to 7 MHz
References
External links
Russian most popular Spectrum models
Pentagon 1024 official site
Schematic diagram of the Pentagon 48K and drive controller (DjVu)
128K Schematic diagram of the Pentagon (the DjVu)
Schematic and wiring diagrams Pentagon 128K 1991, revised and enlarged version (PNG)
Wiring diagram 128K the Pentagon (the PNG)
NEW English FaceBook Group
ZX Spectrum clones
Computer-related introductions in 1989
1989 establishments in the Soviet Union
Soviet computer systems | laptop Build Quality | 0.308 | 14,426 |
Psion MC series
The Psion MC (Mobile Computer) series is a line of laptop computers made by Psion PLC. They were made from 1989 to 1991, measure , and weigh .
History
The A4-sized, elegant notebook had an excellent 640 × 400 pixel liquid crystal display (LCD) and, at a time when Microsoft Windows was still at version 2.11 (without window management, multitasking), a graphical user interface with multitasking. Instead of a mouse, this model has a touchpad. This was uncommon in 1989: the Gavilan SC was the only widely known model with a touchpad, and they were not used again until years later.
The newly developed EPOC16 (SIBO) operating system allowed hot swapping of the flash memory cards in the 4 memory slots, and with the two hardware expansion slots, the device seemed ready for all future developments. But it turned out differently. For one, the prices were quite high, with the MC200 at , MC400 at , and MC600 at , and the memory cards were very costly. Also, the software was not yet fully developed for market launch: the word processing was disappointing, the Open Programming Language (OPL) was adopted almost unchanged from the Organizer II and did not support the graphics abilities of the device, and professional developers had to wait over a year for the software development kit (SDK). The announced voice compression module was never finished, and apart from a parallel port, there were no hardware enhancements. Further, the press accused the device of incompatibility with the then standard IBM PC compatibles.
Sales were weak, and SIBO Version 2, released in 1990 as a free update, changed nothing, although it came up with a Microsoft Word-like word processor and a significantly improved OPL version. The slimmed-down MC200 version with a blue and white, half as high screen and 128 kB RAM (instead of 256 kB) sold even worse. The MC600 was just as hastily released into the market. This used MS-DOS as the operating system, likely in reaction to press criticism, and had 768 kB of random-access memory (RAM) and a 1 MB RAM drive, which raised the price again. The touchpad was dropped in favor of a function key bar, and the screen resolution was only 640 × 200 pixels according to the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) standard. The machine was a flop from the start.
Models
Psion MC200
The version of MC400 model with lower cost display and less RAM (a 256K memory and a 640 x 200 green-blue screen).
Psion MC400
The Psion MC400 is a laptop released in 1989.
The main power is provided by eight AA batteries, or by an external 12V AC adapter power source.
The MC400 was of the same generation as the Psion Series 3, but it has a larger size screen (640 x 400 pixels). The MC400 could be programmed using OPL much like the Series 3.
Unlike the Series 3, the MC400 has 4 bays for removable solid-state disk drives compared to 2 on Series 3 devices. The serial port also provides PC connectivity if used with the separately available PsiWin software using the lead designed for the Series 3 or 3A.
Psion MC400 Word
Psion MC600
DOS-equipped version of MC400.
References
Psion devices
Computer-related introductions in 1989
Laptops | laptop Build Quality | 0.307 | 14,427 |
Compaq Presario
Presario is a discontinued series of desktop computers and notebooks from Compaq. The Presario family of computers was launched for the consumer marketplace in September 1993. In the mid-1990s, Compaq began manufacturing PC monitors as part of the Presario brand. A series of all-in one units, containing both the PC and the monitor in the same case, were also released. Although HP acquired Compaq in 2002, the Presario name was used until the Compaq brand was discontinued in 2013 by HP, due to its marketability issues.
Desktop PC series
Compaq Presario 2100
Compaq Presario 2200
Compaq Presario 2240
Compaq Presario 2285V
Compaq Presario 2286
Compaq Presario 2288
Compaq Presario 4108
Compaq Presario 4110
Compaq Presario 4160
Compaq Presario 4505
Compaq Presario 4600
Compaq Presario 4800
Compaq Presario 5000
Compaq Presario 5050
Compaq Presario 5200
Compaq Presario 5360
Compaq Presario 5400
Compaq Presario 5460
Compaq Presario 5500
Compaq Presario 5599
Compaq Presario 5600
Compaq Presario 5700N
Compaq Presario 5726
Compaq Presario 6000 series
Compaq Presario 6300US
Compaq Presario 6310US
Compaq Presario 6320US
Compaq Presario CQ3180AN
Compaq Presario CQ5814
Compaq Presario SG1008IL
Compaq Presario SG3730IL
Compaq Presario SR1000 series
SR1000 Series
SR1100 Series
SR1200 Series
SR1300 Series
SR1400 Series
SR1500 Series
SR1600 Series
SR1700 Series
SR1800 Series
SR1900 Series
Compaq Presario SR2000 series
Compaq Presario SR5000 series
Presario SR5605F
Presario SR5550F
Presario SR5710Y
Presario SR5520AN
Compaq Presario CDS 924
Compaq Presario CDS 942
Compaq Presario CDS 972
Compaq Presario CDS 982
Notebook series
Compaq Presario 300
Compaq Presario 700
Compaq Presario 800
Compaq Presario 900
Compaq Presario 1000
Compaq Presario 1200
Compaq Presario 1400
Compaq Presario 1500
Compaq Presario 1600
Compaq Presario 1700
Compaq Presario 1800
Compaq Presario 1900
Compaq Presario 2100
Compaq Presario 2200
Compaq Presario 2500
Compaq Presario 2700
Compaq Presario 2800
Compaq Presario 3000
Compaq Presario A900
Compaq Presario C300
Compaq Presario C500
Compaq Presario C700
Compaq Presario CQ20
Compaq Presario CQ35
Compaq Presario CQ40
Compaq Presario CQ41
Compaq Presario CQ42
Compaq Presario CQ43
Compaq Presario CQ45
Compaq Presario CQ50
Compaq Presario CQ56
Compaq Presario CQ57
Compaq Presario CQ58
Compaq Presario CQ60
Compaq Presario CQ61
Compaq Presario CQ62
Compaq Presario CQ70
Compaq Presario CQ71
Compaq Presario F500
Compaq Presario F700
Compaq Presario M2000
Compaq Presario R3000
Compaq Presario R4000
Compaq Presario V1000
Compaq Presario V2000
Compaq Presario V3000
Compaq Presario V3500
Compaq Presario V4000
Compaq Presario V5000
Compaq Presario V6000
Compaq Presario X1000
Compaq Presario X6001
All-in-one
These are all-in-one computers containing the PC and monitor in the same unit.
Compaq Presario 425
Compaq Presario 433
Compaq Presario 460
Compaq Presario 3020
Compaq Presario 3060
Compaq Presario 4402
Compaq Presario 4410
Compaq Presario 5520
Compaq Presario 5522
Compaq Presario 5528
Compaq Presario 5536
Compaq Presario CDS 510
Compaq Presario CDS 520
Compaq Presario CDS 524
Compaq Presario CDTV 520
Compaq Presario CDTV 524
Compaq Presario CDTV 528
Monitors
The MVX00 and FPX00 monitors were designed to be sold with the Series 3 Designed Compaq towers. These retained the original spaceship shape of the second generation Compaq Presario towers, except most had smoked-black plastic flip-up doors and a slightly squatter design that was more rounded. The Generation 2 Presario towers lacked the smoked plastic "easy access" door with USB and audio ports behind it, and had black smoked CD bezel covers.
FP meant "Flat panel display", one of the first offered for a home PC.
Compaq Presario MV500
Compaq Presario MV700
Compaq Presario MV900
Compaq Presario FP500
Compaq Presario FP700
Compaq Presario FP5315
The 1X25 monitors were paired with the Presario 4500, 4600, 4800 and a few other series 2 designed Compaq Presarios, which were the originators of the rocket ship shape of tower faceplate. The monitors shared the same design cues: All of them had a split lower bezel which ran down the middle, just like the towers they were meant to match. There is a very rare set of monitors (the FX series) which have built-in speakers and a subwoofer, and three extra USB ports. These are designed to go with the 4800 series Presario multimedia towers—specifically the 4830 to 4882, as they were all black like the FX monitor.
Compaq Presario 1425
Compaq Presario 1525
Compaq Presario 1725
Compaq Presario 1725b
Compaq Presario FX500
Compaq Presario FX700
All these monitors came with JBL Pro speakers which could mount to the side of the monitor. The FX is the only exception, having built-in JBL Pro powered speakers with a subwoofer in the rear of the casing.
Image gallery
See also
List of Hewlett-Packard products
External links
Archive of Official Compaq website
Official Hewlett-Packard website
References
Compaq Presario Reviews, CNET
Compaq Presario Notebook main info page
User reviews, Compaq Notebooks at Notebookreview.com
Presario
Presario
Presario
Discontinued products
IBM PC compatibles
All-in-one desktop computers
Computer-related introductions in 1993 | laptop Build Quality | 0.307 | 14,428 |
Letter-quality printer
A letter-quality printer was a form of computer impact printer that was able to print with the quality typically expected from a business typewriter such as an IBM Selectric.
A letter-quality printer operates in much the same fashion as a typewriter. A metal or plastic printwheel embossed with letters, numbers, or symbols strikes an inked ribbon, depositing the ink (or carbon, if an expensive single-strike ribbon was installed) on the page and thus printing a character.
Over time, several different technologies were developed including automating ordinary typebar typewriter mechanisms (such as the Friden Flexowriter), daisy wheel printers (dating from a 1939 patent, but brought to life in the 1970s by Diablo engineer David S. Lee) where the type is moulded around the edge of a wheel, and "golf ball" (the popular informal name for "typeball", as used in the IBM Selectric typewriter) printers where the type is distributed over the face of a globe-shaped printhead (including automating IBM Selectric mechanisms such as the IBM 2741 terminal). The daisy wheel and Selectric-based printers offered the advantage that the typeface was readily changeable by the user to accommodate varying needs.
These printers were referred to as "letter-quality printers" during their heyday, and could produce text which was as clear and crisp as a typewriter (though they were nowhere near the quality of printing presses). Most were available either as complete computer terminals with keyboards (or with a keyboard add-on option) that could double as a typewriter in stand-alone ("off-line") mode, or as print-only devices. Because of its low cost at the time, the daisy wheel printer became the most successful, the method used by Diablo, Qume, Brother and Apple.
Letter-quality impact printers, however, were slow, noisy, incapable of printing graphics or images (unless the programmable microspacing and over-use of the dot were employed), sometimes limited to monochrome, and limited to a fixed set (usually one) of typefaces without operator intervention, though certain font effects like underlining and boldface could be achieved by overstriking. Soon, dot-matrix printers (such as the Oki Microline 84) would offer "Near Letter Quality" (NLQ) modes which were much faster than daisy-wheel printers, could produce graphics well, but were still very noticeably lower than "letter quality". Nowadays, printers using non-impact printing (for example laser printers, inkjet printers, and other similar means) have replaced traditional letter-quality printers in most applications. The quality of inkjet printers can approach the old letter-quality impact printers (but can be limited by factors such as paper type).
Use in word processing
Dedicated word processors and WP software for general-purpose computers that rose in popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s would use features such as microspacing (usually by 1/120 of an inch horizontally and, possibly, 1/48 of an inch vertically) to implement subscripts, proportional spacing, underlining, and so on. The more rudimentary software packages would implement bold text by overtyping the character in exactly the same spot (for example, using the backspace control code), but better software would print the letter in 3 slightly different positions. Software did exist to (slowly) produce pie charts on such printers (and on some daisywheels the dot was reinforced with metal to cope with extra wear).
See also
Apple Daisy Wheel Printer
Diablo 630 — the archetypal daisy wheel printer
Dot matrix printers
Near-letter quality
Teleprinter
References
Office equipment
Computer printers
Computer peripherals | laptop Build Quality | 0.307 | 14,429 |
Ashraf Habibullah
Ashraf Habibullah is a Pakistani-American structural engineer and software developer best known as the founder, President, and CEO of Computers and Structures, Inc., a structural and earthquake engineering software company based in Berkeley, California. Upon founding the privately held company in 1975, Ashraf co-created the first structural-engineering software available to the personal computer, and has since created a suite of products, and developed their capabilities. Notably, ETABS, a multi-story building analysis and design software, received recognition as one of the Applied Technology Council and Engineering News-Record Top Seismic Products of the 20th Century.
Contributions
Financial to support students
Recognizing the student financial needs for education at the university level Ashraf has funded a wide variety of organizations for scholarships for deserving students. Some of those organizations that he funded include:
Student chapters of Structural Engineers Associations all across the United States
Million dollar CSI Graduate Fellowship Endowment at UC Berkeley
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute
Structural Engineering Institute Futures Fund
University of Karachi Alumni Association
Women in Science and Engineering
NED alumni associations across USA and Canada - Scholarship programs
EERI - Student leadership Council
EERI - Seismic Design Competition
AISC - Bridge Design Competition
ASCE- Concrete Canoe Design Competition
DONATIONS TO UNIVERSITIES AND RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS
Ashraf has donated software worth Millions of Dollars to hundreds of universities and other institutions all across the world for research and education purposes to ensure that the technology necessary to produce earthquake resistant structures reaches everyone. Some of the institutions include:
University of California, Berkeley
Stanford University
Caltech
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Yale University
Johns Hopkins University
University of Illinois (UIUC)
Purdue University
Georgia Tech (GIT)
University of Texas, Austin
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok, Thailand
Middle Eastern Technical University (METU) Ankara, Turkey
UET Lahore and Peshawar
DONATIONS FOR CAUSES
Ashraf, a charismatic speaker, regularly donates his talent, time and money for fundraisers to promote humanitarian, educational and social causes. Some of the causes he has funded include:
Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital
Imran Khan Cancer Appeal, Inc.
Imran Khan dam Fundraiser
Indus Hospital
The Citizens Foundation (TCF)
Developments in Literacy (DIL)
Human Development Foundation (HDF)
The Qalam School
Khana Ghar
The Hunar Foundation Inc.
NUST College of E&ME
GeoHazards International
Afghan Relief fund
Structural engineering endowed chairs and fellowships
With his longtime professional ties to Berkeley, and in honor of the faculty who guided him, Mr. Habibullah has donated millions of dollars to fund two departmental Chairs in structural engineering and two endowed fellowships.
Edward and Diane and Wilson Presidential Chair and Ray and Shirley Clough Presidential Chair and two CSI Presidential Graduate Fellowship in Structural Engineering to support research and education at University of California, Berkeley.
Technology seminars
For nearly 50 years Ashraf had been conducting international seminars and courses to promote the understanding of numerical methods and techniques used in software for structural and earthquake engineering. His events are very well attended and are sponsored by universities and engineering universities all over the world.
Celebrating the profession
Ashraf has contributed millions of dollars to sponsor events at international engineering conventions to promote the visibility and image of the structural engineering profession.
Awards and Citations
Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) H. J. Brunnier Lifetime Achievement Award for changing the practice of structural engineering for the better with his development of efficient and usable structural analysis programs.
American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) George Winter Award – in recognition of leading the development of highly complex software for structural analysis and design and founding the Engineers Alliance for the Arts and the Diablo Ballet.
American Concrete Institute (ACI) Charles S. Whitney Medal for computer applications that have changed and modernized structural engineering practice to a level never envisioned just a few decades ago.
Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) Community Involvement Award in recognition for his outstanding commitment to improve the public perception of structural engineering.
University of California, Berkeley Foundation Trustees' Citation Award for his service in campus fundraising.
Structural Engineering Institute President's Award in recognition of exemplary contributions to the success of SEI.
San Francisco Business Arts Council Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Arts Community.
Contra Costs County Arts Council Award in recognition of his significant contributions to the arts and culture of the country.
Applied Technology Council Award for Top Seismic product of the 20th Century for ETABS.
Structural Engineers Association of Arizona (SEAOA) President's Award.
University of California, Berkeley CEE Academy of Distinguished Alumni in recognition of a distinguished professional career and lifelong dedication, support and advancement of Berkeley CEE.
Structural Engineers Association of Southern California (SEAOSC) Honorary member.
Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) Honorary member.
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Honorary member.
Structural Engineering
In 2010, Ashraf received the Structural Engineers Association of Northern California (SEAONC) H. J. Brunnier Lifetime Achievement Award for changing "the practice of structural engineering for the better with his development of efficient and usable structural analysis programs".
Additional recognition includes the 2011 American Concrete Institute (ACI) Charles S. Whitney Medal for "development of world-class computer applications",
The 2000 SEAONC Community Involvement Award for "enhancing the life safety, environmental health, and economic well-being of the public".
In 2013, he was inducted into the CEE Academy of Distinguished Alumni, which recognizes professional achievements and service to Berkeley. In 2014, he received a University of California, Berkeley Foundation Trustees' Citation Award for his service to campus fundraising. He addressed as a keynote speaker at CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY, SAN LOUIS OBISPO 2019 Fall Commencement.
Arts and culture
Ashraf founded the Engineers' Alliance for the Arts in 1997 such that school children may explore the artistic aspects of technology and structural engineering. For this "commitment to the social and artistic needs of the community", Ashraf received the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) George Winter Award in 2005.
Ashraf co-founded Diablo Ballet in 1993, for which he received the 1998 Arts Recognition Award from the Arts and Culture Commission of Contra Costa County.
For his involvement with both Diablo Ballet and the Engineers' Alliance for the Arts, Ashraf received the San Francisco Business Arts Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Arts Community in 2004.
References
Year of birth missing (living people)
American structural engineers
Living people
Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area
American technology chief executives
UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni
D. J. Sindh Government Science College alumni
NED University of Engineering & Technology alumni
Pakistani emigrants to the United States
Structural engineers
People with acquired American citizenship
| laptop Build Quality | 0.307 | 14,430 |
PowerBook 500 series
The PowerBook 500 series (codenamed Blackbird, which it shared with the older Macintosh IIfx) is a range of Apple Macintosh PowerBook portable computers first introduced by Apple Computer with the 540c model on May 16, 1994. It was the first to have stereo speakers, a trackpad, and Ethernet networking built-in.
It was the first PowerBook series to use a Motorola 68LC040 CPU (simultaneous with Duo 280) and be upgradeable to the PowerPC architecture via a swap-out CPU daughter card (with the PowerPC and 68040 upgrades for sale), use 9.5-inch Dual Scan passive color/B&W displays, 16-bit stereo sound with stereo speakers, have an expansion bay, PC Card capability, two battery bays (and a ten-minute sleep/clock battery, which allowed for main batteries to be swapped out while in sleep mode), full-size keyboard with F1–F12 function keys, be able to sleep while connected to an external monitor and have a battery contact cover included on the actual batteries. It included a single serial port which could be to connect to a serial printer or a network via Apple's LocalTalk. In another first, it also included an AAUI port for connecting to Ethernet networks.
The 500 series was discontinued completely with the introduction of the ill-fated PowerBook 5300. The PowerBook 190 was the de facto successor to the 500 and continued the only 68LC040 processor offering as the low end of the PowerPC-based PowerBook family.
In a survey taken in November 2000, Insanely Great Macintosh ranked the 540c No. 2 on its list of the all-time best PowerBook models made.
History
The PowerBook 500 series was introduced on May 16, 1994, with the high-end active matrix LCD PowerBook 540c and 540, with the passive matrix 520c and 520 soon after. One of its marketing highlights was the promise of a PowerPC upgrade to its CPU and PC Card (PCMCIA) expansion. The introduction of this model came at the time of Apple's changeover to the new PowerPC chip from the 68k line of CPUs, and Apple's advertising and promise of the PowerPC was the cause of headaches to the company. The strong demand for its ground-breaking design and Apple's incorrect market prediction that customers would wait for the fully PowerPC PowerBooks resulted in shortages early on.
In due course the 540 was dropped from the line, 8 MB of additional memory and the modem was offered installed from the factory, hard drive capacity was increased (from 160 and 240 to 320 and 500 MB), and the installed system upped from System 7.1.1 to 7.5. The PC Card Cage was also released, allowing Macintosh users to add PCMCIA capability to their laptops for the first time.
In 1995, Apple gave permission for Apple Japan to introduce an updated version, called the 550c, with a bigger display (10.4 inches), CPU with FPU (68040), bigger hard drive, and Japanese keyboard with black case. It was only sold in Japan and never received FCC certification.
With delays for the new PowerPC PowerBook 5300, demand for the PPC upgrade mounted, and Newer Technology began to market the upgrade before Apple did, although they had produced the upgrade modules for Apple first. What's more, they offered 117 MHz versions over Apple's 100 (actually, 99) MHz offering. Soon thereafter, Newer Technology introduced a 167 MHz model that outperformed the fastest PowerBook 5300, the $6,800 5300ce, at a time when problems with that line became a real issue to Apple.
About the time Apple introduced the PowerBook 1400, Newer Technology introduced a 183 MHz upgrade with 128 KB of L2 cache that kept it ahead of the power curve in performance. Newer Technology stated they could not produce more of the 183 MHz upgrades because the supply of connectors was exhausted.
Impact on the industry
This laptop was the first in the industry to include:
16-bit stereo sound @ 44.1 kHz (typical was 8-bit mono @ 22 kHz);
Trackpad
Stereo speakers (located in upper corners of screen);
Ethernet via AAUI (a transceiver was used to connect to either UTP or coaxial type wiring);
Non-specialized internal expansion bay for connecting many types of devices (PDS connector in left battery bay);
"Intelligent" NiMH batteries (that is, had on-board circuitry to monitor health of battery);
CPU on a daughter card.
And among Apple's PowerBook line the first to have:
68LC040 (with Duo 280), or 68040 (in Japanese model) CPU standard;
PowerPC 603e CPU as an upgrade;
9.5-inch displays;
10.4" display (550c in Japan);
Dual Scan passive color and B+W screens;
CPU on daughtercard (first in any Mac, facilitating PowerPC and 68040 upgrades);
Expansion bay (PDS connector in left battery bay);
PC Card capability (PCMCIA) via module;
Two battery bays (and a 10-minute sleep/clock battery);
Full-size keyboard with function keys (F1–F12);
Sleep while connected to external monitor;
Battery contact cover included on the batteries.
Engineering
Variations across the range
Although the 500 "Blackbird" prototypes were black, only one of the five production models was completely black; that was the 550c, sold only in Japan. The 550c differed from the four two-tone grey models in a few other key respects as well, including a larger active-matrix color screen, a combined Latin/Kana keyboard, and a full 68040 processor. The other models were all charcoal grey with darker grey trim, came with a variety of displays (active/passive matrix; color or greyscale), and used the 68LC040 processor (a low-cost variant without a math co-processor). The full-sized keyboard with 12 function keys, and 640×480 resolution display was consistent across the family.
Optional internal modem
The modem was developed with Global Village, and is a unique two-part design. The transceiver with the modem connector is installed in the back, and the modem itself is located next to the CPU daughter card. It was a V.32 Terbo, and had a top rate of 19.2 kbit/s, but only with other V.32 Terbo modems as there was no official standard. Otherwise it would drop down to 14.4 kbit/s.
Due to a bug with the new combined printer/modem port, the driver had to be upgraded to 2.5.5, and the Chooser was replaced in the GV install.
Expansion bay
The 500 series of PowerBooks included the ability to use two batteries at the same time, allowing for 4 hours of battery life from two installed charged batteries. However the left battery also had an internal PDS slot that allowed for custom modules to be installed. Despite prototypes having been made, only two devices reached the market.
PCMCIA "card cage"
One is the PCMCIA module. There were three versions; RevA, RevB and RevC. The RevC is the most useful as it can take 16bit WiFi cards, allowing the possibility to get a Powerbook 5xx connected online or in the home network using a technology that was developed after the Powerbook 5xxs were discontinued by Apple. The different revisions of the PCMCIA module were released by Apple to accommodate the developing PCMCIA standard. These modules are difficult to find, and the RevC module is in particular demand because it alone works with 16-bit WiFi cards.
PC Card (PCMCIA) cage, 16-bit, 2 Type I/II or 1 Type III cards, using a 68000 CPU to convert the PC Card protocol to PDS.
FPU co-processor
The other is the FPU co-processor, to make up for the lack of one in the PowerBook's 68LC040 CPU.
The FPU module uses a 68882 FPU co-processor made by Sonnet.
Production
In total, almost 600,000 PowerBook 500 series units were produced, compared to 300,000 PowerBook 5300 units.
Models
Video display support
CPU upgrades
Legacy
Most laptops had grayscale displays, mono speakers with only 8-bit audio out, and insufficient battery life, and some had side-mounted snap-on track balls. With the built-in Ethernet (via a versatile AAUI transceiver), SCSI port (forerunner of today’s FireWire) and ADB (similar to USB), it had all the features of desktops at that time, making them the first viable desktop replacement laptops.
In popular culture
Sandra Bullock prominently uses a PowerBook 540c (and also a PowerBook Duo 280c) in the movie The Net (1995).
PowerBook 500s can be seen various times throughout the 1995 anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion.
The Powerbook 540c is used by both Antonio Banderas and Sylvester Stallone in the movie Assassins (1995 film).
References
External links
O'Grady's PowerPage - PowerBook 500
How to use a Powerbook 540c as a WiFi Web Server
Item 102633215 in the Computer History Museum
Apple Technical Specifications: PowerBook
520 Specifications
520c Specifications
540 Specifications
540c Specifications
550c Specifications
Page of a PB 520c user with photos, screen captures, system installation, Atari emulation with Magic Mac
500
68k Macintosh computers
Computer-related introductions in 1994 | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,431 |
PowerBook Duo 230
The PowerBook Duo 230 is a subnotebook personal computer introduced on October 19, 1992 by Apple Computer, Inc. Priced at US $2,610, the PowerBook Duo 230 was the high end model of the two simultaneously released PowerBook Duos, the lower end being the US $2,250 PowerBook Duo 210. With a 33 MHz Motorola 68030 microprocessor, 4 MB of RAM and an 80 or 120 MB SCSI hard disk drive, the PowerBook Duo 230 was nearly identical to the simultaneously released PowerBook 180 except for the smaller 9.1 inch greyscale "supertwist" passive-matrix LCD and the lack of a 68882 floating-point unit.
With the October 1993 introduction of the PowerBook Duo 250 and 270c, the 230 replaced the 210 in the entry level, eventually being discontinued entirely on July 27, 1994 shortly after the introduction of the 68040-based PowerBook Duo 280 and 280c.
Duo 230
Computer-related introductions in 1992 | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,432 |
Dell XPS 730x
The Dell XPS 730x is an eXtreme Performance System for gaming and high-performance computing released November 16, 2008 and ended life in August 2009. The XPS 730 series was unique in that they had user-serviceable non-proprietary standard ATX-size computer components that allowed the user to upgrade the components through an Exchange Program.
History
Need history details based on XPS 700 "User Upgradable" series
Differences between 730 and 730x
There were a number of differences between the 730 and 730x series.
Warranty and Support
Dell warranty support was available until August 2012.
Dell stopped internal development support for the XPS 730x in August, 2009 and has not released any updated BIOS nor software since.
OEM Software
Amongst Dell's normal line of software installed, there were two pieces of software that was unique to the XPS systems.
Alienware AlienFX
The Alienware AlienFX application is Dell proprietary application used to control the LED "Zones" for lighting. One internal and four external zones were configurable to show 15 different colors (plus "black" which effectively turned off the LED for that zone). Once a configuration has been set, the configuration could be saved to a Profile.
The AlienFX application also had the ability to hook into a few 3rd party application events, such as New Mail notification from Microsoft Outlook's email client.
Dell XPS Thermal Monitor
The Dell XPS Thermal Monitor application is a Dell proprietary application used to control a number of chassis devices. The three devices that can be manually controlled are:
PCI Cage Fan
Front CPU Fan
HDD Cage Fan
Amongst direct control of these fans, the software is able to monitor additional devices. They are:
Rear CPU Fan
CPU Pump: Used only in the H2C Water Cooling models
ESA Board Temp: via a sensor on the Master Control Board
Front Temp: via a front-mounted sensor connected to the Master Control Board
Rear Temp: Possibly via the rear LED panel, unconfirmed at time of writing
Internal Temp: Unknown location
Ambient Temp: Possibly via a sensor on the motherboard
Using these sensors, the XPS Thermal Monitoring software is able to monitor these inputs and adjust the fans automatically. When the software is set to Automatic, the software itself does not manage the fan and water pump speeds. Instead, it signals the Master Control Board to monitor the inputs and adjust the speeds accordingly.
There is also an option to override the automatic operations of the Master Control Board for the three devices listed above. Unchecking the Automatic configuration allows a user to manually set the speeds of the fan, or to build an custom monitor curve based on temp inputs.
Chassis
The aluminum chassis was built and assembled in Japan and shipped overseas for installation of internal parts. The case is an ATX and BTX hybrid design that mounts the motherboard from the right-side of the case, up-side-down compared to normal ATX cases. This places the CPU at the lowest point in the case, which allows the CPU's fan to receive the coolest amount of air for overclocking.
The internal space is segmented between an upper chamber and a lower chamber. The upper chamber houses four (4) 5.25" drive bays, two (2) 3.5" front-mounted bays for Dell USB accessories, four (4) 3.5" drive bays mounted transversely with a dedicated server-grade high-speed 80x25mm PWM fan, and the oversized Power Supply Unit. The lower chamber consists of two server-grade high-speed 120x38mm PWM fans mounted in the front in special fan housings that includes separate detachable shrouds, the Dell Master Control Board which monitors all inputs as well as controlling all system LEDs and Fans, CPU cooling assembly, and the motherboard assembly.
The physical chassis is also structurally different from the majority of PC cases and towers that use a stamped steel construction. The Dell XPS 730 and 730X chassis uses a sheetmetal skeleton frame as the core to give it structural integrity, with the outer upper, lower and left panels glued onto this frame. The outer panels are 2.5mm thick aluminum which creates a very robust and sturdy structure.
The XPS 730x chassis was available in three (3) colors:
Anodized Red or sometimes called Victory Red
Brushed Aluminum
Stealth Blue
In addition, there was an optional "X" side panel with clear Plexiglas allowing the internal components to be visible from the outside.
Fans
There are a number of fans located in the chassis, and depending on what model (H2C vs. non-H2C versions), different fans were used in different places.
These fans are usually considered server-grade because of their high static air-flows and Pulse-width modulation (a.k.a. PWM) regulation of speed.
Upper Chamber Fan
The upper chamber has only one fan, an 80mm x 80mm x 25mm PWM fan with general specifications of 12VDC, 0.275 Amps with a minimal airflow of 33 CFM (unknown max). It is used to cool the four HDD bays by drawing air over the front two, and push air over the rear two.
A number of different fans came in the XPS 730/730X systems in this position, but they generally all have the same measurements such as the Nidec MX940 M35613-35DEL2.
This is also one of the loudest fans in the system. Replacing it with an 80x80x25 PWM fan is usually a direct plug-n-play since there are a large number of these available.
Lower Chamber / Front Fans
The lower chamber has a number of different fans. The front-section consists of two 120mm x 120mm x 38mm axial PWM fans with general specifications of 12VDC, 1.4 Amps, 16.8 Watts, 4000RPM max, Airflow: 160 CFM, Static pressure: 0.883 IN H2O, dual-ball bearings. A number of different fans also came in these positions, but generally they all have the same measurements such as the Nidec TA450DC.
The H2C's "Rear Fan"
This fan is actually used to cool the CPU's voltage regulator modules. It is mounted on the H2C's assembly and wired through the H2C connector.
The fan is a 60mm x 60mm x 20mm fan with the general specifications of Airflow: 12.4 - 18.0 CFM, Static pressure: 2.2 - 4.4 mm H2O.
With the stock system, the system owner has control over the speed of this fan to limit the noise it generates.
Non-H2C "Rear Fan"
Unlike the name suggests, this fan is actually used to directly cool the CPU's heatsink. It is a 90mm x 90mm x 38mm fan.
The system owner is not able to control the speed of this fan since it is controlled by the master control board.
Note that with non-H2C systems that use this fan, it is often the loudest fan in the system. At system start-up, it immediately is set to 100% duty cycle (full speed) for several seconds while the system performs a number of self-checks.
Motherboard
The motherboard is Dell P/N P270J and uses the Intel X58 chipset. It is a standard full ATX motherboard size and design and operates like any other ATX motherboard in regard to using a standard 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors. It has a standard PWM 4-pin CPU header and several 3-pin chassis pin headers.
The motherboard itself could be removed and installed into a normal ATX chassis with different ATX power supplies. There is no wiring or physical difference than standard aftermarket ATX motherboards, other than the Dell branding.
Features
Primarily, its core features were:
Intel's Core i7 CPUs (See BIOS versions below for supported versions)
DDR3 ram of 1066mhz and faster (See BIOS versions below for supported sizes)
Up to 36 lanes of PCI-E bandwidth
Six (6) native 3 Gbit/s SATA Revision 2.0 ports (the other two SATA ports are provided by a 3rd party controller)
PCI-E Configuration
The 36 lanes allows for up to 3-way SLI/Crossfire native to the chipset. The PCI-E slots are assigned as follows:
PCI_E1: x16 Physical, x16 Link (IOH)
PCI_E2: x1 Physical, x1 Link (ICH10)
PCI_E3: x16 Physical, x16/x8 Links (IOH)
PCI_E4: x1 Physical, x1 Link (ICH10)
PCI_E5: x16 Physical, x8 Link (IOH)
The PCI-E Bandwidth Links when using multiple GPUs are as follows:
In addition to the three (3) PCI-E x16 "green" slots, the two PCI-E x1 slots and the single PCI slot go through the Northbridge controller. The motherboard is a standard ATX size, and is rumored to be manufactured by MSI or Foxconn. It accepts standard ATX 24-pin power.
The OEM motherboard is the same motherboard as the Alienware Area-51 ALX motherboard. The only difference is the BIOS. See BIOS versions below for updating to the latest Alienware bios to enable additional support for newer RAM and CPUs.
BIOS
The Dell XPS 730x BIOS is an AMI bios.
Version 1.0.5
The last BIOS released from Dell was version 1.0.5. This version has a number of limitations, most notable:
Memory SPD tRFC setting for DDR3 SDRAM is limited to 100. This limits the use of memory to 2 GB DIMM sticks.
Limited eXtreme Memory Profile support for Profile 1 and very limited Profile 2 memory profiles.
Limited overclocking support. PCH Voltages do not change, though being set in the bios.
Limited failed overclocking recovery. Have to reset the BIOS often via motherboard jumper.
A number of users have installed 12 GB (3 x 4GB DIMM sticks) with this bios version. However, while the BIOS will register the full amount of ram, memory errors and system instability may occur because of the tRFC limitation of 100. Memory manufacturers of DDR3 SDRAM memory sticks being 4 GB or greater in size and running at 1600 MHz requires at least an tRFC setting of 122 or higher.
A BIOS upgrade to Alienware A10 or higher is required to increase the rRFC limit to 150, which allows for 12 GB (3 x 4 GB) support, as well as enabling additional XMP Profile 1 and 2 support.
Version 1.0.6
The last production machines sold by Dell, and replaced under warranty, shipped with version 1.0.6 in them. This version was never released on Dell's website. It retains the same limitations as the 1.0.5, except the PCH voltage are now adjustable and some overclocking recovery options have been added.
BIOS Upgrades
List information about 1.0.6 forced upgrades, and Alienware A10 forced upgrades
Upgrading BIOS to Dell 1.0.6
List special information on how to install the non-released 1.0.6 version
Cross-flashing to the Alienware A10 BIOS
The Dell XPS 730X series has the identical X58 motherboard that is found in the Alienware Area 51 R1 series. While Dell disconnected internal support of the XPS 730X machine, Dell continued to release BIOS updates to the Alienware Area 51 R1 series with support for six-core CPUs, 4 GB RAM sticks, additional XMP Memory Profiles support (including Profile 2), failed overclocking recovery and more.
In attempt to upgrade the XPS 730X, Eric Duncan first extracted the BIOS binary file from the Alienware A10 BIOS upgrade package for the Alienware Area 51 R1 series and by using AMI BIOS tools was able to cross-flash the Dell XPS 730X X58 motherboard with success. This was packaged up and released to the public on July 17, 2011 on the Facebook XPS 730X user group under the title "Alienware Area-51 ALX BIOS Upgrade for XPS 730x.
One should be aware of the limitations of the Alienware A10 cross-flash:
Power-Button Light will flash On/Off constantly when the machine is powered off. This is due to the BIOS that expects to be connected to the Area 51 R1 chassis lighting to "pulsate" on/off when the machine is off.
Inability to use Dell's Alienware LightFX application to control the LEDs (must use NVidia's "System Tools w/ESA support").
Inability to use Dell's Thermal XPS application to control the case fans (must use NVidia's "System Tools w/ESA support").
ATI GPU users will not able to control any chassis fans or LEDs with this process.
Nvidia GPU users may install the Nvidia control panel software, and then the NVidia's "System Tools w/ESA support" addon to control the LEDs and fans.
Cross-flashing to the modified Alienware A11b BIOS
As mentioned with the A10 cross-flash above, the motherboard is identical to the Alienware Area 51 R1 series.
A Facebook user by the name of TKMods worked with Eric Duncan to create and release a modified Alienware Area 51 R1 BIOS version A11.
The BIOS was modified and enhanced with a number of enhancements and fixes including:
CPU microcode with all Intel Gulftown series CPUs including the six-core Intel Core i7 980X and 990X Extreme CPUs.
BIOS strings/DMI values set back to 730X 1.0.5 values. This allows the AlienFx and XPS Thermal applications to install and function normally.
BIOS logo screen image changed from the Alienware head to an "XPS" logo to better symbolize XPS 730X.
Intel ICH10R RAID Option ROM firmware upgraded to v10.8.0.1303 (12/2011). Requires Intel RST driver v10.8.0.1003 (or higher).
Silicon Image SATA controller (Sil3132) changes Device Id requiring a different driver to be installed.
This BIOS version was packaged and released under the version XPS 730X A11b. The "b" is significant as it includes a number of bug fixes from the initial A11a release.
Before upgrading, users must be aware of the following downsides:
The power light will continue to flash on/off while powered off.
The power light will remain on and constant while in sleep mode.
This can resolved a number of different ways, such as pulling pin #1 from the front Panel I/O cable connector to the motherboard.
Motherboard Tray
Info about the special motherboard tray and ATX, E-ATX and XL-ATX 8-slot support.
Master Control Board (MCB)
Rather than having the control mechanism integrated into the H2C unit, the pump, fans and TEC are controlled separately by a Dell daughterboard, the Master Control Board (MCB). The MCB uses Enthusiast System Architecture (ESA) to monitor and control the pump, fans and TEC in addition to controlling the XPS LED lights, other fans, and sensors.
The H2C cooling and LED lighting system cannot be reused in another computer case without the MCB or custom-made control circuits to take its place.
Nvidia System Tools
Because the MCB is based on Nvidia's ESA technology, it is open to be controlled via non-Dell software. Currently the only software available is Nvidia's System Tools which is available as a plug-in for Nvidia's Control Panel that comes with every Nvidia driver install.
Using ATI Graphics Cards
The control software from nVidia will not install if no other nVidia products (such as a graphics card, chipset or drive controller) are present in the PC. The software can be installed if the motherboard uses an nVidia chipset, or if an nVidia graphics card is used as the primary display adapter. In a PC with an ATI/AMD graphics card as the primary display adapter, and no nVidia chipset on the motherboard, an option is to install a secondary graphics card with a nVidia GPU.
Front Temp Sensor
Need detailed information
Master Control Board Tray
Info about MCB tray and Fans mounting.
Power Supply Unit (PSU)
The Dell 1000 Watt PSU is an oversized (taller and wider) than standard ATX Power supply units, although it does use the standard ATX bolt pattern to secure it to the chassis. The PSU also has a detachable wiring harness allowing for removal of the PSU for replacement without having to disconnect all powered accessories. This power supply is the same supply used in the Dell Precision T7400 and T7500 series workstations.
Multi-GPU Support
The stock PSU comes with four (4) 6-pin connectors. Each pair is colored differently and each pair is on a dedicated 12V rail. This configuration easily supports two (2) GPUs with two (2) 6-pin power connectors each. To support three (3) GPUs, or two (2) GPUs with 8-pin power connectors, a person could use a combination of Molex connectors, or upgrade the PSU to an aftermarket unit (see upgrades below).
10-pin Master Control Board connector
The stock PSU comes with a proprietary 10-pin power connector for the Master Control Board. It is hardwired into the wiring harness. If changing the PSU, it is required to modify the new PSU to use this same 10-pin connector to power the Master Control Board for all LEDs, Fans and sensor inputs.
H2C Water Cooling
The XPS 730x uses H2Ceramic cooling, also often called H2C. H2C is a two-stage Liquid/Thermoelectric (TEC) hybrid cooling system that combines a liquid-to-air heat exchanger, a thermoelectric fluid chiller, and control circuitry to optimize CPU cooling.
Theater Lighting
Another Dell-exclusive only available on the XPS 730X systems was Theater Lighting. It consists of four (4) strategically placed super-bright white Light-emitting diodes (LED) powered by two (2) AA batteries that help system builders see inside of their case for maintenance. These normally stay off until the side cover is removed. When the cover is removed, the lights are turned on and remain on until the cover is placed back on. Since the lights operate on batteries, they remain active even if the power is disconnected from the system.
There are five main parts to the system:
Theater Lighting "Unit" Module, located on the side of the 5.25" cage.
(4) LEDs connected via long wires.
The LEDs were attached with simple double-sided tape in the general vicinity of the top panel between the rear of the 5.25" cage and the front of the PSU, above expansion slots attached under the median barrier, on the rear panel above the rear I/O ports, and on the bottom panel placed near the RAM location.
Aftermarket Upgrades
The Dell XPS 730 / 730X uses standard ATX components. Because of this, users are able to upgrade the internal components to newer aftermarket versions. Depending on the component being upgraded, some custom wiring may be needed.
Upgrading Motherboard
State the case is actually an 8-slot case, allowing for XL-ATX. Though the top 8th slot only allows for a single-slot width card to be installed and is an extremely tight fit with the chamber divider in the case.
ATX Form Factor
The Dell XPS 730X uses the industry standard ATX form factor making it easy to mount any aftermarket unit.
The motherboard tray can be modified to allow fitting of E-ATX or Extended ATX motherboards. E-ATX is not an industry standard, but its general definition is extending a normal ATX from 9.6 in (244mm) to something wider. It is not uncommon for some E-ATX boards to reach 11 in (274mm) in width. But all E-ATX motherboards should be confined to 12 in (305mm) in height, allowing them to fit the Dell XPS 730X motherboard tray.
Dell's Front Panel I/O Connector
A common concern when swapping motherboards with an aftermarket unit is the front panel I/O connector. This front panel connector for the Dell XPS 730 and 730X chassis uses a USB-like interface, though the pins are different for the front panel (power switch, power light, hdd light, etc.).
Dell used the industry standard (industry specification needs to be stated here) USB-like front-panel connector that is compatible with several mainstream motherboard manufacturers such as MSI, ASRock, EVGA and so on. The XPS 730/730X front panel connector is a direct fit and properly wired for these types of motherboards.
Other motherboard manufacturers do not use this USB-like interface and opt to use direct pinouts. If you attempt to use a motherboard of an alternate brand, you must wire the front-panel connector manually by disassembling the connector and using the Dell XPS 730X pinout guide for the front-panel I/O to figure out what pin goes where (pictures needed). There are some additional options, such as USB debugging pinouts that make it easier (picture and reference number needed).
Upgrading CPU
List info about support CPUs in 1.0.5-1.0.6, as well as Alienware A10 bios
Upgrading H2C Water Cooling Unit
Basic Upgrade Info Any cooling unit of equal size or smaller will work as long as it will fit on a lga 1366 processor slot.
List information about 120mm replaceable units
Upgrading GPUs
List upgrading on OEM mobo and PSU.
List full-card length support. E.g. ATI cards
List issues with Nvidia System Tools with ATI cards
Upgrading Power Supply Unit
Need info about 10-pin connector
Upgrading Fans
It is not generally needed to upgrade the OEM fans. All fans are of server-grade quality, being extreme high-speed fans that move a very generous amount of air. Just about no aftermarket fan can move as much CFM as the OEM fans, except other server-grade high-speed fans.
List info about Dell's 5-pin connector
Inform about Master Control Board's controller
Upgrading RAM
Reference information about 1.0.6 limitations above.
Upgrading Harddrives
SATA Revision 2.0 motherboard
List information about standards for case cooling that the XPS 730x complies with, allowing for hot Wester Digital VelociRaptors to be installed
References
External links
Dell XPS
Dell XPS 730x Reference Wiki
XPS User Support
XPS 730x | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,433 |
Freescale DragonBall
Motorola/Freescale Semiconductor's DragonBall, or MC68328, is a microcontroller design based on the famous 68000 core, but implemented as an all-in-one low-power system for handheld computer use. It is supported by μClinux. It was designed by Motorola in Hong Kong and released in 1995.
The DragonBall's major design win was in numerous devices running the Palm OS platform. However, from Palm OS 5 onwards their use was superseded by ARM-based processors from Texas Instruments and Intel.
The processor is capable of speeds of up to 16.58 MHz and can run up to 2.7 MIPS (million instructions per second), for the base 68328 and DragonBall EZ (MC68EZ328) model. It was extended to 33 MHz, 5.4 MIPS for the DragonBall VZ (MC68VZ328) model, and 66 MHz, 10.8 MIPS for the DragonBall Super VZ (MC68SZ328).
It is a 32-bit processor with 32-bit internal and external address bus (24-bit external address bus for EZ and VZ variants) and 32-bit data bus. It has many built-in functions, like a color and grayscale display controller, PC speaker sound, serial port with UART and IRDA support, UART bootstrap, real time clock, is able to directly access DRAM, Flash ROM, mask ROM, and has built-in support for touch screens.
The more recent DragonBall MX series microcontrollers, later renamed the Freescale i.MX (MC9328MX/MCIMX) series, are intended for similar application to the earlier DragonBall devices but are based on an ARM processor core instead of a 68000 core.
References
68k microprocessors
Science and technology in Hong Kong
Computer-related introductions in 1995 | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,434 |
Toshiba Pasopia 5
The Toshiba Pasopia 5 is a computer from manufacturer Toshiba, released in 1984 and based around a Z80 microprocessor. Also known as PA7005, it was released only in Japan, indented as a low price version of the original Toshiba Pasopia.
The keyboard has 90 keys, a separate numeric keypad and eight function keys. The machine could be expanded with disk drives, extra RAM and offered a RS-232 interface and a parallel printer port.
The machine is compatible with the original Pasopia.
See also
Toshiba Pasopia IQ
Toshiba Pasopia
Toshiba Pasopia 7
Toshiba Pasopia 16
References
Pasopia
Z80-based home computers
Computer-related introductions in 1981 | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,435 |
Cherrypal
Cherrypal is a California-based marketer of Chinese-manufactured consumer-oriented computers. It markets a range of models with a diversity of CPU-types, structures, features, and operating systems. Commentators have observed that Cherrypal arguably beat the heralded and much-better financed one Laptop per Child (OLPC) project to its goal of a $100 "laptop" (such units are physically small: a Cherrypal unit for general purchase at $99 plus shipping has a 7" screen, an OLPC provided to a child in developing world at $199 has a 7.5").
The company's business practices have generated controversy and antipathy from some vocally dissatisfied customers, while others are marginally satisfied. Its practices pertaining to merchandise returns and communication have been repeatedly faulted. The U.S. Better Business Bureau rating for Cherrypal is an "F", indicating that the BBB strongly questions the company’s reliability.
Cherrypal claims a commitment to environmental concerns and the needs of impoverished countries and in particular key sponsorship of a learning center in Ghana. It supports a "One Laptop per Teacher" pilot program in Nigeria.
In order, the company has marketed the "C114" PPC-processor-based nettop, the "Cherrypal Bing" x86-based netbook, the "Cherrypal Africa" XBurst-CPU-based netbook, the "Cherrypal Asia" ARM-processor-based netbooks, and the "CherryPad America" ARM-processor-based tablet computer.
C114
The Cherrypal C114 is a small, light nettop computer using a PowerPC-processor, the Freescale 5121e system-on-a-chip (SoC) integrated main-board, and Xubuntu as its operating system. The device launches Firefox Minefield web-browser, AbiWord word-processor, and other apps via icon double-click. An article in The Register noted that Cherrypal's producers asserted that the computer will consume only 2 watts of power. Independent, informal testing has shown a wattage consumption of still low 6.9 watts while booting.
The CherryPal C114 was a rebadged version of the LimePC D1 mini-desktop computer developed as part of a broader Freescale PowerPC chip-based product line by THTF's Shenzhen R&D center and shown to the public at the 2008 CES in Las Vegas in January 2008.
Bing
The "Cherrypal Bing" is a slim x86-based netbook that ships with Windows XP.
Africa
Cherrypal's $99 netbook, the Africa, is aimed primarily at the developing world but also available for sale to consumers. According to a blog post by Max Seybold, the device's specs in Cherrypal's web store are kept intentionally vague, because the Africa is not built to a set design. Instead, Cherrypal either purchases pre-made netbook systems or buys odd lots of whatever inexpensive components are available and builds netbooks out of these. It then rebrands these netbooks as Africas. The $99 computer was named Africa in honor of PAAJAF, a humanitarian services group based in Ghana, West-Africa.
Seybold states that the resulting device will at a minimum meet the specs listed on the website, but could also exceed them. It could also end up having an ARM, MIPS, or x86-based CPU architecture depending on what chips are available.
In an interview, Seybold stated that the Africa is not meant to be sold as a "computer" in the traditional sense, but as an "appliance" to provide Internet access to people who could not afford to buy a traditional computer. He said that with the number of government services (such as unemployment or disability) that are encouraging access by Internet, lack of such access is becoming more and more of a disability. The only thing Cherrypal promises for $99 is the ability to access the Internet.
Asia
The "Cherrypal Asia" is a low cost ARM-based netbook that uses Android OS version 1.7.
America
The "Cherrypal America" also known as Cherrypad is an Android tablet based upon Telechips TCC89xx ARM11 processors. Cherrypal initially sold the tablet with the promise of an upgrade to Android 2.2 by November and support for Android market. The market support has been officially removed because the tablet does not conform to the market requirements by Google. Also the Android 2.2 upgrade has been canceled, instead Cherrypal now promises an update to Android 2.3.
The hardware of the Cherrypal America as listed by Cherrypal comprises an 800 MHz ARM11 CPU by Telechips, 256 MB DDR2 RAM, 2 GB Flash Memory and an 800x480 resistive touchscreen. However, there is a user report arguing some less powerful specifications according to the boot-log dumped via dmesg.
According to various Android news magazines Cherrypal has announced a successor for their current Cherrypad.
History
Cherrypal was founded by Max Seybold based in Palo Alto. The C114 (and following C120) desktop computers were originally developed by Tsinghua Tongfang (THTF) in its Shenzhen R&D center by an engineering team led by American electronics industry veterans Jack Campbell and Ryan Quinn. An extended line of handheld, desktop, and TV-based PCs using the Freescale MPC5121e PowerPC microprocessor was shown at CES 2008 by THTF, with the desktop product picked up thereafter as an OEM purchase by CherryPal.
Cloud computing plans
Cherrypal's marketers planned to use Firefox not only as its web-browser but also as its user interface to launch other applications such as OpenOffice.org. They planned that the Cherrypal would make use of cloud computing in which applications and storage would be wholly or in part Internet-based. These plans have not yet been implemented. The company's president asserted the cloud (Green Maraschino) would be launched in February 2010, however it is not known to have occurred.
Timeline
Jan. 2008: C114 model originally shown at CES by its manufacturer THTF.
Jul. 2008: Cherrypal was originally scheduled to ship in late July, 2008.
4 Nov. 2008: Rescheduled the ship date for 4 November 2008.
3 Dec. 2008: The first end-user report of actually receiving a boxed Cherrypal was posted. Cherrypal stated they had earlier shipped some multiple-unit orders to organizational customers. More users began receiving their Cherrypals, and real-life test reports were released, with mixed responses.
20 Jun. 2009: A competitor's blog claimed Cherrypal went out of business in the UK in June 2009 and that "We are not quite sure what has happened with Cherrypal Inc. in the USA."
Dec. 2009: An upgraded version of the Cherrypal is offered for sale on the company website. Also released were an update for its "Bing" notebook, and a $99 mini-notebook called "Africa."
6 Jan. 2010: A Teleread.org editor claimed caution was needed before dealing with Cherrypal. In response to that, and comments to the article from persons accusing Cherrypal of engaging in a scam, Max Seybold sent a "Cease and Desist" email to the website. The site owners then decided to delete all the Cherrypal articles and comments.
11 Jan. 2010: A German blogger stated online-tracking showed a shipment of his unit on its way, but that this has never arrived because of a wrong tracking-number sent by Cherrypal. He later stated that he received a unit with specifications less than advertised, and OS other than advertised.
18 Jan. 2010: A Mobileread.com editor authored an article accusing Cherrypal of "lies, ignored emails, and technical incompetence," which Mobileread.com ran. The website formerly ran another attack article, "Cherrypal is a SCAM."
20 Mar. 2010: An end-user reported that he received a $99 CherryPal Africa Linux version, providing pictures. "As some of the negative internet posters seemed more strident than the situation demanded, I decided to take a chance," his blog reads. A week later another end-user reported Cherrypal Africa receipt, criticizing the shipping delay and software features, though saying "it works."
11 May 2010: News forums reported the launch of "Cherrypal Asia," a netbook with ARM processor, Android OS.
30 Jun, 2010: A user comment at an Android forum indicates receipt of an Asia.
References
External links
Cherrypal corporate website
"Cherrypal Unveils Low-Cost 'Cloud Computer'," Information Week, July 21, 2008
"Cherrypal Mini-desktop Consumes 2 Watts of Power," IDG News Service/PC World Magazine, July 21, 2008
"Will Cherrypal be the first mass-market cloud computer?", Venture Beat, July 21, 2008
“Cloud Enabled,” Linux Magazine, July 23, 2008
“Linux mini-PC takes two Watts to tango” Desktop Linux/eWeek, July 22, 2008
“250 Freescale-Based ‘Green’ ‘Cloud’ Computer,” SlashDot, July 22, 2008
“Cherrypal out sweetens Apple with 2W, ultra-cheap PC,” The Register, June 17, 2008
“Waiting on a CerryPal? Don't Hold Your Breath” TG Daily, December 4, 2008
Cloud clients
Linux-based devices
Nettop | laptop Build Quality | 0.306 | 14,436 |
Fit-PC
The fit-PC is a small, light, fan-less nettop computer manufactured by the Israeli company CompuLab.
Many fit-PC models are available. fit-PC 1.0 was introduced in July 2007, fit-PC Slim was introduced in September 2008, fit-PC 2 was introduced in May 2009, fit-PC 3 was introduced in early 2012, and fit-PC 4 was introduced spring 2014. The device is power-efficient (fit-PC 1 was about 5 W) and therefore considered to be a green computing project, capable of using open source software and creating minimal electronic waste.
Current models
fit-PC2
On February 19, 2009, Compulab announced the fit-PC2, which is "a major upgrade to the fit-PC product line".
Detailed specifications for the fit-PC2 include an Intel Atom Z5xx Silverthorne processor (1.1/1.6/2.0 GHz options), up to 2GB of RAM, 160GB SATA Hard Drive, GigaBit LAN and more. The fit-PC2 is also capable of HD video playback. Its declared power consumption is only 6W, and according to the manufacturer, it saves 96% of the power used by a standard desktop. fit-PC2 is the most power efficient PC on the Energy-Star list.
The fit-PC2 is based on the GMA 500 (Graphics Media Accelerator). Unfortunately the open source driver included in Linux kernel 2.6.39 does not support VA-API video or OpenGL/3D acceleration.
The fit-PC2 is being phased out and is being replaced by the fitlet, the fitlet was designed to replace the groundbreaking (and still popular) CompuLab fit-PC2.
fit-PC2i
On December 2, 2009, Compulab announced the fit-PC2i, a fit-PC2 variation targeting networking and industrial applications.
fit-PC2i adds a second Gbit Ethernet port, Wake-on-LAN, S/PDIF output and RS232 port, has two fewer USB ports, and no IR.
fit-PC3
The fit-PC3 has been released early 2012.
See the fit-PC3 article.
fit-PC4
The fit-PC4 has been released spring 2014.
fitlet
The fitlet has been announced January 14, 2015.
It has 3 CPU/SoC variations, and 5 feature variations, though only 7 models have been announced so far.
Obsolete models
fit-PC Slim
On September 16, 2008, Compulab announced the Fit-PC Slim, which at 11 x 10 x 3 cm is smaller than fit-PC 1.0.
Hardware
fit-PC Slim uses 500 MHz AMD Geode LX800 processor and has 512mb soldered-on RAM. The computer includes a VGA output, a serial port with a custom connector, Ethernet, b/g WLAN, and 3 USB ports (2 on the front panel). The system has an upgradeable 2.5" 60GB ATA hard drive.
Software
fit-PC Slim has General Software BIOS supporting PXE and booting from a USB CDROM or USB thumb drive. It is pre-installed with either Windows Vista or with Ubuntu 8.10 and Gentoo Linux 2008.0 . Also Windows Embedded can be used, or pre-installed on a FlowDrive.
Availability
The fit-PC Slim end-of-life was announced on 19 June 2009 with the general availability of fit-PC2.
fit-PC 1.0
fit-PC 1.0 is an earlier model that has the following differences
Limited to 256mb RAM
No Wi-Fi
Dual 100BaseT Ethernet
Larger form factor - 12 x 11.6 x 4 cm
Only 2 USB ports
Hard disk is upgradeable
No power button and indicator LEDs
5 V power supply
See also
Trim-Slice, an ARM mini-computer also made by CompuLab
Industrial PC
Media center (disambiguation)
Media PC
Nettop
References
External links
fit-PC website
Compulab website
fit-PC Australia website
fit-PC2 Users forum
fit-PC US Website
Computers and the environment
Israeli brands
Linux-based devices
Nettop
Products introduced in 2007 | laptop Build Quality | 0.305 | 14,437 |
SPECpower
SPECpower_ssj2008 is the first industry-standard benchmark that evaluates the power and performance characteristics of volume server class computers. It is available from the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC). SPECpower_ssj2008 is SPEC's first attempt at defining server power measurement standards. It was introduced in December, 2007.
Several SPEC member companies contributed to the development of the new power-performance measurement standard, including AMD, Dell, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, HP, Intel, IBM, and Sun Microsystems.
See also
Average CPU power
EEMBC EnergyBench
IT energy management
Performance per watt
References
Official SPEC website
Benchmarks (computing)
Evaluation of computers
bs:SPEC
de:Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
es:SPEC
ja:Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation
pl:SPEC (organizacja) | laptop Build Quality | 0.305 | 14,438 |
Noahpad
The Noahpad is a Netbook developed by the Taiwanese company E-Lead. This small laptop shares some similar characteristics with other Netbooks launched in 2007, like the ASUS Eee PC, the OLPC and the Classmate PC.
The product was first presented at CES 2008, Las Vegas.
The device's specifications are as follows:
Display: 7" 800x480 pixel LCD panel with LED backlight
Operating system: Ubuntu 7.10
Processor: VIA C7-M ULV Processor (ultra-low voltage), clocked at 1 GHz
Graphics: VIA CX700 chipset
Hard drive: 30 GB 1.8" HDD and SD card slot
RAM: 512 MB DDR2
Connectivity: 802.11b/g WLAN. 10/100 Ethernet. DVI-I port. Two USB 2.0 ports.
Camera: 300K pixel
Audio: Built-in microphone and stereo speakers. 3.5mm microphone / earphone jack.
Battery: 4 Cells, 3900 mAh. 4 Cells, 10000 mAh external pack also available.
Dimensions: 192 x 143 x 29 mm
Weight: 780 g
Input device
The Noahpad's input device can function as both a keyboard and a pointing device. When used as a pointing device to control a mouse cursor, it provides a touchpad surface 70 x 70mm in size. When used as a keyboard, users push down on an area of the touch sensitive surface which is marked with a keyboard layout. Tactile feedback is provided by having the whole pad depress several millimeters when pressed.
References
External links
Official website
Mobile computers
Linux-based devices
Netbooks | laptop Build Quality | 0.305 | 14,439 |
Sony Vaio SR series
The Sony Vaio SR series was a line of consumer-grade notebook computers from Sony introduced in July/August 2008 to replace the Sony Vaio C series range (they could also be seen as competing with the lower end SZ models), as a part of the Intel Centrino 2 launch. They are equipped with a 13.3" screen and weigh approximately 1.95kg, significantly lighter than the C series, similar to the non-premium carbon fiber models of the SZ, but significantly heavier than the Z Series (which, unlike the SR, uses carbon fiber to reduce weight).
As with the SZ and C series laptops, the SR uses a 16:10 ratio 1280x800 LED-backlit screen. All are configured with Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs and DDR2 RAM. SSD storage, instead of hard drive, is an option.
Base-line models feature integrated Intel 4500MHD graphics, while higher-end laptops are equipped with ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 graphics (in later models the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 is the discrete graphics option). Compared with the higher-end Z series, which has GeForce 9300M GS graphics (producing less heat in the smaller chassis of the Z series), the ATI-equipped SR offers better gaming performance, marking it out as the consumer/gamer's option. The SR also features a 1.3 megapixel webcam to the 0.3 megapixel found on the Z.
Options available on the Z series that were not available on the SR are WWAN (HSDPA), and RAID SSD. CPU, RAM and hard drive options are the same on both models, and, as with the Z, the SR features a Blu-ray drive option.
External links
SR | laptop Build Quality | 0.305 | 14,440 |
Homebuilt machines
Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers, but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or kit planes. Homebuilt aircraft or kit cars are constructed by amateurs. Homebuilt computers have been built at home for a long time, starting with the Victorian era pioneer Charles Babbage in the 1820s. A century later, Konrad Zuse built his own machine when electromechanical relay technology was widely available. The hobby took off with the early development of microprocessors and, since then, many enthusiasts have constructed their own computers.
A homebuilt vehicle is a wider concept than a kit car. A homebuilt vehicle is a motor vehicle (car, truck or motorcycle) built by an individual instead of a manufacturer.
These machines may be constructed "from scratch", from plans, or from assembly kits. Outside of the United States (for example in Russia) people wishing to build such complex machinery often have no professional networks to rely on for spare parts, plans, or advice in the matter and therefore have to rely on their ingenuity and intuition in order to build a machine that works.
Examples of home-built machinery
Amateur radio homebrew – Homebrew is an amateur radio slang term for home-built, noncommercial radio equipment.
Amateur telescope making – The field of amateur telescope making is considered an offshoot of the amateur astronomy community. Amateur telescope makers (sometimes called ATMs), as their name implies, are not paid professionals. They build their telescopes for the enjoyment of the hobby, or so they can make a personal contribution to the field of astronomy.
Dune buggy - popular method of building a dune buggy involves construction of a vehicle frame from steel tubing formed and welded together. The advantage of this method is that the fabricator can change fundamental parts of the vehicle (usually the suspension and addition of a built-in roll cage). Buggies of this type are called sandrails because of the rail frame. Sandrails, as with the VW Bug, often have the engine located behind the driver. Sizes can vary from a small engined one seat size to 4 seat, 8+ cylinder vehicles. Sandrails can have panels or custom shaped body coverings over the rails and tubing that comprise the vehicle, though many are left bare.
Amateur rocketry sometimes known as amateur experimental rocketry or experimental rocketry is a hobby in which participants experiment with fuels and make their own rocket motors, launching a wide variety of types and sizes of rockets. Amateur rocketeers have been responsible for significant research into hybrid rocket motors, and have built and flown a variety of solid, liquid, and hybrid propellant motors. On May 17, 2004 Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) successfully launched the first amateur high-power rocket into space, achieving an altitude of 72 miles (115 km). Prior to that the Reaction Research Society on November 23, 1996 launched a solid-fueled rocket, designed by longtime member George Garboden, to an altitude of 50 miles (80 km) from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada.
Stitch and glue is a simple boat building method which uses plywood, epoxy glue, and "stitches" and eliminates the need for stems and chines. Plywood panels are cut to detailed profiles and stitched together to form an accurate hull shape, without the need for forms or special tools. This technique is also called "tack and tape", and "stitch and tape".
Gallery
Notes
Homebuilt aircraft
Kit cars
Amateur radio
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IBM 5550
IBM 5550 is a personal computer series that IBM marketed in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China in the 1980s and 1990s, for business use customers. In Japan, it was introduced in 1983 and promoted as "" because it had three roles in one machine: a PC, a word processing machine which was traditionally marketed as a machine different from a PC in Japan, and an IBM-host attached terminal.
General
The IBM PC that had been marketed by IBM since 1981, using Intel 8088, was not powerful enough to process the far eastern languages of Japanese, Korean and Chinese. Nor was the resolution of IBM PC's display high enough to show the complex characters of these languages.
The IBM 5550 was first introduced in Japan in March 1983, using Intel 8086 microprocessor and was called "Multistation 5550" because it had three roles in one machine: a PC, a word processing machine which was traditionally marketed in Japan as a machine different from a PC, and an online terminal.
After the Japanese 5550 models, Korean, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese models were also introduced. IBM 5550 initially used its own architecture, but, later since 1987, was changed to use IBM Personal System/2's Micro Channel Architecture, being renamed as Personal System/55.
In Japan, Kiyoshi Atsumi, a film actor, was used to promote the 5550. IBM later introduced IBM JX for home users in Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and DOS/V for both business and home users in Japan.
Features
The 5550 was originally planned as a terminal with a combination of word processing and personal computing targeted for Japanese computer market. To display 24 dots Mincho kanji typeface which was also used in many Japanese word processing machines, the 5550 had high display resolution such as a 1024×768 pixel graphic screen. The first model of 5550 was designed to read a display font from an external storage for multilingual support, including Chinese and Korean languages.
The 5550 fulfills three roles, via the following components:
Japanese Business Personal Computer: developed by Microsoft.
Japanese word processor: developed by IBM.
Japanese online terminal: and developed by IBM.
The original Bunsho Program and emulators booted from a floppy disk without Nihongo DOS. They used a proprietary disk format which couldn't be read from Nihongo DOS, so users had to replace floppy disks or set the boot partition to switch between two programs. Also, they had to use a conversion program to exchange data. Later, they were ported for Nihongo DOS, and functions were gradually implemented. 3270 Kanji Emulation, 5250 Kanji Emulation and Bunsho Program were superseded by Nihongo 3270 PC in October 1983, Nihongo 5250 PC in September 1984 and DOS Bunsho Program in May 1986.
The first generation of IBM 5550 has up to three 5¼ inch double-density (720 KB) floppy drives because the Bunsho Program uses three floppy disks; program disk, font disk, and user data disk. Later models contain a font ROM card as other 1980's Japanese personal computers did.
Development
of IBM Fujisawa Development Laboratory planned the terminal with a combination of word processor and personal computer, called the Multi-functional Workstation, and he proposed it at the headquarter in March 1981. The development team was founded as an Independent Business Unit (IBU).
The team set goals for IBM 5550 that the machine was usable for both word processing and personal computing on the same architecture at least 3-5 years. They tried to build the 5550 from the IBM Displaywriter System 6580, the English word processor developed in Austin office in 1980, and the IBM Personal Computer developed in Boca Raton office, but it was difficult to combine different types of machines.
Considering price–performance ratio and continuity of an architecture, the team examined processors chosen from Intel's and other manufacturers. The IBM PC used an Intel 8088, but the 5550 employed an Intel 8086 because bus speed largely influenced for performance of the machine which had high display resolution.
To gain an advantage over competitors in Japanese word processing, 24 pixel font models render characters in a box of 26×29 pixels, and the total display resolution is 1066×725 pixels calculated with box width by 41×25 text. 16 pixel font models render characters in a box of 18×21 pixels, and the total display resolution is 738×525 pixels. The 5550 had one more column than 40 columns of usual Japanese computers, which enabled line breaking.
For personal computing, Nihongo DOS K2.00 had been developed by Microsoft. It was the second Japanese localization of MS-DOS 2.0 followed to Toshiba's PASOPIA 16. Nihongo DOS bundled the Microsoft BASIC interpreter which designed for the 5550. Programming languages and the Japanese version of Multiplan were also provided.
The team didn't consider the machine was used for online communication, but they realized its importance during the development. They decided to add a role of a terminal in January 1982. This change extended its development term. In May 1982 Business Show (one of computer industry exhibitions in Japan), IBM Japan only displayed the IBM PC as a reference material. They unveiled the development of 5550 in fall 1982.
IBM Japan didn't have a factory for mass production of personal computers, so the production of 5550 was outsourced to some companies. System units, hard disks, and monitors were manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial, printers by Oki Electric Industry, and keyboards by Alps Electric.
Models
5551-A/B/C/D/E/G/H/J/K/M/P (Basic models, placed beside the display. Later became a smaller size like 5540)
5541-B/E/J/K/M/P (Smaller size models, on which the display can be placed. Later made even smaller)
5561-G/H/J/K/M/P (Larger size models, all models employ Intel 80286)
5530-G/H (Stand-alone models, without the communications adapter. Used 3½ inch floppy disk)
5535-M (Laptop, using 3½ inch floppy disk)
Competition
In Japan, Multistation 5550 competed against:
Fujitsu FACOM 9450 and FMR series
NEC PC-9801 series and N5200/5300 series
Reception
BYTE in 1983 speculated that "we may soon see a similar machine here in America". Describing the 5550 as "a true workstation", the magazine envisioned the computer as filling the "considerable gulf above the PC", and a rival to the IBM System/36 minicomputer. It praised the 5550's "unprecedented" combination of kanji support with high-end word-processing capability, and reported that in Japan an ecosystem of vendors providing products for the computer was forming. The magazine concluded that "if the American PC is any precedent, the market should soon be filled with 5550 software".
The 5550 was primarily sold for large enterprises who used IBM's mainframe computer. Meiji Life who used the IBM 3081 mainframe decided to purchase about 500 units of the 5550 in 1983. A manager of its System Development section said, "IBM supports us to satisfy our demand for the communication software. We are planning to replace all of our IBM terminals. A new personal computer must respond for the host computer as fast as a terminal, and it must have various communication softwares."
In Japan, the 5550 had annual sales of 70,000 units in 1985, and the Nikkei Personal Computing magazine reported in 1986 that the 5550 had the largest personal computer share of 30% in the corporate sector.
See also
IBM PC, IBM PC/AT and IBM PS/2
IBM JX, AX architecture and DOS/V
List of IBM products
References
External links
Introducing Multistation 5550 (describes the models in detail)
5550
Computer-related introductions in 1983 | laptop Build Quality | 0.304 | 14,442 |
Sol-20
The Sol-20 was the first fully assembled microcomputer with a built-in keyboard and television output, what would later be known as a home computer. The design was a combination of an Intel 8080-based motherboard, a VDM-1 graphics card, the 3P+S I/O card to drive a keyboard, and circuitry to connect to a cassette deck for program storage. Additional expansion was available via five S-100 bus slots at the back of the machine. It also included swappable ROMs with a rudimentary operating system.
The design was originally suggested by Les Solomon, the editor of Popular Electronics. He asked Bob Marsh of Processor Technology if he could design a smart terminal for use with the Altair 8800. Lee Felsenstein, who shared a garage working space with Marsh, had previously designed such a terminal but never built it. Reconsidering the design using modern electronics, they agreed the best solution was to build a complete computer with a terminal program in ROM. Felsenstein suggested the name "Sol" because they were including "the wisdom of Solomon" in the box.
The Sol appeared on the cover of the July 1976 issue of Popular Electronics as a "high-quality intelligent terminal". It was initially offered in three versions; the Sol-PC motherboard in kit form, the Sol-10 without expansion slots, and the Sol-20 with five slots. A Sol-20 was taken to the Personal Computing Show in Atlantic City in August 1976 where it was a hit, building an order backlog that took a year to fill. Systems began shipping late that year and were dominated by the expandable Sol-20, which sold for $1,495 in its most basic fully-assembled form. The company also offered schematics for the system for free for those interested in building their own.
The Sol-20 remained in production until 1979, by which point about 12,000 machines had been sold. By that time, the "1977 trinity" —the Apple II, Commodore PET and TRS-80— had begun to take over the market, and a series of failed new product introductions drove Processor Technology into bankruptcy. Felsenstein later developed the successful Osborne 1 computer, using much the same underlying design in a portable format.
History
Tom Swift Terminal
Lee Felsenstein was one of the sysops of Community Memory, the first public bulletin board system. Community Memory opened in 1973, running on a SDS 940 mainframe that was accessed through a Teletype Model 33, essentially a computer printer and keyboard, in a record store in Berkeley, California. The cost of running the system was untenable; the teletype normally cost $1,500 (their first example was donated from Tymeshare as junk), the modem another $300, and time on the SDS was expensive – in 1968 Tymshare charged $13 per hour (). Even the reams of paper output from the terminal were too expensive to be practical and the system jammed all the time. The replacement of the Model 33 with a Hazeltine glass terminal helped, but it required constant repairs.
Since 1973, Felsenstein had been looking for ways to lower the cost. One of his earliest designs in the computer field was the Pennywhistle modem, a 300 bits per second acoustic coupler that was the cost of commercial models. When he saw Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter on the cover of the September 1973 Popular Electronics, he began adapting its circuitry as the basis for a design he called the Tom Swift Terminal. The terminal was deliberately designed to allow it to be easily repaired. Combined with the Pennywhistle, users would have a cost-effective way to access Community Memory.
In January 1975, Felsenstein saw a post on Community Memory by Bob Marsh asking if anyone would like to share a garage. Marsh was designing a fancy wood-cased digital clock and needed space to work on it. Felsenstein had previously met Marsh at school and agreed to split the $175 rent on a garage in Berkeley. Shortly after, Community Memory shut down for the last time, having burned out the relationship with its primary funding source, Project One, as well the energy of its founding members.
Processor Technology
January 1975 was also the month that the Altair 8800 appeared on the front page of Popular Electronics, sparking off intense interest among the engineers of the rapidly growing Silicon Valley. Shortly thereafter, on 5 March 1975, Gordon French and Fred Moore held the first meeting of what would become the Homebrew Computer Club. Felsenstein took Marsh to one of the meetings, Marsh saw an opportunity supplying add-on cards for the Altair, and in April, he formed Processor Technology with his friend Gary Ingram.
The new company's first product was a 4 kB DRAM memory card for the Altair. A similar card was already available from the Altair's designers, MITS, but it was almost impossible to get working properly. Marsh began offering Felsenstein contracts to draw schematics or write manuals for the products they planned to introduce. Felsenstein was still working on the terminal as well, and in July, Marsh offered to pay him to develop the video portion. This was essentially a version of the terminal where the data would be supplied by the main memory of the Altair rather than a serial port.
The result was the VDM-1, the first graphics card. The VDM-1 could display 16 lines of 64 characters per line, and included the complete ASCII character set with upper- and lower-case characters and a number of graphics characters like arrows and basic math symbols. An Altair equipped with a VDM-1 for output and their 3P+S card running a keyboard for input removed the need for a terminal, yet cost less than dedicated smart terminal products like the Hazeltine.
Intelligent terminal concept
Before the VDM-1 was launched in late 1975, the only way to program the Altair was through its front-panel switches and LED lamps, or by purchasing a serial card and using a terminal of some sort. This was typically a Model 33, which still cost $1,500 if available. Normally the teletypes were not available Teletype Corporation typically sold them only to large commercial customers, which led to a thriving market for broken-down machines that could be repaired and sold into the microcomputer market. Ed Roberts, who had developed the Altair, eventually arranged a deal with Teletype to supply refurbished Model 33s to MITS customers who had bought an Altair.
Les Solomon, whose Popular Electronics magazine launched the Altair, felt a low-cost smart terminal would be highly desirable in the rapidly expanding microcomputer market. In December 1975, Solomon traveled to Phoenix to meet with Don Lancaster to ask about using his TV Typewriter as a video display in a terminal. Lancaster seemed interested, so Solomon took him to Albuquerque to meet Roberts. The two immediately began arguing when Lancaster criticized the design of the Altair and suggested changes to better support expansion cards, demands that Roberts flatly refused. Any hopes of a partnership disappeared.
Solomon then traveled to California and approached Marsh with the same idea, stating that if they could produce the design within 30 days, he would put it on the cover of the magazine. Marsh once again hired Felsenstein to design the system. As Felsenstein later noted:
Design effort
Felsenstein initially wanted to build a terminal following the model of his earlier Tom Swift design, using discrete electronics. Marsh, in parallel, sketched out a version using the Intel 8080. It quickly became apparent the difference in cost would only be about $10, and from then on the original dedicated terminal concept was dropped. Over time the plans changed, and at some point, Marsh told Felsenstein "We want you to design a computer around the VDM display."
Initially, the idea was to sell a kit system, as was common in the industry at that time. The kit concept would make it through to the release, at which time it was known as the Sol-PC. As the design process continued, at some point the decision was made to offer the system in complete form, with all the parts needed for a complete system.
Felsenstein originally thought he was only needed for the initial design, but as the physical layout began it was clear that the layout artist they had hired would not be able to do it on his own. Marsh had a woodworker friend build a large light table and Felsenstein and the layout artist began using it to design the printed circuit board for the motherboard. While Felsenstein worked on the design, Marsh continually came up with new ideas that he demanded to be included. This led to creeping featuritis problems and the final design was not delivered until about two months of "frantic" work.
The final product consisted of a single motherboard with the 8080, a simplified version of the VDM-1, serial input/output, and 1k of SRAM for the screen buffer. A ROM, the "personality module", would include the terminal driver or other code which would begin running as soon as the machine was turned on. The module was designed so it could be removed or inserted without accessing the interior of the machine.
Marsh, meanwhile, was working on the physical design. He demanded from the start that it use walnut sides; while working on the digital clock project he had learned from his woodworker friend that they could get parts for practically nothing if they were small enough to be made from off-cuts. Beyond that requirement, anything was fair. The deadline for the magazine had been pushed back, but there was still little time to finalize the layout before it needed to be photographed. Marsh decided that the machine should have a cassette deck, so they mocked up a machine with a keyboard on the left and cassette player on the right.
The first motherboard arrived 45 days after the project started, and the first cases and power supplies about 15 days after that. By this point it was clear the system was a usable microcomputer on its own, but "the decision was made to soft-pedal the fact until the last possible moment. Once published, all the fuss possible was to be made about its general-purpose nature; but until it actually saw print, it was to be treated first as a terminal."
As the machine increasingly expanded in power, Felsenstein suggested the name "Sol", because they were including "the wisdom of Solomon" in the system. Les Solomon would later quip that "if it worked, they'll say Sol means 'sun' in Spanish. If it don't work, they're gonna blame it on the Jewish guys." Stan Veit later joked to Solomon that they named it after him in another way, "the LES Intelligent Terminal".
Release
In February 1976, the first machine, a kludged-up box of parts, was readied and flown to New York to show Solomon. As he pointed out the features, Solomon asked what was stopping anyone from putting a BASIC on the personality ROM. Felsenstein, who had been told to avoid referring to it as a computer, simply replied "beats me". When they powered it up the machine would not work, displaying unreadably fuzzy images. Marsh and Felsenstein then flew to Boston to visit the offices of the newly started Byte magazine. While there, Felsenstein had time to discover the problem was a tiny bit of broken wire that got stuck under a chip, shorting out two of the video lines. They returned to Solomon's house to demonstrate the working unit.
Due to publication timelines, it did not appear in the magazine until the July 1976 issue, where it was described as "high-quality intelligent terminal". The cover image showed the mockup version; it was packaged in a slim case, not unlike the general shape of the TI-99. By the time the article appeared, the design had changed; the new design had a distinct "step" behind the keyboard that rose up over the expansion chassis and power supply at the back of the case. A bent piece of sheet steel formed most of the case, capped on the left and right by the wooden panels Marsh demanded.
The new design was first shown at the Midwest Area Computer Club conference in June 1976. The machine was not ready for sales at this point, but they did a brisk business selling their existing expansion card line. This was followed by the Personal Computing '76 (PC'76) show in late August in the dilapidated Shelburne Hotel in Atlantic City. The order book was officially opened and Sol was a huge hit at this show.
Soon after, Marsh was invited to demonstrate the Sol on NBC's The Tomorrow Show. They used a game by Steve Dompier called "Target" to show off the system's capabilities. The show's host, Tom Snyder, ended up playing the game right through the commercial breaks, and they had to force him to give up the machine in order to finish the show.
Sales
The Sol was initially offered in three versions. The base motherboard was offered as the Sol-PC, available as a kit for $575, or fully assembled and tested for $745. The Sol-10 added a case, keyboard and power supply, was $895 in kit form and $1,295 assembled. Finally the Sol-20 added a keyboard with numeric keypad, and a larger power supply to feed the five expansion slots and a fan to cool them, for $995 as a kit or $1,495 assembled. Advertising of the time referred to the Sol-20 as "The first complete small computer under $1,000". Most systems would require additional pieces, which they bundled as the "Sol Systems"; the Sol System I consisted of a Sol-20, an 8k RAM card, a PT-872 monitor and the RQ-413 Cassette Recorder, for $2,129.
In keeping with the hacker ethic, the company also offered to send out copies of the schematic for the motherboard for the cost of postage, later estimating that somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 copies were sent. Few, if any, Sol-10s were sold, and the company focused on the Sol-20. The first machines shipped in December 1976. These were also available for third-party sales, and this began the formation of a dealer network among some of the earliest computer stores. By 1977, Processor Technology had a reputation for quality and was among the best-selling computers in the world.
By this time, S-100 machines were beginning to make inroads into business markets. Processor Technology invited all of their dealers to a meeting in Emeryville, California, outside Berkeley, to introduce their Helios floppy disk drive for $1,199, along with their PTDOS system to work with it. They also promised larger memory cards and a color video card. Additionally, dealers could now order 30 days net, as opposed to cash-on-delivery, although to do so they had to put in orders at least once a quarter.
Collapse
These plans quickly fell apart. The Helios was initially based on a new mechanism from Diablo Data Systems. Diablo had been purchased by Xerox in 1972, and shortly after the Helios was announced, Xerox canceled development of the floppy line. Processor Technology selected the new Persci 270 in its place. The 270 had two drive bays operated by a single drive and voice coil head positioner, which meant a two-drive system was only slightly more complex than a single drive. This was released as the Helios II, at $1,895 for the kit or $2,295 assembled. Processor Technology moved to a much larger factory in Pleasanton, California.
It was at about this point that Radio Shack introduced the TRS-80. Like the Sol, it was a complete all-in-one machine but came with its own monitor and sold for about half the price. Moreover, it was available at hundreds of Radio Shack stores across North America. Sales of the Sol plummeted. Meanwhile, the company failed to introduce any of the other new products it mentioned, notably the color graphics card. When the Apple II appeared with color graphics, it quickly became a best seller.
To add to their woes, Processor Technology had contracted North Star Computers to write a new version of the BASIC for the Sol machines. North Star then began selling the resulting North Star BASIC to other vendors as well. Processor Technology sued North Star, claiming the contract had been exclusive. The suit dragged on, hurting both companies before Processor Technology ultimately lost. To add to the injury, North Star then released a new 5.25-inch drive for the system that sold at half the cost of the Helios. A patch that allowed CP/M to run on the new drives killed off any interest in alternatives like PTDOS, and new business applications like WordStar and Electric Pencil soon cemented CP/M as the standard operating system for all S-100 machines.
Processor Technology continued selling the Helios system and refused to consider replacing PTDOS with CP/M. Helios proved to be highly unreliable and resulted in a lawsuit by those owners that had purchased them. Meanwhile, the company introduced one of its few new products during this period, 32 and 64 KB memory cards based on dynamic RAM which was much denser than the older SRAMs. These began failing at an alarming rate, overwhelming the company's ability to repair them.
These problems caused the company to go bankrupt, and the company was eventually liquidated on 14 May 1979.
Description
From the Sol Systems Manual unless otherwise noted.
Physical layout
Looking at the Sol-20 from the front, where the operator would sit, the keyboard was in a typical location with the main QWERTY-style layout on the left and the numeric keypad on the right. The wooden sides of the case were close on either side of the keyboard, potentially interfering with the operator's hands.
On the rear right of the case (as seen from the front), directly to the rear of the numeric keypad, was the power supply, which also provided a fan to cool the circuitry. The main motherboard sat to the left of the power supply, spanning about of the case's width. The motherboard extended forward under the keyboard all the way to the front of the case.
Cassette, parallel and serial ports extended off the back of the motherboard into holes in the case. Directly below the fan, was a UHF connector that produced composite video output. This could be connected to a monitor, or with a bit of work, a conventional television. The processor was near the back of the machine, with the memory and video circuits at the front. This required the video output to be routed to the back of the machine with a coaxial cable running across the top of the card.
Sol bus
Originally, expansion was going to be handled through an external cage that connected to the main console using two 50-pin ribbon cables. The original Altair bus design lacked signal ground pins for each of its data lines, a decision that had been made in order to reduce pin count and allow it to fit into 100-pin connectors they found in surplus. This led to noisy signals as they all shared a common ground, a topic of considerable derision by many users. When the bus was extended into a ribbon cable, the resulting signals were too noisy to be useful, and Marsh demanded that there be additional ground pins spread across the cable to reduce this noise.
The Sol solved this problem by supporting only one of the two data busses at a time, allowing input or output and switching between them by signaling with the DBIN pin on the 8080. Since only one bus was being used at a time, they could share a set of eight pins, which allowed the eight formerly dedicated to the second bus to be used as ground lines instead. Ultimately, the idea of using an external chassis was dropped. By this time the decision to use the additional lines for grounds had been made, which had the desirable side-effect of making the board easier to design.
The same 50-pin concept was instead implemented in an internal expansion chassis, the Sol-BPB. This extended vertically upwards from roughly the center of the motherboard. It had five horizontal connectors, and a metal framework on either side mechanically supported the expansion cards. The chassis also had another edge connector at the top, but it is unclear whether this could be used for further expansion. The BPB retained the DBIN signaling and ground pins of the early design and this quickly became a de facto standard for S-100 cards.
This change to the bus design was contentious, as it meant cards for the Altair did not work in the Sol without some adjustments. Felsenstein noted, "I take the position that Bob made me do it, and he takes the position that history will absolve him."
Software
Three "personality modules" were released with the original systems. CONSOL provided a simple terminal emulator function, along with a small number of additional commands to load and run programs from tape using TLOAD. SOLOS added names to the files on the cassette, the TSAVE command for saving data to the tape into a named file, and TCAT to print out the details of a named program. TXEC loaded and executed a named program in one step. SOLED included block-mode editing, used on some mainframe systems, but it is not clear if this was actually available.
One commonly used software for the Sol-20 was the BASIC/5 language. This was able to run in even a minimal machine with a 4 KB expansion, but in order to fit it had only single-precision floating point numbers and lacked string variables. An Extended BASIC that ran in 8 KB added strings and other functions. Processor Technology also sold a wide variety of other programs, including many games, on cassette format for the Sol, or on punch tape for other S-100 machines.
Notes
References
Citations
Bibliography
Alt URL
External links
Sol-20, web site with may programs and information about the Sol-20.
BASIC/5, the Sol version of BASIC
Early microcomputers
S-100 machines
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Lenovo System x
System x is a line of x86 servers produced by IBM – and later by Lenovo – as a sub-brand of IBM's System brand, alongside IBM Power Systems, IBM System z and IBM System Storage. In addition, IBM System x was the main component of the IBM System Cluster 1350 solution.
In January 2014, IBM announced the sale of its x86 server business to Lenovo for $2.3 billion, in a sale completed October 1, 2014.
History
Starting out with the PS/2 Server, then the IBM PC Server, rebranded Netfinity, then eServer xSeries and finally System x, these servers are distinguished by being based on off-the-shelf x86 CPUs; IBM positioned them as their "low end" or "entry" offering compared to their POWER and Mainframe products.
Previously IBM servers based on AMD Opteron CPUs did not share the xSeries brand; instead they fell directly under the eServer umbrella. However, later AMD Opteron-based servers did fall under the System x brand.
Predecessors
IBM PS/2 Server
IBM PS/2 Server 85 (Type 9585), 1992
IBM PS/2 Server 95 (Types 8595, 9595, 9595A), 1990–1992
IBM PS/2 Server 195, 1993
IBM PS/2 Server 295, 1992
IBM PC Server
PC Server range
IBM PC Server 300, 1994
IBM PC Server 310 (PCI/ISA), 1996
IBM PC Server 315 (PCI/ISA), 1996
IBM PC Server 320 (PCI/EISA), 1996
IBM PC Server 325 (PCI/EISA), 1996
IBM PC Server 330 (PCI/EISA), 1997
IBM PC Server 500 (MCA), 1994
IBM PC Server 520 (PCI/EISA or PCI/MCA), 1995-1996
IBM PC Server 704 (PCI/EISA), 1996
IBM PC Server 720 (PCI/MCA), 1995-1996
Numbering scheme
300 range for high-volume, entry level servers
500 range for midrange
700 range for high-end.
IBM Netfinity
1998–2001 server line; Not to be confused with a software IBM product with a similar name, NetFinity (notice the capital F).
Netfinity range
IBM Netfinity 1000
IBM Netfinity 3000, 3500
IBM Netfinity 4000R, 4500R
IBM Netfinity 5000, 5100, 5500, 5500-M10, 5500-M20, 5600
IBM Netfinity 6000R
IBM Netfinity 7000, 7000-M10, 7100, 7600
IBM Netfinity 8500R
Numbering scheme
The numbering scheme started off similar to that of the IBM PC Servers, but additional ranges were added, like the entry-level 1000 model later on. Models ending with an R, are rack-mount.
KVM cabling scheme
Some Netfinity servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.
IBM eServer
IBM eServer range
IBM eServer was a marketing effort to put all of the diverse IBM server platforms under one header. The AS/400 became the IBM eServer iSeries, the RS/6000 became the IBM eServer pSeries, the S/390 mainframe became the IBM eServer zSeries and the Intel processor based IBM Netfinity servers became the IBM eServer xSeries.
A few exceptions were however made
IBM eServer 325, 326, 326m
IBM eServer BladeCenter, BladeCenter T, BladeCenter H, BladeCenter HT
Numbering scheme
For marketing reasons the AMD processor based e325, e326 and e326m and the BladeCenter which supports non-Intel processor products were not branded xSeries, but were instead placed directly under the eServer brand. The xSeries brand was limited to only Intel-based server products.
From a numbering perspective the AMD servers did fit into the xSeries range, under the similar x335 and x336 Intel processor products. These numbers were not re-used in the xSeries range to prevent confusion.
IBM eServer xSeries
While most servers used Intel x86 (IA32) processors, the x380, x382, x450 and x455 used the Intel Itanium (IA64) processor.
xSeries range
IBM eServer xSeries 100, 130, 135, 150
IBM eServer xSeries 200, 205, 206, 206m, 220, 225, 226, 230, 232, 235, 236, 240, 250, 255, 260
IBM eServer xSeries 300, 305, 306, 306m, 330, 335, 336, 340, 342, 345, 346, 350, 360, 365, 366, 370, 380, 382
IBM eServer xSeries 440, 445, 450, 455, 460
Numbering scheme
100 series are entry-level tower servers
200 series are tower servers
300 series are rack-mount servers
400 series are rack-mount scalable servers
KVM cabling scheme
Many xSeries servers used IBM's C2T cabling scheme for Keyboard/Video/Mouse.
System x
IBM System x range
IBM System x3105, x3100, x3100 M3, x3100 M4, x3100 M5
IBM System x3200, x3200 M2, x3200 M3, x3250, x3250 M2, x3250 M3, x3250 M4, x3250 M5, x3250 M6
IBM System x3300 M3, x3300 M4
IBM System x3350
IBM System x3400, x3400 M2, x3400 M3, x3450, x3455
IBM System x3500, x3500 M2, x3500 M3, x3500 M4
IBM System x3530 M3, x3530 M4
IBM System x3550, x3550 M2, x3550 M3, x3550 M4, x3550 M5
IBM System x3620 M3
IBM System x3630 M3, x3630 M4
IBM System x3650, x3650T, x3655, x3650 M2, x3650 M3, x3650 M4, x3650 M4 HD, x3650 M4 BD, 3650 M5
IBM System x3690 X5
IBM System x3750 M4
IBM System x3755, x3755 M3
IBM System x3800, x3850, x3850 M2, x3850 X5, x3850 X6
IBM System x3950, x3950 M2, x3950 X5, x3950 X6
Lenovo System x range
These systems are effectively the same as the previous IBM branded models, but with a Lenovo badge.
Lenovo System x3100 M5
Lenovo System x3250 M5, x3250 M6
Lenovo System x3500 M5
Lenovo System x3550 M4, x3550 M5
Lenovo System x3650 M4, x3650 M5
Lenovo System x3850 X6
Lenovo System x3950 X6
Lenovo NextScale
Lenovo FlexSystem
Lenovo also had its own ThinkServer family of Intel servers. This family is technically less advanced than System x. At the time of this writing, System x is being discontinued and replaced by the Lenovo ThinkSystem family of Intel servers.
Enterprise eX5 architecture
Enterprise X4 architecture
Numbering scheme
2nd digit increments to show capability
3rd digit is a 0 for tower models, and 5 for rack-mount
4th digit is a 0 for Intel processors, and 5 for AMD Opteron.
Models with a T at the end are meant for Telco purposes.
IBM iDataPlex
IBM System x iDataPlex, introduced in 2008, was used by many TOP500 supercomputers (as part of IBM Intelligent Cluster), including SuperMUC, Yellowstone and Stampede. Other smaller installations included SciNet Consortium's General Purpose Cluster
It is an unusual form-factor in that you have two columns of 19" rack servers side-by-side in a single rack. This rack, unlike traditional racks, however was very shallow which is where the space saving came from for large installations. As such it only supports specially designed shallow servers. It was typically deployed in combination with a Rear Door Heat Exchanger (RDHx) to cool the exhaust heat with water.
It was replaced with IBM NeXtScale in 2014.
Components
iDataPlex could be ordered as preconfigured rack tower (System x iDataPlex Rack with optional Rack management appliance), or as independent nodes.
Rack
iDataPlex 100U rack — compact dual rack ((1200x600mm footprint — instead of standard 1280x1050 (2x 42U rack))
Chassis
System x iDataPlex 2U Flex chassis
System x iDataPlex 3U Flex chassis — same as 2U with another coolers and additional storage.
Chassis also compatible with standard racks (with another rails).
Nodes
1U blade servers.
System x iDataPlex dx320 — 20??
System x iDataPlex dx340 — 20??
System x iDataPlex dx360 M1 — 2008,
System x iDataPlex dx360 M2 — 2009,
System x iDataPlex dx360 M3 — 201?,
System x iDataPlex dx360 M4 — 2013,
See also
List of IBM products
iDataCool — watercooled version of iDataPlex
References
System x
Divested IBM products
System x | laptop Build Quality | 0.304 | 14,444 |
Hauppauge Computer Works
Hauppauge Computer Works ( ) is a US manufacturer and marketer of electronic video hardware for personal computers. Although it is most widely known for its WinTV line of TV tuner cards for PCs, Hauppauge also produces personal video recorders, digital video editors, digital media players, hybrid video recorders and digital television products for both Windows and Mac. The company is named after the hamlet of Hauppauge, New York, in which it is based.
In addition to its headquarters in New York, Hauppauge also has sales and technical support offices in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Spain and the UK.
Company history
Hauppauge was co-founded by Kenneth Plotkin and Kenneth Aupperle, and became incorporated in 1982.
Starting in 1983, the company followed Microway, the company that a year earlier provided the software needed by scientists and engineers to modify the IBM PC Fortran compiler so that it could transparently employ Intel 8087 coprocessors. The 80-bit Intel 8087 math coprocessor ran a factor of 50 faster than the 8/16-bit 8088 CPU that the IBM PC software came with. However, in 1982, the speed-up in floating-point-intensive applications was only a factor of 10 as the initial software developed by Microway and Hauppauge continued to call floating point libraries to do computations instead of placing inline x87 instructions inline with the 8088's instructions that allowed the 8088 to drive the 8087 directly. By 1984, inline compilers made their way into the market providing increased speed ups. Hauppauge provided similar software products in competition with Microway that they bundled with math coprocessors and remained in the Intel math coprocessor business until 1993 when the Intel Pentium came out with a built-in math coprocessor. However, like other companies that entered the math coprocessor business, Hauppauge produced other products that contributed to a field that is today called HPC - high-performance computing.
The math coprocessor business rapidly expanded starting in 1984 with software products that accelerated applications like Lotus 1-2-3. At the same time the advent of the 80286 based IBM PC/AT with its 80287 math coprocessor provided new opportunities for companies that had grown up selling 8087s and supporting software. This included products like Hauppauge's 287 Fast/5, a product that took advantage of the 80287's design that used an asynchronous clock to drive its FPU at 5 MHz instead of the 4 MHz clocking provided by IBM, making it possible for the 80287s that came with the AT to be overclocked to 12 MHz.
By 1987, math coprocessors had become Intel's most profitable product line bringing in competition from vendors like Cyrix whose first product was a math coprocessor faster than the new Intel 80387, but whose speed was stalled by the 80386 that acted as a governor. This is when Andy Grove decided it was time for Intel to recapture its channel to market opening up a division to compete with its math coprocessor customers that by this time included 47th Street Camera. The new Intel division, PCEO (the PC Enhancement Operation) came out with a product called "Genuine Intel Math Coprocessors". After playing around in the accelerator board business PCEO would settle down in the 80386 motherboard business originally selling a motherboard designed by one of its engineers as a home project that eventually ended up with a new division that today sells 40% of the motherboards used in high end PCs that find their way into products including Supercomputers, medical products, etc.
Companies like Hauppauge and Microway that were impacted by their new competitor that made their living accelerating floating point applications being run on PCs followed suit by venturing into the Intel i860 vector coprocessor business: Hauppauge came out with an Intel 80486 motherboard that included an Intel i860 vector processor while Microway came out with add-in cards that had between one or more i860s. These products along with transputer-based add-in cards would eventually lead into what became known as HPC (high performance computing). HPC was actually initiated in 1986 by an English company, Inmos, that designed a CPU competitive with an Intel 80386/387 that also included four twisted pair high-speed interconnects that could communicate with other transputers and be linked to a PC motherboard making it possible to create distributed memory processing computers that could employ 32 processors with the same throughput as 32 Intel 386/387s operating in a single PC. The add-in card parallel processing business morphed from the transputer to the Intel i860 around 1989 when Inmos was purchased by STMicroelectronics that cut R&D funding eventually forcing companies that had entered the parallel processing business to shift to the Intel i860. The i860 was a vector processor with graphics extensions that could initially provide 50 megaflops of throughput in an era when an 80486 with an Intel 80487 peaked at half a megaflop and would eventually top out at 100 Megaflops making it as fast as 100 Inmos T414 transputers. Intel i860 add-in cards made it possible for as many as 20 Intel i860s to run in parallel and could be programmed using a software library similar to today's MPI libraries which today support distributed memory parallel processing in which servers sitting in 1U rack mount chassis that are essentially PCs provide the horsepower behind the majority of the world's supercomputers. This same approach could be employed using Hauppauge's motherboards connected by Gigabit Ethernet, something that was however first demonstrated using a wall of IBM RS/6000 PCs at the 1991 Supercomputing Conference. IBM's lead was quickly followed by academic users who realized they could do the same thing with much less expensive hardware by adapting their x86 PCs to run in parallel at first using a software library adapted from similar transputer libraries called PVM (parallel virtual machines) that would eventually morph into today's MPI. Products like the Intel i860 vector processor that could be employed both as a vector and graphics processor were end of life'd around 1993 at the same time that Intel introduced the Intel Pentium P5: a CISC processor that used CISC instructions that were pipelined into hard coded lower level RISC like primitives that provided the Pentium with a Superscalar architecture that also could execute the x87 FPU instruction set using a built in FPU that was essentially implemented using the scalar instructions of the i860 as well as a memory bus that provided a 400 MB/sec interface to memory that was borrowed from the i860 as well. This high speed bus played a crucial role in speeding up the most common floating point intensive applications that at this point in time used Gauss Elimination to solve simultaneous linear equations buy which today are solved using blocking and LU decomposition. The Intel Pentium, while good, did not provide enough floating point performance to compete with a 300 MHz DEC Alpha 21164 that provided 600 Megaflops in 1995. At the same point in time, Intel supercomputing had moved from the 50 MHz Intel i860XP that was six times slower than the Alpha 21164 to the special version of their Pentium that at 200 megaflops was only three times slower than the 21164. However, the impending speed upgrade of the Alpha to 600 MHz ultimately doomed the future of Intel supercomputing.
Motherboards
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hauppauge produced motherboards for Intel 486 processors. A number of these motherboards were standard ISA built to fairly competitive price points. Some, however, were workstation and server-oriented, including EISA support, optional cache memory modules, and support for the Weitek 4167 FPU.
Hauppauge also sold a unique motherboard, the Hauppauge 4860. This was the only standard PC/AT motherboard ever made with both an Intel 80486 and an Intel i860 processor (optional). While both required the 80486, the i860 could either run an independent lightweight operating system or serve as a more conventional co-processor.
Hauppauge no longer produces motherboards, focusing instead on the TV card market.
Product lines
Digital Terrestrial/Satellite
Hauppauge digital terrestrial and satellite products capture DVB-T and DVB-S broadcasts respectively without the need to re-encode the streams. There are several benefits from this approach:
the cost of the TV card can be lower because there is no need to supply an MPEG-2 encoder
the quality of captures can be higher because there is no need to re-encode streams
ratio of file size to quality is higher due to the broadcasters' high-efficiency encoders
Until August 2004 all of Hauppauge's DVB products were badge-engineered TechnoTrend products. The first of the new Hauppauge-designed cards was the Nova-t PCI 90002 and the silent replacement of the TechnoTrend model caused confusion and anger among Hauppauge's customers who found that the new card didn't support TechnoTrend's proprietary interfaces. This rendered any existing third-party software unusable with the new cards. The new cards also came with a software packaged called WinTV2000 which lacked features that TechnoTrend's software had including seven-day EPG, Digital Teletext and LCN-based channel ordering. The new cards supported Microsoft's BDA standard but at the time this was at its infancy and very few 3rd party applications included support for it.
By 2005, all of the TechnoTrend products had been removed from the Hauppauge lineup, with the exception of the DEC2000-t and DEC3000-s which haven't seen a replacement.
Hybrid Video Recorders
The Hybrid Video Recorder (HVR) range capture a combination of different broadcast types. The majority of Hauppauge HVR models capture analogue PAL and DVB-T but there have been some more recent models which capture analogue NTSC and ATSC as well as a tri-mode card which supports analogue PAL, DVB-S and DVB-T.
HVR-9xx devices are bus-powered USB 2.0 sticks, not much larger than a USB flash drive. They have support for analogue and digital terrestrial TV. The HVR-9xx sticks are produced in Taiwan by Deltron, and are also sold for Apple computers by Elgato under the EyeTV brand.
HVR-1xxx devices are PCI-based products that receive analogue and digital terrestrial TV. They are similar to the HVR-9xx but have support for NICAM or dbx Stereo for analogue terrestrial on all models.
HVR-3xxx and 4xxx devices are tri-mode and quad-mode devices respectively. Tri-mode means support for analogue terrestrial/cable, digital terrestrial and DVB-S digital satellite. Quad-mode devices additionally support DVB-S2 HD digital satellite. The HVR-4000 marks a change in bundled applications in that instead of using Hauppauge's WinTV2000 package, it ships with Cyberlink PowerCinema.
Personal Video Recorders
The Personal Video Recorder (PVR) range uses an on-board MPEG/MPEG-2 encoder to compress the incoming analogue TV signals. The benefits of using a hardware encoder include lower CPU usage when encoding live TV.
The first WinTV-PVR product was the WinTV PVR-PCI, launched in late 2000 and not receiving any driver updates since February 2002. It was joined by the WinTV PVR-USB, which has two variants. The first variant supported MPEG-2 streams up to 6 Mbit/s and supported Half-D1 resolutions (320 × 480). This was replaced by an updated model supporting up to 12 Mbit/s streams and Full-D1 resolution (720 × 480).
The first WinTV-PVR to gain popularity was the PVR-250. The original version of the PVR-250 was a variant of the Sag Harbor (PVR-350) which used the ivac15 chipset. Although the chipset was able to do hardware decoding the video out components were not included on the card. In later versions of the PVR-250 the ivac15 was replaced with the ivac16 to reduce cost and to relieve heat issues. The PVR-250 and PVR-350 were joined by the USB 2.0 PVR-USB2 to complete their generation of devices.
Their successors, the PVR-150 and PVR-500, were released alongside the PVR-250/350/USB2 and while popular with both OEMs and the general public, there have been numerous driver issues as well as video quality complaints. The PVR-500 was released as a Media Center card and wasn't supplied with Hauppauge's WinTV2000 software. It was effectively two PVR-150s on a single board, connected via a PCI-PCI bridge chip. The PVR-USB2 was silently replaced with the PVR-USB2+ which is identical both visually and terms of features, but uses a Conexant chipset rather than the Philips chipset in the old model.
From its name and time of release, the PVR-160 appears to be newer than the PVR-150 but it is not. The PVR-160 is a repackaging of the WinTV Roslyn. The Roslyn is based on the Conexant Blackbird design and uses the CX2388x video decoder. This board was originally available only to OEMs and third-party software vendors such as Frey Technologies (SageTV) and Snapstream (BeyondTV). The board was sold under many names including the PVR-250BTV (Snapstream). This card is known to have color and brightness issues that can be corrected somewhat using registry hacks. Hauppauge received a large surplus amount of these cards from OEM and third-party vendors. The cards were repackaged with an MCE remote and receiver and rebranded the PVR-160. The PVR-160 was often mistakenly referred to as the PVR-250MCE but is not related to the PVR-250.
High-Definition Personal Video Recorder
In May 2008, Hauppauge released the HD-PVR, a USB 2.0 device with an on-board H.264 hardware encoder for recording from high-definition sources through component inputs. It is the world's first USB device that can capture in high definition. The HD-PVR has proved to be a very popular device, and Hauppauge has been updating its drivers and software continually since its release. In addition to being able to capture from any component video source in 480p, 720p, or 1080i, the HD-PVR comes with an IR blaster that communicates with your cable or satellite set-top box for automated program recordings and channel-changing capabilities. In 2012, Hauppauge released the HD-PVR Gaming Edition 2, which features a much smaller design than its predecessor along with 1080p HDMI support. The PVR is not officially supported on Macintosh systems, but a variety of third-party programs exist that allow it to function on OS X, including EyeTV by Elgato and HDPVRCapture. In 2013, Hauppauge released an upgrade for the existing HD-PVR 2 with the HD-PVR 2 Gaming Edition Plus, which supports Macintosh systems.
WinTV Analogue
The standard analogue range of products use software encoding for recording analogue TV. The more recent Hauppauge cards use SoftPVR, which allows MPEG and MPEG-2 encoding in software provided that a sufficiently fast CPU is installed in the system.
MediaMVP
The MediaMVP is a thin client device that displays music, video and pictures (hence "MVP") on a television. It is based on an IBM PowerPC RISC processor specialized for multimedia decoding. The operating system is a form of Linux, and everything (including the menus) is served to the device via ethernet or, on newer devices, 802.11g wireless LAN from the server PC.
Various open source software products can use the device as a front-end. An example is MVPMC, which allows the MediaMVP to be used as a front-end for MythTV or ReplayTV.
Table of products
WinTV software
Hauppauge's principal software offering is WinTV, a TV tuning, viewing, and recording application supplied on a CD-ROM included with tuner hardware. A previous version was called WinTV2000 (WinTV32 without skins). It had companion applications, including WinTV Scheduler, which performs timed recordings, and WinTV Radio, which receives FM radio. It was modified towards a service-based software package, with card management and recordings taken care of by the "TV Server" service and EPG data collection by the "EPG Service", allowing WinTV2000 to work with multiple Hauppauge tuners in the same PC.
In 2007 Hauppauge launched WinTV Version 6, followed in 2009 by WinTV7. WinTV8 was current . WinTV updates are available without charge to Hauppauge tuner users (major updates require access to a qualifying earlier WinTV installation CD, e.g. WinTV8 requires a CD not earlier than WinTV7). An option available at extra cost, WinTV Extend, allows TV to be streamed over the Internet to several portable devices such as smartphones, and PCs.
Wing
"Wing", a supplemental software application from Hauppauge, allows the company's PVR products to convert MPEG recordings into formats suitable for playback on the Apple iPod, Sony PSP or a DivX player; it converts MPEG-2 videos into H.264, MPEG-4 and DivX.
Third-party software
Third-party programs which support Hauppauge tuners include: GB-PVR, InterVideo WinDVR, Snapstream's Beyond TV, SageTV, Windows Media Center and the Linux-based MythTV.
Linux
Hauppauge offers limited support for Linux, with Ubuntu repositories and firmware downloads available on its website. There are drivers available from non-Hauppauge sources for most of the company's cards (in IVTV and LinuxTV). It appears that some of these drivers (Nova and HVR) are written by a Hauppauge engineer.
The PVR-150 captures video on Linux, but there are reportedly difficulties getting the remote control and IR blaster to work. Also, a January 2007 product substitution of HVR-1600 in PVR-150 retail boxes forced many Linux users to exchange their purchases because the Linux driver has not been updated for the HVR-1600.
SageTV Media Center for Linux supports PVR-150, PVR-250, PVR-350, PVR-500 and MediaMVP.
For ATSC and DVB applications, a list of Linux supported Hauppauge and other makes of TV cards can be found on the LinuxTVWiki page (see "Supported Hardware" section).
External links
Hauppauge UK
Hauppauge UK Support Forum
PCTV Systems
SageTV (a vendor of products based on Hauppauge hardware)
SHS-PVR Unofficial WinTV-PVR & MediaMVP forums
usbvision (partially functional Linux driver for WinTV-USB)
The Hauppauge 4860 Motherboard in Detail
WinTV-PVR Family Identification
References
1983 establishments in New York (state)
American companies established in 1983
Digital video recorders
Islip (town), New York
Smithtown, New York | laptop Build Quality | 0.304 | 14,445 |
PC12 minicomputer
PC12 by Artronix was a minicomputer built with 7400-series TTL technology and ferrite core memory. Computers were manufactured at the Artronix facility in suburban St. Louis, Missouri.
The instruction set architecture was adapted from the LINC, the only significant change was to
expand addressable memory to 4K, which required addition of an origin register. It was an accumulator machine with 12-bit addresses to manipulate 12-bit data. Later versions included "origin registers" that were used to extend the addressability of memory. Arithmetic was one's complement.
For mass storage it had a LINCtape dual unit. It also used a Tektronix screen with tube memory and an ADC/DAC to capture and display images. There was an optional plotter to draw the results. To speed up the calculations it had a separate floating point unit that interfaced like any other peripheral.
It ran an operating system LAP6-PC with support for assembly language and Fortran programming and usually came with end user software for Radiation Treatment Planning (RTP), for use by a radiation therapist or radiation oncologist, and Hospital Patient Records. Software for implant dosimetry was available for the PC12. With extended hardware it became a multiuser system running MUMPS.
Latter additions included an 8" floppy disk and hard disk of larger capacity.
The PC12 initially controlled the Artronix brain scanner (computed axial tomography), but this was for prototyping.
The PC12 was also the core of an ultrasound system and a gamma camera system.
The PC12 was eventually superseded by the "Modulex" system built by Artronix around the 16-bit Lockheed SUE processor, roughly around 1976. The PC12 continued in production, but was phased out over time.
Sites which used the Artronix PC12 included the Lutheran Hospital Cancer Center in Moline, Illinois, where it was used to store the medical records of patients undergoing treatment for cancer. A 1974 paper describes the use of a PC-12 as a frontend to an IBM 360 mainframe in radiation therapy, in which the PC-12 acted as the user interface while the mainframe is used to perform complex calculations.
References
External links
Minicomputers | laptop Build Quality | 0.304 | 14,446 |
ThinkPad Tablet
The ThinkPad Tablet is a tablet computer made by Lenovo as part of its series of Android-based tablet devices and is targeted towards business users. Lenovo's tablet offerings are available in both ThinkPad and IdeaPad variants. While the ThinkPad Tablets are designed for business, the IdeaPad tablets, like the laptops of the same name, are meant for home and personal use. These tablets are different from Lenovo's X Series tablets, which are laptop/tablet hybrids and which use Microsoft Windows as their operating system.
Description
Released in August 2011, the ThinkPad Tablet is the first in Lenovo's line of business-oriented Tablets with the ThinkPad brand. The tablet has been described by Gadget Mix as a premium business tablet. Since the Tablet is primarily business-oriented, it includes features for security, such as anti-theft software, the ability to remotely disable the tablet, SD card encryption, layered data encryption, and Cisco Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Additionally, the ThinkPad Tablet is able to run software such as IBM's Lotus Notes Traveler. The stylus could be used to write notes on the Tablet, which also included software to convert this handwritten content to text. Another feature on the Tablet was a drag-and-drop utility designed to take advantage of the Tablet's touch capabilities. This feature could be used to transfer data between USB devices, internal storage, or an SD card.
Slashgear summarized the ThinkPad Tablet by saying, "The stylus and the styling add up to a distinctive slate that doesn’t merely attempt to ape Apple’s iPad."
The ThinkPad Tablet was discontinued upon the launch of the Windows 8-based ThinkPad Tablet 2 in October 2012. At the same time, Lenovo discontinued the use of Android on its ThinkPad-branded tablets; subsequent models, beginning with the Tablet 2, have exclusively used Windows as their operating system.
Design and development
David Hill of Lenovo said he believed the ThinkPad Tablet to be "the weapon of choice for business success". In his article on the development of the Tablet, he indicated that every design detail was subjected to multiple design reviews, including basic elements such as the placement of the logo.
Digitizer pen
A challenge was indicated to be designing and integrating a digitizer pen into the Tablet, which already had a "crowded interior". This required a study of pen barrel diameter and the balancing of batteries, digitizer technology components, ergonomics, and storage space constraints for the pen itself. Additionally, dowel rods were used for diameter studies and sharpened pencils were used to study the appropriate length with users. The final pen developed based on this was 120 mm long.
Folio keyboard
The ThinkPad Tablet was launched with an optional, dedicated . The folio offered a Lenovo keyboard and an optical trackpoint. The presence of this folio was appreciated by PC World as well, with the reviewer calling the folio the Tablet's best feature.
The folio was designed to offer users of the ThinkPad Tablet a typing experience similar to that of a ThinkPad laptop, as well as cursor control. The full-size keyboard on the folio reputedly offered users the same typing experience as that of the ThinkPad X1. Using a standard strain gauge based TrackPoint would have increased the folio thickness, making it necessary for innovation in the implementation of cursor control. Optical sensor technology was chosen for this, providing capabilities for traditional TrackPoint placement as well as the familiarity of a Touchpad.
ThinkPad Tablet Dock
The ThinkPad tablet dock is useful to charge the tablet. It only supports the tablet in vertical mode.
On the back side there in audio output port, microphone input port, a micro USB port and support for the Thinkpad 20V power adapter. On its side it has a full size USB port.
Security
According to Lenovo, eight major security vulnerabilities typical for tablet devices have been addressed in the ThinkPad Tablet. These are:
Encryption: The ThinkPad Tablet's internal storage device and removable SD card are encrypted via functionality built into the Android OS used on the tablet.
Anti-malware: The ThinkPad Tablet offers McAfee anti-malware preloaded, with options to upgrade to a corporate managed anti-malware solution.
Data Leakage: Features on the Tablet allow the USB ports, SD card slot, camera and microphone to be disabled and controlled by an IT administrator. The Tablet is certified by Good Technology, which encrypts email as well and prevents email data from being copied from the Tablet.
User authentication: In addition to Android's support for a user-defined PIN password, the ThinkPad Tablet also includes the capacity to lock the Tablet using Active Directory credentials.
Application control: Lenovo offers preloaded images on the ThinkPad Tablet, allowing users to customize the applications on the Tablet. Additionally, IT departments can create customized App Shops to restrict the applications that can be downloaded and installed to the Tablet. The Tablet also included Citrix receiver, which allows businesses to host and run applications on their own servers.
Anti-theft and recovery: The ThinkPad Tablet includes Absolute Computrace with Persistence, allowing Tablet data to be remotely wiped in case of loss or theft.
Rooted device detection: The ThinkPad Tablet automatically detects if it has been rooted, sending a report to a company's IT department. This allows an IT department to determine if the Tablet should be retrieved from the user or if access to resources should be restricted.
Business-grade features
According to Matt Kohut, the ThinkPad Tablet is the industry's first business-class Tablet because Lenovo is "the only vendor who can provide a full suite of services to make our customers more productive and secure." He substantiated this by discussing the warranty on the ThinkPad Tablet, ThinkPad Protection, custom 'images' and asset tags.
The warranty on the ThinkPad Tablet was a standard one year which could be upgraded to three years. This was indicated as being different from other Tablet warranties, which were anywhere between 90 days and a maximum of two years. ThinkPad Protection was described as being a method to protect the Tablet against common accidents. Again, Matt Kohut claimed that accidental damage protection was not on offer by many leading Tablet vendors, even at additional cost.
The custom image allowed businesses to deploy Tablets that adhere to company security policies and with company applications preloaded. Finally, custom asset tags were also available and designed to attach to the bottom of the Tablet.
Specifications
The ThinkPad Tablet offered the following specifications:
Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual-Core 1 GHz processor
Operating system: Android 3.1 (Upgradable to 4.0)
Display: 10.1 inch, 1280x800, 16:10, IPS, multitouch display screen
Weight: starting at
Battery life: up to 8 hours
Storage: up to 64GB storage
Connectivity: Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G
Ports: USB 2.0, micro-USB, mini-HDMI
Speakers and Connectors: SD card reader, Mini-HDMI out, SIM card slot (on selected models), mic, headphone
Card reader: 3 in 1
Camera: 2 megapixel (front), 5 megapixel (rear)
Additional features: accelerometer, gyroscope, ambient light sensor
Reviews
In its review, PC World listed the pros of the ThinkPad Tablet as the full size USB port and SD card slot, the optional keyboard portfolio carry case, and the digitizer pen. The cons were listed as the thickness (14mm) and the bland design.
The Tablet was described as serving "both work and play with key security and manageability features". The Corning Gorilla glass display uses IPS (in-plane switching) technology and offers a 178-degree viewing angle.
Locked bootloader
Some models of this tablet came with a locked bootloader. This means if the Android software and Recovery Menu fails, the tablet will brick with a software error without a way to recovering it. The only solution Lenovo offers is to replace the motherboard of the tablet. Lenovo has explained that this happens because the tablet contains DRM protected software and Lenovo proprietary code on the Android image.
Hardware issues
Users on different forums have reported that the following hardware components on this tablet are prone to failure:
The on/off switch.
The micro-USB port.
References
External links
Official website
Lenovo
Tablet computers introduced in 2011
Android (operating system) devices
Tablet computers | laptop Build Quality | 0.303 | 14,447 |
Sony Vaio C1 series
The Vaio C1 PictureBook series is a series of subnotebooks from Sony's Vaio brand, branded 'Picturebook' for its webcam and video capture capabilities. It was first released on September 19, 1998, in Japan only.
The first model, the PCG-C1, featured a Mobile Pentium MMX 233MHz CPU, integrated modem, 3.2GB hard disk, 64MB of RAM, an ultra-wide 8.9" 1024x480 TFT display, and a 0.27MP webcam. Windows 98 was installed. Subsequent revisions improved the resolution, CPU, RAM and hard drive. PictureBooks were lightweight computers, weighing 1kg.
The successor model, the PCG-C1X, came with an upgraded 266MHz CPU and 8.1GB hard drive. This model was the first one available in the U.S.
Also the PCG-C1F, the PCG-C1R and the PCG-C1S had the same hardware, but they are localized for the U.K. and the later 2 for Japan.
Further models were:
PCG-C1XN - 12GB hard drive, 64MB RAM, 233MHz Intel Celeron, Windows 98 (January 2000).
PCG-C1XS - 12GB hard drive, 64MB RAM, 400MHz Pentium 2, Windows 98 (January 2000).
PCG-C1XD - Same as the C1XS, but with German localization.
PCG-C1VN - first machine with Transmeta Crusoe CPU - TM5600 600MHz CPU, 128MB RAM, 12GB hard drive, ATI Rage Mobility 8MB, Windows ME (September 2000)
PCG-C1VE - same as C1VN (September 2000)
PCG-C1VP - same as C1VN, except Crusoe TM5600 667MHz CPU, 15GB hard drive, Windows 2000 Professional option (March 2001)
PCG-C1VFK - same as C1VP, First Model with integrated Bluetooth 1.0 Adapter, Windows 2000 Pro (March 2001)
PCG-C1VSX - same as C1VP, except choice of 15 or 30GB hard drive, no external monitor support and Bluetooth 1.0 and Windows 2000 Pro only
PCG-C1VS/BW - same as C1VSX, except Crusoe 600MHz, 15GB hard drive, included PC Card CD-RW drive, support for external monitors, no Bluetooth and Windows ME only with Office XP preinstalled
PCG-C1MV - Crusoe TM5800 733MHz CPU, 256MB RAM, 20GB hard drive, ATI Mobility Radeon M 8MB, updated 1280x600 resolution, Windows XP Home or Professional (September 2001) -
PCG-C1MW - same as C1MV, but with Crusoe 867MHz and 30GB hard drive (August 2002)
PCG-C1MGP - Same as C1MV, but with 30GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth 1.1, Windows XP Pro
PCG-C1MRX - Same as C1MV, but with 30GB hard drive, built-in Bluetooth 1.1, bundled 802.11b Wi-Fi PC card and XP Home only
PCG-C1MR/BP - Same as C1MRX, but with Crusoe TM5600 667MHz CPU, 128MB memory, 20GB hard drive and forgoes the built-in Bluetooth and bundled Wi-Fi card.
PCG-C1MSX - Same as C1MW, but with Japanese localization.
PCG-C1MHP - Same as C1MW, but with European localization.
PCG-C1MZX - Same as C1MSX, but with Crusoe 933MHz. This was the last and most powerful model of the C1 series, and it was available only in Japan.
References
C1
Computer-related introductions in 1998 | laptop Build Quality | 0.303 | 14,448 |
Samsung Series 7 Slate (XE700T1A)
The Samsung Series 7 Slate, XE700T1A, is a tablet manufactured by Samsung. The Slate 7 was announced on August 31, 2011, incorporates a dual-core 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5-2467M (Sandy Bridge) processor, and runs the Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional operating system.
Hardware
The Samsung Series 7 Slate is built using a mixture of plastic and glass. A micro HDMI port, MicroSD slot, and a full-size USB 2.0 port are incorporated into the design, as well as a volume rocker, power button, rotation lock, headphone jack and charging port located on the sides. A physical home button is located directly below the screen. A dock connector is located on the bottom. The Series 7 Slate uses a PLS display at a resolution of 1366x768. The tablet is available with either 64 or 128 GB of internal storage which is expandable via an external microSD card.
Reception
Engadget praised the Series 7 Slate's bright display and responsive touchscreen. It was also said that there are useful accessories - a stylus, bluetooth keyboard and a dock with two USB 2.0, ethernet, full HDMI port and headphone jack. Overall the device is one of the best Windows 7 tablets around.
Samsung Windows Developer Preview PC
Microsoft during its BUILD 2011 conference announced that it's giving away 5,000 Samsung-built developer "PCs" to attendees, with AT&T's 3G service. Each of the 5,000 attendees of Microsoft's getting a 700T Windows Developer Preview tablet PC and Bluetooth keyboard combo loaded with the Developer Preview of Windows 8 (8012.winmain_win8m3) and different UEFI. Although the device was claimed to be a prototype, was near identical (with hardware differences) to the production-version of the Samsung Series 7 Slate PC model 700T1A. It is also the same secret device shown off at TechEd New Zealand earlier in 2011.
References
Series 7 Slate
Tablet computers
Tablet computers introduced in 2011 | laptop Build Quality | 0.303 | 14,449 |
Digital Personal Workstation
The Digital Personal Workstation, code named "sports car", is a family of entry-level to mid-range workstation computers developed and manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). These workstations are based on the DEC Alpha and Intel Pentium Pro or Pentium II microprocessors. Members of this family can run the Digital UNIX, OpenVMS, and Windows NT operating systems.
The i-Series, based on Pentium Pro, was introduced first, on September 23, 1996.
i-Series
The Digital Personal Workstation i-Series is based on the Intel Pentium Pro or Pentium II microprocessor and runs Windows NT.
Models include the:
180i - 180 MHz Pentium Pro, introduced on September 23, 1996
200i - 200 MHz Pentium Pro, introduced on September 23, 1996
200i² - 200 MHz Pentium Pro, introduced on September 23, 1996
266i - 266 MHz Pentium II
300i - 300 MHz Pentium II
350i - 350 MHz Pentium II
400i - 400 MHz Pentium II
266i+ - 266 MHz Pentium II
300i+ - 300 MHz Pentium II
333i+ - 333 MHz Pentium II
These workstations support either one or two microprocessors and use standard Intel chipsets: Pentium Pro models use the Intel 440FX, Pentium II models suffixed with "i" use the Intel 440BX whereas ones suffixed with "i+" use the Intel 440LX. A superscript "2" suffix indicates a dual processor configuration.
The i-Series has four DIMM slots on its main logic board and supports standard unbuffered or registered 100 MHz ECC SDRAM DIMMs. Using unbuffered memory, the i-Series can support 32 to 512 MB of memory, with registered memory, 64 MB to 1 GB is supported. Unbuffered and registered DIMMs cannot be mixed in the same system. Unbuffered DIMMs have capacities of 32, 64 and 128 MB, whereas registered DIMMs have capacities of 64, 128 and 256 MB.
a-Series
The Digital Personal Workstation a-Series, code named "Miata", uses the Alpha 21164A microprocessor. Models suffixed with "a" run Windows NT (with AlphaBIOS) as shipped, whereas models suffixed with "au" run Digital UNIX or OpenVMS (with SRM). Both models can be switched between AlphaBIOS and SRM via the system firmware. At COMDEX 1997, the Digital Personal Workstation 500a was a finalist in Byte magazine's Best of Show award for the best workstation category.
Models included the:
433a/433au - 433 MHz Alpha 21164A
500a/500au - 500 MHz Alpha 21164A
600a/600au - 600 MHz Alpha 21164A
The Alpha microprocessor is socketed in a zero insertion force (ZIF) socket and can be upgraded. These workstations use Digital's 21174 chipset, also known as the "Pyxis" chipset. To increase flexibility and to reduce cost, the L3 cache is optional in these models. If the L3 cache is required, a cache module that contained the SRAMs which implemented the cache can be installed into a cache slot. The cache module has two capacities: 2 or 4 MB.
Two revisions of the Miata motherboard were produced, known as MX5 and MiataGL respectively. The later MiataGL motherboard has a revised Pyxis chipset (which fixes a PCI DMA bug), a different ATA controller, an on-board QLogic 1040 SCSI host adapter, and a USB interface.
The a-Series has a 144-bit memory bus, with 128 bits used for data and 16 bits for ECC. There are three memory banks, each consisting of two DIMM slots, for a total of six DIMM slots, which supports 32 MB to 1.5 GB of memory. These machines accept standard unbuffered only PC100 ECC SDRAM DIMMs with a maximum capacity of 256 MB per DIMM, which must be installed in identical pairs in order to match the width of the memory bus.
References
Weiss, Kenneth M.; House, Kenneth A. (1997). "Digital Personal Workstations: The design of high-performance, low-cost Alpha systems". Digital Technical Journal 9 (20): pp. 45–56.
DEC workstations
Computer-related introductions in 1996 | laptop Build Quality | 0.302 | 14,450 |
Bendix G-15
The Bendix G-15 is a computer introduced in 1956 by the Bendix Corporation, Computer Division, Los Angeles, California. It is about and weighs about . The G-15 has a drum memory of 2,160 29-bit words, along with 20 words used for special purposes and rapid-access storage.
The base system, without peripherals, cost $49,500. A working model cost around $60,000 (over $500,000 by today's standards). It could also be rented for $1,485 per month. It was meant for scientific and industrial markets. The series was gradually discontinued when Control Data Corporation took over the Bendix computer division in 1963.
The chief designer of the G-15 was Harry Huskey, who had worked with Alan Turing on the ACE in the United Kingdom and on the SWAC in the 1950s. He made most of the design while working as a professor at Berkeley, and other universities. David C. Evans was one of the Bendix engineers on the G-15 project. He would later become famous for his work in computer graphics and for starting up Evans & Sutherland with Ivan Sutherland.
Architecture
The G-15 was inspired by the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE). It is a serial-architecture machine, in which the main memory is a magnetic drum. It uses the drum as a recirculating delay-line memory, in contrast to the analog delay line implementation in other serial designs. Each track has a set of read and write heads; as soon as a bit was read off a track, it is re-written on the same track a certain distance away. The length of delay, and thus the number of words on a track, is determined by the spacing of the read and write heads, the delay corresponding to the time required for a section of the drum to travel from the write head to the corresponding read head. Under normal operation, data are written back without change, but this data flow can be intercepted at any time, allowing the machine to update sections of a track as needed.
This arrangement allows the designers to create "delay lines" of any desired length. In addition to the twenty "long lines" of 108 words each, there are four more short lines of four words each. These short lines recycle at 27 times the rate of the long lines, allowing fast access to frequently needed data. Even the machine's accumulators are implemented as drum lines: three double-word lines are used for intermediate storage and double-precision addition, multiplication, and division in addition to a one single-word accumulator. This use of the drum rather than flip-flops for the registers helped to reduce vacuum tube count.
A consequence of this design was that, unlike other computers with magnetic drums, the G-15 does not retain its memory when it is shut off. The only permanent tracks are two timing tracks recorded on the drum at the factory. The second track is a backup, as the tracks are liable to erasure if one of their amplifier tubes shorted out.
The serial nature of the G-15's memory was carried over into the design of its arithmetic and control circuits. The adders work on one binary digit at a time, and even the instruction word was designed to minimize the number of bits in an instruction that needed to be retained in flip-flops (to the extent of leveraging another one-word drum line used exclusively for generating address timing signals).
The G-15 has 180 vacuum tube packs and 3000 germanium diodes. It has a total of about 450 tubes (mostly dual triodes). Its magnetic drum memory holds 2,160 words of twenty-nine bits. Average memory access time is 14.5 milliseconds, but its instruction addressing architecture can reduce this dramatically for well-written programs. Its addition time is 270 microseconds (not counting memory access time). Single-precision multiplication takes 2,439 microseconds and double-precision multiplication takes 16,700 microseconds.
Peripherals
One of the G-15's primary output devices is the typewriter with an output speed of about 10 characters per second for numbers (and lower-case hexadecimal characters u-z) and about three characters per second for alphabetical characters. The machine's limited storage precludes much output of anything but numbers; occasionally, paper forms with pre-printed fields or labels were inserted into the typewriter. A faster typewriter unit was also available.
The high-speed photoelectric paper tape reader (250 hexadecimal digits per second on five-channel paper tape for the PR-1; 400 characters from 5-8 channel tape for the PR-2) read programs (and occasionally saved data) from tapes that were often mounted in cartridges for easy loading and unloading. Not unlike magnetic tape, the paper tape data are blocked into runs of 108 words or less since that is the maximum read size. A cartridge can contain many multiple blocks, up to 2500 words (~10 kilobytes).
While there is an optional high-speed paper tape punch (the PTP-1 at 60 digits per second) for output, the standard punch operates at 17 hex characters per second (510 bytes per minute).
Optionally, the AN-1 "Universal Code Accessory" included the "35-4" Friden Flexowriter and HSR-8 paper tape reader and HSP-8 paper tape punch. The mechanical reader and punch can process paper tapes up to eight channels wide at 110 characters per second.
The CA-1 "Punched Card Coupler" can connect one or two IBM 026 card punches (which were more often used as manual devices) to read cards at 17 columns per second (approximately 12 full cards per minute) or punch cards at 11 columns per second (approximately 8 full cards per minute). Partially full cards were processed more quickly with an 80-column-per-second skip speed). The more expensive CA-2 Punched Card Coupler reads and punches cards at a 100-card-per-minute rate.
The PA-3 pen plotter runs at 1 inch per second with 200 increments per inch on a paper roll 1 foot wide by 100 feet long. The optional retractable pen-holder eliminates "retrace lines".
The MTA-2 can interface up to four drives for half-inch Mylar magnetic tapes, which can store as many as 300,000 words (in blocks no longer than 108 words). The read/write rate is 430 hexadecimal digits per second; the bidirectional search speed is 2500 characters per second.
The DA-1 differential analyzer facilitates solution of differential equations. It contains 108 integrators and 108 constant multipliers, sporting 34 updates per second.
Software
A problem peculiar to machines with serial memory is the latency of the storage medium: instructions and data are not always immediately available and, in the worst case, the machine must wait for the complete recirculation of a delay line to obtain data from a given memory address. The problem is addressed in the G-15 by what the Bendix literature calls "minimum-access coding". Each instruction carries with it the address of the next instruction to be executed, allowing the programmer to arrange instructions such that when one instruction completes, the next instruction is about to appear under the read head for its line. Data can be staggered in a similar manner. To aid this process, the coding sheets include a table containing numbers of all addresses; the programmer can cross off each address as it is used.
A symbolic assembler, similar to the IBM 650's Symbolic Optimal Assembly Program (SOAP), was introduced in the late 1950s and includes routines for minimum-access coding. Other programming aids include a supervisor program, a floating-point interpretive system named "Intercom", and ALGO, an algebraic language designed from the 1958 Preliminary Report of the ALGOL committee. Users also developed their own tools, and a variant of Intercom suited to the needs of civil engineers is said to have circulated.
Floating-point arithmetic is implemented in software. The "Intercom" series of languages provide an easier to program virtual machine that operates in floating point. Instructions to Intercom 500, 550, and 1000 are numerical, six or seven digits in length. Instructions are stored sequentially; the beauty is convenience, not speed. Intercom 1000 even has an optional double-precision version.
As mentioned above the machine uses hexadecimal numbers, but the user never has to deal with this in normal programming. The user programs use the decimal numbers while the OS resides in the higher addresses.
Significance
The G-15 is sometimes described as the first personal computer, because it has the Intercom interpretive system. The title is disputed by other machines, such as the LINC and the PDP-8, and some maintain that only microcomputers, such as those which appeared in the 1970s, can be called personal computers. Nevertheless, the machine's low acquisition and operating costs, and the fact that it does not require a dedicated operator, meant that organizations could allow users complete access to the machine.
Over 400 G-15s were manufactured. About 300 G-15s were installed in the United States and a few were sold in other countries such as Australia and Canada. The machine found a niche in civil engineering, where it was used to solve cut and fill problems. Some have survived and have made their way to computer museums or science and technology museums around the world.
Huskey received one of the last production G15s, fitted with a gold-plated front panel.
This was the first computer that Ken Thompson ever used.
A Bendix G-15 was used at Fremont High School (Oakland Unified School District) in the 1964-65 school year for the senior seminar math class. Students were taught the fundamentals of programming. One such exercise was the calculation of a square root using the method of Newtonian approximation. A Bendix G-15 was still in use for the UC Berkeley extension summer class in programming, at Oakland Technical High School, in 1970.
See also
List of vacuum tube computers
Bendix G-20
References
External links
The Bendix G-15
Bendix G15 computer
Another G-15 reference
Bendix G-15 documentation
photo
info page with photo
Describes Harry Huskey's involvement with ACE
Extensive G15 site list, photos & technical info
1950s computers
Vacuum tube computers
Minicomputers
Computer-related introductions in 1956
Science and technology in Greater Los Angeles
1956 in California
Serial computers
Bendix Corporation | laptop Build Quality | 0.302 | 14,451 |
GNG Computers
GNG Computers is a British computer refurbishment company located in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. GNG Computers was founded in 2009 by Gawain and Grace Ng, and originally started as an eBay based company trading under the name of Charles Computers. As of 18 April 2016 the company announced the redundancy of its staff and the closure of trading.
Trading
eBay
Originally started in 2009, GNG Computers first utilized the popular online auction site for trading with customers, selling under the name Charles Computers. They are currently rated on eBay with a 99.9% customer satisfaction rate and an eBay feedback score of over 77,000 points.
Webstore
During September 2014, GNG unveiled their own webstore hosted on the GNG website. The new webstore is currently being stocked with many of the products from their eBay store, along with a few unique items that are exclusive to their webstore including bulk trading.
Business to Business
GNG also trade bulk quantity to businesses, either through their webstore or direct negotiation via phone call or email. A newsletter is also utilized to advertise the latest prices and stock quantity to other businesses, however general public are also invited to subscribe as special offers are also sent.
Local Repairs
GNG Computers local repair service (known as GNG Local) began in August 2014, and repair a multitude of electronic devices spanning PCs, smartphones, laptops and tablets.
References
Electronics companies of the United Kingdom
Huntingdon | laptop Build Quality | 0.302 | 14,452 |
Chassis Plans
Chassis Plans is an American military and industrial computer systems manufacturer specializing in rackmount computers, military computers, rugged computers, industrial PCs, rackmount LCDs, single-board computer systems with passive and active backplanes and motherboard systems. Chassis Plans is a spin-off of Industrial Computer Source.
Products
Chassis Plans specializes in providing custom and semi-custom solutions with an emphasis on systems tailored exactly to the application requirements. A wide variety of rackmount 1U thru 5U computer systems are offered as standard products as outgrowths of custom designs. A line of military grade LCD keyboard systems is also offered.
History
1997: Established as a spin-off of Industrial Computer Source providing engineering services and computer system designs.
1998: Recognized by Internet Telephony Center Stage for the design of the 717-BP20 Rackmount Computer.
2001: Chassis Plans expands product offering from design services to complete turnkey computer systems.
2006: COTS Journal article "Rugged Displays Suit Up for Challenging Environments".
2011: Honored by 2nd selection in Inc 500/5000 list for 2011.
2012: Honored by 3rd selection in Inc 500/5000 list for 2012.
2013: Honored by 4th selection in Inc 500/5000 list for 2013. #39 of Top 100 Computer Hardware Companies.
2014: Funds 'Chassis Plans Leadership in Engineering Scholarship'.
2014: Intelligent Aerospace Magazine Article - "Enhancing displays used in unmanned aircraft systems ground control stations"
2014: COTS Journal Magazine article - "Ruggedized Servers Revamp Data-Centric Military Environments"
2014: Awards Leadership in Engineering Scholarship.
2014: Named for fifth time to Inc 500/5000 list.
2014: Secures trademarks for "Industrial Computer Source-Book" and "Military Computer Source-Book".
2015: Mil Embedded Systems magazine awards the TFX1-19 rackmount LCD an Editor's Choice Award
See also
List of computer hardware manufacturers
List of computer system manufacturers
References
External links
Saints Computer
Computer companies of the United States
Computer enclosure companies
Manufacturing companies based in San Diego
Computer companies established in 1997
1997 establishments in California | laptop Build Quality | 0.301 | 14,453 |
CloudBook
The CloudBook is a discontinued x86 subnotebook, or Ultra-Mobile PC developed by Everex using a VIA processor, chipset, and NanoBook reference design. It competed with the Asus Eee PC, the OLPC XO-1 and the Classmate PC. The device was categorized as a netbook when it was around 2008.
History
Sales of the gPC TC2502 Everex desktop left the company with inquiries from customers seeking similar additional Open Source, but mobile platforms. Everex decided to build two systems, a classic laptop, also running gOS v2, called the gBook, and a system based on the VIA Nanobook reference design, which is also used for Packard Bell EasyNote XS. Its release was originally planned for January 25, 2008, but Everex pushed the release back citing problems with the version of gOS it wanted to use. The delay was needed because Everex wanted to rewrite gOS v2 for the CloudBook so it would use GNOME's window manager instead of Enlightenment 17, making it even more compatible with Ubuntu. The E17's Dock was replaced by the Avant Window Navigator to approach the same looks and functionality as the older gOS versions.
CloudBook was expected to be released in the United States on February 15, 2008 at Wal-Mart and ZaReason, but was pushed back to February 21 for Wal-Mart (ZaReason received a part of its shipment). The price of the device was set to US$399 and it came with one year of limited warranty with 24/7 toll free technical support.
Nivio also created a CloudBook based on Nokia/Intel's Meego platform; and owned the US Trademark for CloudBook, CloudPC. It was aiming to use a linux platform for delivering a full windows experience (Desktop as a Service) with an AppStore for renting software. It launched this with Airtel in India. Nivio was co-founded by Sachin Dev Duggal and Saurabh P Dhoot.
Features
The Everex CloudBook had a uniquely located built-in pointing device (a stamp-sized optical trackpad) on the upper right side of the computer instead of at the bottom of the keyboard as is common for notebook computers. The CloudBook was intended to be held in one hand while typing, or in two hands when using the mouse-cursor control, with the left thumb controlling the two "mouse buttons", and the right thumb the small trackpad, both mousepad and keys are placed directly under the screen. This design was chosen so the system could even be used when standing and walking around, instead of only when sitting. The CloudBook was sold as an Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) because of this feature, even though it does not have a touch-screen.
Software
The CloudBook came with a completely new version, (compared to the version used in the gPC) of the gOS Linux distribution (based on Ubuntu) and application software from Mozilla, Skype, Facebook, faqly, OpenOffice.org and Google. Originally gOS came with the Enlightenment 0.17 as the window manager. Though the pre-installed operating system is gOS, Everex has released Windows XP hardware drivers, making it more simple to install Microsoft's Windows XP. However, Everex warns that any software outside of the original gOS will not be covered by warranty (though the hardware's warranty will be unaffected).
CloudBook MAX
The next generation of CloudBook, was advertised to have a processor running at 1.6 GHz, a 80GB disk drive, touch pad and WiMAX. However the company ceased operations.
See also
Everex green computers
Sony U-series small laptop with a side-mounted pointing stick
Palm Foleo
Ultra-Mobile PC
Nokia N810
Internet appliance
Sylvania g netbook by gOS and Osram Sylvania based on the same design as the Cloudbook and also using gOS, the newer gOS 2.9 (escape Pod)
Picobook Pro netbook based on the design of the CloudBook.
Astone UMPC
References
Subnotebooks
Linux-based devices
Netbooks
Cloud clients
Everex | laptop Build Quality | 0.301 | 14,454 |
Nvidia Tesla Personal Supercomputer
The Tesla Personal Supercomputer is a desktop computer (personal supercomputer) that is backed by Nvidia and built by various hardware vendors. It is meant to be a demonstration of the capabilities of Nvidia's Tesla GPGPU brand; it utilizes NVIDIA's CUDA parallel computing architecture and is powered by up to 2688 parallel processing cores per GPGPU, which allow it to achieve speeds up to 250 times faster than standard PCs, according to Nvidia.
See also
Nvidia Tesla
Fastra II
References
External links
Tesla Personal Supercomputer website
NVIDIA Delivers the Personal Supercomputer DE Online
Nvidia Tesla YouTube channel
Nvidia products
Computer workstations | laptop Build Quality | 0.301 | 14,455 |
Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 Pro is an Ultrabook-class convertible device that can be used as both a tablet and laptop computer in the IdeaPad series. Lenovo unveiled the Yoga 2 Pro at the 2013 IFA in Berlin, Germany. It went on sale in the United States in October 2013. It comes in two colors, silver gray and clementine orange, and is designed for flexibility—allowing the user to use it in a variety of situations. Because of the durable hinge that allows the screen to swivel 360 degrees, the Yoga 2 Pro is able to fully utilize Windows 8 and its emphasis on touchscreen integration. The Yoga 2 Pro is the first laptop to earn a Green Mark certification from TUV that recognizes Lenovo for environmentally friendly manufacturing processes and low energy consumption.
Design and Performance
The Yoga 2 Pro is an Ultrabook-class device. It weighs , is 0.61 inch thick and has tapered edges, giving it an appearance more like a conventional ultrabook laptop vs the earlier model's "book-like" symmetrical design. The Yoga 2 Pro features a 360-Degree Flip-and-Fold design that encompasses four modes—laptop, stand, tablet, and tent mode and has a subtle rubber trim around the edge of its top half in order to prevent slipping on hard surfaces when in tent mode. It comes with a backlit AccuType keyboard and features stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theater. Unlike earlier Yoga products, the home button is now a touch-key on the bottom center of the display. Lenovo moved the power button away from the front and to the side in order to prevent accidental key presses.
The base package comes an Intel Core i3 4010U, 4 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes solid state drive with configurations up to an Intel Core i7 4500U, 8 gigabytes of RAM and 512 gigabyte solid state drive. The 13.3-inch screen uses in-plane switching (IPS) technology and has a QHD+ (3,200 × 1,800) 10-point multitouch display with a brightness of 350 nits. The Yoga 2 Pro come with Intel Wireless Display technology in order to conform to the Ultrabook specification. The ports it comes with are a USB 3.0, a USB 2.0, a micro-HDMI, a 2-in-1 card reader, and a combo jack. Lenovo claims a battery life of up to nine hours.
The Yoga 2 Pro comes pre-installed with Phone Companion, Camera Man, Photo Touch, and Chef apps. It includes a software called Lenovo Picks that detects the position of the device and recommends apps for each mode. For example, in stand mode with the screen facing outward, it assumes that you might want to use Skype or Netflix. Phone Companion is a utility that copies content such as documents and hyperlinks and sends them to your phone as a text message and Lenovo Photo Touch and Lenovo Camera Man are included for taking and editing pictures. Lenovo Chef is an included recipe app with motion and voice control.
Specifications
Reviews
Dan Ackerman of CNET wrote, "I'm pleased to see a backlit keyboard, and in our brief hands-on time with the Yoga 2, it felt like a nice upgrade from the previous version, and it's still one of the slickest-looking ultrabooks out there, even without its hybrid properties."
Sasha Muller of PC Pro wrote, "There's no question that the Yoga 2 Pro is a triumph. It's lighter, stronger, prettier and all-round better than before. And, somehow, Lenovo has managed to deliver all this for only £1,000.
We have to be realistic: the high-DPI display is more of a limitation than a benefit at this time, but at this price, we’d be more than willing to put up with the occasional annoyance. It's a remarkable achievement."
The Yoga 2 Pro also been criticized for a relatively short battery life, especially when compared to other 2nd-half-2013 Ultrabook releases that saw much prolonged battery life when switching from Intel's 3rd-generation "Ivy Bridge" to 4th-generation "Haswell" chips. While the Yoga 2 Pro's battery has a higher capacity than the Yoga 13, it uses up more power due to having to display more pixels (3,200 × 1,800 versus 1,600 × 900), thus battery life has not improved much.
Writing for the Supersite for Windows, Paul Thurrott stated, "Where the Yoga 2 Pro excels is in its multiple usage possibilities, and while it is absolutely an Ultrabook first, its ability to transform really does set it apart. And that I'm even comparing this device head-to-head with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is telling: this is a truly versatile machine. "Battery life is impressive and is roughly on par with that of the X1 Carbon. I routinely get 7 or more hours of life, and it withstands cross-country flights and long train rides with ease, using my typical combination of work (writing, image processing) and entertainment (videos)."
Writing about the display, Thurrott stated, "...I spend most of my time in the desktop. And super-high-res simply doesn't work in that environment if you run certain poorly-written applications regularly as I do. Were I to stick to Windows 8.1's "Modern" environment, this wouldn't be an issue. Likewise, if you use well-written desktop applications exclusively, you'll find that the Yoga 2 Pro's screen is best in class, and that the desktop scaling functionality works just fine. In fact, better than fine: The text on onscreen controls is so crisp it looks fake."
Yoga 2 (standard version)
In 2014, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad Yoga 2 (minus the "Pro"), which will be less expensive, but still maintain the flexible convertible hinge. It will be available in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes.
The 11" model starts at $529, weighs 1.3 kg (2.9 pounds) and is 1.7 cm (0.67 inch) thick. The starting configuration is a quad-core Intel Pentium CPU and 500GB hard drive.
The $999 13-inch Yoga 2 weighs 1.6 kg (3.5 pounds) and is slightly thicker than the 11-inch model, with a 1,920x1,080 panel, 500GB hard drive, and backlit keyboard. The CPU can be upgraded to a fourth-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, and solid-state drive (SSD) storage is optional.
See also
Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 Pro based on Atom Z3745 processor
References
Yoga 2 Pro
Convertible laptops
2-in-1 PCs
Ultrabooks | laptop Build Quality | 0.301 | 14,456 |
Toshiba Pasopia 7
Toshiba Pasopia 7 (also known as PA7007) is a computer from manufacturer Toshiba, released in 1983 and only available in Japan. It was intended as the successor of the Toshiba Pasopia, offering improved sound and graphics. Graphic memory is increased to 48kb and two SN76489 sound chips are available, producing six five octave channels and two noise channels.
The machine is partially compatible with the original Pasopia, and supports connecting cartridge-type peripherals.
A new version of the operating system - T-BASIC7, is also available.
This version is based on Microsoft BASIC and adds specific commands for this model, such as higher numerical precision or support for extra colors.
Available peripherals for this model are a 5" disk drive, a Chinese characters ROM, a RS-232 interface and a printer. The keyboard is a full-stroke keyboard, JIS standard with a separated numeric keypad and some function keys.
A latter model, Pasopia 700, is based on the Pasopia 7 and indented for a home learning system developed by Toshiba and Obunsha.
Two disk-drives were added to the side of the main unit and the keyboard was separate. This machine was two cartridge slots (one at the front).
Color palette
The Pasopia 7 uses hardware dithering to simulate intermediate color intensities, based on a mix of the full intensity RGB primaries. This allows the machine to display 27 colors (3-level RGB).
See also
Toshiba Pasopia
Toshiba Pasopia 5
Toshiba Pasopia IQ
Toshiba Pasopia 16
References
Pasopia
Z80-based home computers
Computer-related introductions in 1983 | laptop Build Quality | 0.301 | 14,457 |
Pinebook
Pinebook and Pinebook Pro are lightweight, low-cost notebooks designed and manufactured by the company Pine64. The Pinebook was announced in November 2016 and production started in April 2017. It is based on the platform of Pine64's existing Pine A64 single board computer and it costs US$89 or US$99 for the 11.6" and 14" model respectively. Its appearance resembles the MacBook Air.
Unlike traditional notebooks, Pinebook uses an ARM CPU rather than x86. It uses the Allwinner Technology A64 SoC, containing quad ARM 1.2 GHz Cortex-A53 cores and Mali 400 MP2 GPU, together with 2 GB RAM LPDDR3. Instead of a hard disk drive it uses 16 GB of eMMC 5.0 flash memory, expandable to 64 GB. The storage capacity can be further extended using the microSD card slot (up to 256 GB).
It supports WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless networks, has 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 mini HDMI port and a headphone jack. It also contains 2 downward-facing speakers. The display is a TN LCD with a resolution of 1366 x 768. The unit's weight is 1.04 kg (11.6"), or 1.26 kg (14") respectively.
The Pinebook supports Linux and Android operating systems. As of 2019, the Pinebook can be run on free software in the form of RISC OS and Linux. Common choices include Manjaro, Arch, Debian, Armbian, BSD, Gentoo, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Q4OS. Support for most hardware has been merged into the kernel mainline as of 4.19, with other drivers slowly trickling in.
The Pinebook is sold "at-cost" by pine64 as a community service.
References
External links
Pinebook homepage
Unboxing the Pinebook64
Laptops
Single-board computers
2017 introductions | laptop Build Quality | 0.3 | 14,458 |
ThinkCentre A series
The A Series desktops are part of Lenovo’s ThinkCentre product line. Formerly an IBM brand, Lenovo acquired the ThinkCentre desktop brand following its purchase of IBM’s Personal Computing Division (PCD) in 2005. The first desktop in the A Series was the ThinkCentre A50p. Lenovo has released A Series desktops in multiple form factors, ranging from traditional tower, to small form factor, and all-in-ones (AIOs).
2010
A70
The A70 was released by Lenovo in 2010 with the following specifications:
Processor: 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
RAM: Up to 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Storage: Up to 500GB
Optical Drive: DVD reader/writer
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500
Form Factor: Small form factor
A70z
The ThinkCentre A70z was an all-in-one (AIO) desktop released by Lenovo in 2010. The AIO offered the following specifications:
Processor: 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E7500
RAM: 2GB
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
Engadget reported that the A70z was easy to set up and offered a 35-second boot time, in-line with Lenovo's claims. The A70z was capable of handling high-definition video and running Adobe Photoshop with ease, making it suitable for everyday business use. However, the presence of the integrated graphics card prevented 3D gaming on the desktop.
The ThinkCentre A70z received positive reviews from Inc., Desktop Review, and Hardware Central. Inc. ranked the ThinkCentre A70z third on its list of ‘Best New Business Desktops’. Desktop Review listed the A70z desktop on its list of ‘Top 10 Desktops for Back to School’. Hardware Central awarded the desktop 12 out of 15 stars, with 4 of 5 stars for features, performance, and value respectively.
A58
Announced in March 2010, the ThinkCentre A58 desktop was equipped with the Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 processor with a speed of 2.5 GHz,
up to a Core 2 quad q9x50. 3GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM, a 250GB 7200 RPM SATA hard disk drive up to 1TB 7200 rpm and an 160gb 10.000rpm drive, Integrated HD audio with a built-in mono speaker, Intel GMA 4500 integrated graphics, Microsoft Windows Vista Business, 6 USB2.0 ports, 2 PS/2 inputs, and 2 headphone and microphone audio jacks with line out. Desktop Review listed the pros of the desktop as being the build quality, legacy ports, and power saving software. The cons were listed as wasted internal space, the absence of card readers, and the limited port selection.
2007
A55
PC World indicated that the ThinkCentre A55 small form factor desktop, announced in January 2007, was a “pure business PC.". The desktop incorporated a mid-range processor, the Intel E6300 Core 2 Duo with a speed of 1.83 GHz, and offered a maximum of 4GB of DDR2 667 MHz RAM on 2 DIMM slots. PC World noted that the desktop scored 89 on its World Bench 5 test, indicating that it could run most software packages available at the time with ease.
A61e
The ThinkCentre A61e desktop was announced in September 2007 and was called “the company's smallest, quietest and most energy-efficient desktop yet”. The A61e was equipped with an AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 processor with a speed of 2.1 GHz, 2GB RAM, a 180GB hard disk drive, the ATI Radeon X1200 graphics card, and Microsoft Windows Vista Business.
PC Mag listed the pros of the desktop as its compact size, energy efficiency, processor, quiet operation, affordable price, ThinkVantage utilities, case design, and light weight. The cons were listed as being the slightly reduced performance compared to other business systems, the lack of internal expansion for PCI/PCIe slots, notebook-class RAM, and external power supply.
2006
A60
The ThinkCentre A60 desktop was announced in August 2006 by Lenovo following the company’s acquisition of IBM’s Personal Computing Division in 2005.
It was categorized a mid-range desktop by PCMag. The desktop was praised for its useful utilities, a toolless chassis designed for upgrades, Athlon X2 dual core processor, spacious hard disk drive and the fact that it still had a floppy disk drive. The cons were that the desktop had shared video memory despite the use of Windows Vista and that it was slower than desktops with Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
A53
The ThinkCentre A53 and A55 desktops were announced in September 2006 by Lenovo. The A53 desktop featured an Intel Pentium D 945 3.4 GHz dual core processor, SiS662 chipset, up to 2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM, an 80GB SATA-300 7200RPM hard disk drive, an integrated High Definition Audio sound card, and built in speakers.
A55
The ThinkCentre A55 desktop was equipped with an Intel Pentium 4 541 Processor, 512MB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory, an 80GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive, 48x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive, Intel GMA 3000 Integrated Graphics with 128MB Shared Memory, Integrated AC'97 Audio, and six USB 2.0 Ports. Both processor and storage were criticized by About.com, with software bundle being complimented.
Launch in 2003
A50p
The first ThinkCentre A Series desktop was the A50p. It was designed as a business machine, as observed in a review by About.com. This was because of the storage space on the desktop, which was limited to 40GB – sufficient for business documents and applications, but not for images and video. The A50p had an Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Processor, 256MB PC2700 DDR Memory, 40GB 7,200rpm Hard Drive, 48x CD-ROM Optical Drive, SoundMAX Cadenza (AC'97) Audio, Intel Extreme 2 Integrated Graphics with 64MB of Shared Memory, a 10/100 Ethernet Port, and six USB 2.0 Ports.
The A50p was called a "high-end consumer PC" by PC Magazine. The machine was indicated to be a capable home-office machine to which multimedia applications could be added. The specifications of the A50p desktop were: Intel Pentium 4 processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard disk drive, and a 17 inch LCD screen.
References
External links
ThinkCentre Desktops on Lenovo.com
Lenovo
X86 IBM personal computers | laptop Build Quality | 0.3 | 14,459 |
AN/UYK-20
The AN/UYK-20 "Data Processing Set" was a ruggedized small computer manufactured by Univac and used by the United States Navy for small and medium-sized shipboard and shore systems built in the 1970s. It featured non-volatile magnetic core memory and was housed in a heavy-duty metal cube-shaped box which was designed to fit through a 25-inch circular hatch.
In 1972, in response to the proliferation of small computer types in the Navy's inventory, the Chief of Naval Material mandated the use of the AN/UYK-20(V) in systems requiring a small digital processor. On March 27, 1974 the AN/UYK-20 received service approval and by late 1974 they were in use in the development of tactical systems.
Programmers and operators colloquially referred to this computer as the "Yuck Twenty."
In addition to various uses throughout the fleet, the system was used to train the U.S. Navy's Data Systems Technicians (DS) on digital computer theory and application. The 9-month course had 4 phases and phase 3 was UYK-20. Phase 3 was broken into the following sections:
Microinstructions
Macroinstructions
Processor/Emulator
Memory
Input/Output
Graded Troubleshooting (Mids)- MIDS was the last week of Phase 3 where as the class started at 2300 hours and finished at 0630. Each night a series of faults was inserted into the UYK-20 for troubleshooting purposes. The student had to use diagnostic routines, troubleshooting techniques, and skill to find and fix the faults. The student had to pass with a majority of faults identified and fixed to move on to phase 4. Phase 3 for some was the toughest part of Data Systems A School at Mare Island, CA. I know this, because I attended A School as a DS from SEP 89 - MAY 90. Phase 2 used the training computer called the COMTRAN 10 aka "Comtrash 10".
After the dissolution of the Navy's DS rate, the primary maintenance responsibility was moved to the Electronic Technicians (ET), as the UYK-20 was already being used in several of their systems primarily the NAVMACS system.
The AN/UYK-20 is still currently in use, but has been largely supplanted by the AN/UYK-44, which uses a 'superset' of the UYK-20 instruction set, meaning the UYK-44 will execute all of the UYK-20 instructions, as well as several new instructions specific to the UYK-44.
See also
AN/AYK-14
AN/UYK-44
CMS-2 programming language
References
External links
AN/UYK-20 drawing
AN/UYK-20 photograph
Sperry Univac AN/UYK-20 Technical Description
UNIVAC hardware
Military computers
Military electronics of the United States
Military equipment introduced in the 1970s
16-bit computers | laptop Build Quality | 0.3 | 14,460 |
Sony Vaio X series
The Vaio X series is a line of high-end ultraportable notebook computers from Sony introduced in September 2009, claiming to be the world's lightest notebook, at 655 grams ((with special lighter battery, standard weight is 780 grams )). It features an 11.1", 16:9, 1366x768 LED-lit LCD screen with built-in webcam, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a choice of 64, 128 or 256 GB SSD (no hard drive option, SSD choice depends on territory), Intel Atom Z540 1.86 GHz or Z550 2.00 GHz (CPU choice varies by territory), WWAN (HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE and GPRS built-in).
The choice of the slower Intel Atom CPU, rather than a Core 2 chip, arguably places the device in the netbook class, however its pricing at over $1000, and other hardware aspects, such as the high resolution screen, Windows 7 on all models, and SSD usage suggest that it is a full notebook.
The device features an SD and Memory Stick reader, Bluetooth support, 2 USB ports, and a VGA port. Due to its thickness (thinner than a MacBook Air), the ethernet port is angled, as a square-on port would be taller than the laptop.
Users wanting extended battery life can use the included extended battery, which is described as a battery-stand, tilting the laptop at an angle.
External links
References
X
Computer-related introductions in 2009 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.556 | 14,461 |
ThinkPad W series
The ThinkPad W-series laptops from Lenovo are described by the manufacturer as being "mobile workstations", and suit that description by being physically on the larger side of the laptop spectrum, with screens ranging from 15" to 17" in size. Most W-series laptops offer high-end quad-core Intel processors with an integrated GPU as well as an Nvidia Quadro discrete GPU, utilizing Nvidia Optimus to switch between the two GPUs as required. Notable exceptions are the W500, which has ATI FireGL integrated workstation-class graphics, and the W550s, which is an Ultrabook-specification laptop with only a dual-core processor. The W-series laptops offer ISV certifications from various vendors such as Adobe Systems and Autodesk for CAD and 3D modeling software.
The W-series laptops were introduced by Lenovo as workstation-class laptops with their own letter designation, a descendant of prior ThinkPad T series models suffixed with 'p'. The W-series laptops were launched in 2008, at the same time as the Intel Centrino 2, marking an overhaul of Lenovo's product lineup. The first two W-series laptops introduced were the W500 and the W700.
Models
A list of laptops in the W series is given below. The list is arranged in chronological order.
W500
Released in 2008, W500 laptop was similar in design to the Txxp models it replaced. The all-black appearance was retained, as well as the TrackPoint in the middle of the keyboard. The W500 was appreciated for being equivalent in craftsmanship and stability to previous ThinkPads. Large metal hinges were used to hold the display in place, preventing a worn out or unsteady display. Other features on the laptop were a DisplayPort video output, three USB ports, a docking station connector, a maximum display resolution of , Intel Core 2 Duo processors and an ATI FireGL v5700 GPU.
W700
Released in October 2008, the W700 laptop was lauded for its performance and for a host of features that were industry-first at the time. It was the first laptop with an integrated color calibrator. In addition, a biometric fingerprint scanner was available on the palmrest. With a quad-core Intel Core 2 Extreme processor and NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M workstation GPU available, the laptop was among the most powerful at the time. One point not in the laptop's favor was the low battery lifeapproximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.
The laptop featured up to a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300 CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM (two slots), either an (MXM-mounted) NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M or FX 3700M with up to 1GB video RAM, and a TN LCD display with a resolution of or .
W700ds
The ThinkPad W700ds was nearly identical to the W700, with the addition of a secondary sliding screen with a resolution of . The W700ds laptop also offered additional storage space, with up to two 260GB hard disk drives.
W510
The W510, the logical successor of the ThinkPad W500 in a nearly identical 15" laptop frame, was released in January 2010.
The laptop's specifications are as follows:
Processor: up to 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-920XM Extreme
Memory: up to 32GB @ 1,333MT/s DDR3 (4 DIMM sockets)
Graphics:
Intel 5 Integrated Graphics
NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M
Dimensions:
Mass/Weight: Starting at with a 6-cell battery
The W510 laptop was summed up by Laptop Review as, "The W510 provides performance, reliability and mobility. It is Ultra responsive for graphics-intensive tasks so you can accomplish more on the go."
W701
The W701, the logical successor of the W700 17" laptop, was released with the W701ds and received positive reviews. Techradar.com has this to say about the W701: "the ThinkPad W700 – [the W701’s] predecessor – was once the most powerful laptop we had seen, but the W701 has successfully stolen that crown."
Released in April 2010, the W701 and W701ds, offered the following specifications:
Processor: 2.0GHz Intel Core i7-920XM Extreme
Memory: Up to 16GB @ 1,333MT/s DDR3 (4 DIMM sockets)
Graphics:
NVIDIA Quadro FX3800M
NVIDIA Quadro FX2800M
Dimensions:
Mass/Weight: Starting at
W701ds
The Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds is the logical successor to the W700ds, and shares the same exterior physical design.
Gizmodo said, about the W701ds laptop, "Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds pairs beastly specs with an integrated secondary screen." The laptop also received favorable reviews from PCWorld, which called the laptop a "portable goliath that could replace desktop workstations, letting pros stay productive from anywhere". Gadgets Fan said about the W701ds, "Despite its massive size, Lenovo ThinkPad W701ds laptop is worth the purchase" and suggested that it was "almost comparable to a desktop workstation".
W520
The W520, the logical successor to the W510, was released in March 2011 and offered the following specifications in the best configuration:
Processor: up to 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-2920XM (socketed processor)
Memory: up to 32GB DDR3 (4 SO-DIMM sockets), in 4-core/8-thread models; up to 16GB DDR3 (2 SO-DIMM sockets), in 2-core/4-thread models (only two of four slots usable in 2-core/4-thread i7 models; won't POST if slots 1 and/or 3 are populated)
Graphics:
Intel HD Graphics 3000
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M (2GB VRAM, 96 CUDA cores)
Nvidia Quadro 2000M (2GB VRAM, 192 CUDA cores)
Display: (169) LED-backlit TN LCD (95% Adobe RGB coverage)
Dimensions:
Mass/Weight: (with an optical drive)
According to LAPTOP Magazine, "the ThinkPad W520 offers blistering performance that should satisfy the most demanding users and businesses." On PCMark Vantage, the ThinkPad W520 scored 9909 points, 30% higher than the average score of desktop replacements. It also scored higher than the Dell Latitude E6420, which received a score of 7796.
Processing and graphicsThe 2011 W520 model includes up to Intel Core i7 Quad Core Extreme Edition socketed processors with Intel Hyper-Threading technology. They are also equipped with Lenovo Enhanced Experience 2.0 for Windows 7.
Graphics options on the W520 model included NVIDIA Fermi architecture-based graphics with Optimus technology. This allows for support for up to two additional monitors. Despite the fact that the W-series laptops are Ubuntu certified, Optimus is not well supported in Linux, requiring workarounds for proper functionality. The 2011 W-series laptops offer 1080p FHD () displays with 95% coverage of the Adobe RGB color space gamut. X-Rite Pantone color calibration is also included.
Storage space on the W520 model is up to 640GB. The 2011 W-series laptops also include superspeed USB 3.0 ports.
ISV certificationsThe W520 includes ISV certifications for DSS CATIA, SolidWorks, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD, Adobe, and Maya.
W530
Released in June, 2012, the W530 has a very similar exterior appearance to the prior W models. Being the last W model prior to the W540 redesign, it is the last W to feature the lid lock, keyboard light and wireless and HDD LED indicators, and the first W model to feature the controversial chiclet keyboard, which features 6 rows rather than 7 rows of keys and a more modern key shape. The W530 comes equipped with Ivy Bridge processors.
Notable changes/new features:
3rd generation Intel Core (Ivy Bridge) processors
Mini DisplayPort v1.2
New-style keyboard with optional backlight
W540
Announced in 2013 and released in the US and Europe early 2014, the W540 featured a brand new, slimmer design based on the new generations of T4xx series released the year before.
Slimmer than the prior W530, the new design received mixed reactions from traditional ThinkPad users. Critique was mainly aimed towards lower build quality and missing user interface indicators, together with a new style of touchpad where the traditional ThinkPad trackpoint functionality had been radically changed, and the controversial Chiclet style keyboard introduced in 2012 on other products, which many enthusiasts claimed abandoned the core tactile principles established by IBM over previous decades.
The new W series however featured newer hardware such as the option for a 3K IPS display.
Other new features included:
Full size keyboard w/numeric keypad (though offset from center of screen, causing criticism from those who rarely use the keypad)
New touchpad/trackpoint integration (though TrackPoint "thumb" buttons were removed causing criticism due to lost tactile feedback)
Changed UltraBay design (the easy eject locking buttons were replaced by a hidden locking screw rendering "hot swap" functionality moot and earlier UltraBay modules incompatible)
New rectangular connector for charger (rendering earlier accessories and docking stations obsolete)
Thinner profile
Lighter weight
W541
The Lenovo W541 is a ThinkPad W540 featuring the new-style keyboard but with a re-introduction of the classic ThinkPad touchpad design. The prior ThinkPad touchpad design featured in the W540 and other 4th-gen ThinkPads was abandoned.
W550s
Rather than being a successor of any previous W-series model, the Lenovo W550s is a thinner Ultrabook variant of the W series; Likewise a latest P5xs series ThinkPads, the W550s was based in a T-series chassis. While a capable Ultrabook, when compared to the W541 and its predecessors, it offers less capability with only dual-core hyper-threaded Intel Broadwell Processors vs. the true quad-core processors of other models and has only two RAM slots.
Discontinuation and successor
The ThinkPad W series was discontinued and replaced by ThinkPad P series, beginning with the P50 and P70 in 2016. The P70 re-introduced the 17-inch screen to the ThinkPad workstation line.
References
External links
ThinkPad W Series from Lenovo
Computer-related introductions in 2008
Thinkpad
W series | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.547 | 14,462 |
Dell Inspiron E1405
The Dell Inspiron E1405 is a portable laptop computer manufactured by Dell Inc. featuring a 14.1 inch (diagonal) display in a 1.5 (H) x 13 (W) x 9.6 (D) inch 2.4 kg clamshell case. This model was also marketed under the name Dell Inspiron 640m.
Configurations
This model also included the following components:
Processor: Intel Centrino — Core Duo T2050 or T2500, or Core 2 Duo T5500, T5600, T7200, T7400, T7600
Memory: 1, 2, 3, or 4 GB of shared dual channel DDR2 SDRAM @ 667 MHz.
Chipset: Intel 945GM Express
Graphics Processor: integrated Intel GMA 950.
LCD Display: 14.1" (16:10) - with 1280 × 800 resolution, or with 1280 × 800 resolution and TrueLife, or with 1440 × 900 resolution and TrueLife.
Storage: 80 or 100 GB SATA HDD at 5400 RPM.
Optical Drive: tray-load, 8x dual-layer DVD+/-RW or 24x DVD / CD-RW.
Battery: 6-cell (56 Whr), or 9-cell (85 Whr) Lithium Ion.
Wi-Fi Card: mini-card, Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g or 5100 802.11n.
Bluetooth: Optional Dell Wireless Bluetooth Internal 350.
I/O ports: 4 USB ports, 1 FireWire port, 1 Fast Ethernet port, 1 56K modem, 1 5-in-1 memory card reader, 1 Express Card slot, 1 VGA output, 1 S-Video output, 1 headphone jack, 1 microphone jack/line-in, and 1 power adapter port.
References
Intel Core Duo Processor T2300 specs
Intel Core Duo Processor T2050 specs
Intel 945GM Express chipset specs
Owner's Manual Inspiron 640/E1405
Inspiron E1405 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.508 | 14,463 |
List of computer size categories
This list of computer size categories attempts to list commonly used categories of computer by the physical size of the device and its chassis or case, in descending order of size. One generation's "supercomputer" is the next generation's "mainframe", and a "PDA" does not have the same set of functions as a "laptop", but the list still has value, as it provides a ranked categorization of devices. It also ranks some more obscure computer sizes. There are different sizes like-mini computers, microcomputer, mainframe computer and super computer.
Large computers
Supercomputer
Minisupercomputer
Mainframe computer
Midrange computer
Superminicomputer
Minicomputer
Microcomputers
Interactive kiosk
Arcade cabinet
Personal computer (PC)
Desktop computer—see computer form factor for some standardized sizes of desktop computers
full-sized
All-in-One
compact
Home theater
Home computer
Mobile computers
Desktop replacement computer or desknote
Laptop computer
Subnotebook computer, also known as a Kneetop computer; clamshell varieties may also be known as minilaptop or ultraportable laptop computers
Tablet personal computer
Handheld computers, which include the classes:
Ultra-mobile personal computer, or UMPC
Personal digital assistant or enterprise digital assistant, which include:
HandheldPC or Palmtop computer
Pocket personal computer
Electronic organizer
Pocket computer
Calculator, which includes the class:
Graphing calculator
Scientific calculator
Programmable calculator
Accounting / Financial Calculator
Handheld game console
Portable media player
Portable data terminal
Handheld
Smartphone, a class of mobile phone
Feature phone
Wearable computer
Single board computer
Wireless sensor network components
Plug computer
Stick PC, a single-board computer in a small elongated casing resembling a stick
Microcontroller
Smartdust
Nanocomputer
Others
Rackmount computer
Blade server
Blade PC
Small form factor personal computer (SFF, ITX, DTX.etc.)
Distinctive marks
The classes above are not rigid; there are "edge devices" in most of them. For instance, the "subnotebook" category can usually be distinguished from the "PDA" category because a subnotebook has a keyboard and a PDA has not; however, tablet PCs may be larger than subnotebooks (making it seemingly correct to classify them as laptops) and also lack a keyboard, while devices such as the Handspring Treo 600 have something that might charitably be called a keyboard, but are still definitely in the "smartphone" category.
In the higher end of the spectrum, this informal and somewhat humorous rule might help:
You can throw a laptop if you wanted to
You can lift a workstation if you need to
You can tilt a minicomputer if you need to
You cannot move a mainframe, even if you tried
Categories
:Category:Supercomputers
:Category:Mainframe computers
:Category:Minicomputers
:Category:Portable computers
:Category:Mobile computers
:Category:Laptops
:Category:Notebooks
:Category:Tablet computers
:Category:Subnotebooks
:Category:Portable computers
:Category:Pocket computers
:Category:Personal digital assistants
:Category:Calculators
:Category:Handheld game consoles
:Category:Information appliances
:Category:Wearable computers
:Category:Embedded systems
:Category:Wireless sensor network
See also
Classes of computers
Computer form factor
Form factor (design)
References
List of computer size categories
Computer size categories | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.471 | 14,464 |
Laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. These typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper lid and the keyboard on the inside of the lower lid, although 2-in-1 PCs with a detachable keyboard are often marketed as laptops or as having a laptop mode. Laptops are folded shut for transportation, and thus are suitable for mobile use. Its name comes from lap, as it was deemed practical to be placed on a person's lap when being used. Today, laptops are used in a variety of settings, such as at work, in education, for playing games, web browsing, for personal multimedia, and general home computer use.
As of 2021, in American English, the terms 'laptop computer' and 'notebook computer' are used interchangeably; in other dialects of English one or the other may be preferred. Although the terms 'notebook computers' or 'notebooks' originally referred to a specific size of laptop (originally smaller and lighter than mainstream laptops of the time), the terms have come to mean the same thing and notebook no longer refers to any specific size.
Laptops combine all the input/output components and capabilities of a desktop computer, including the display screen, small speakers, a keyboard, data storage device, sometimes an optical disc drive, pointing devices (such as a touch pad or pointing stick), with an operating system, a processor and memory into a single unit. Most modern laptops feature integrated webcams and built-in microphones, while many also have touchscreens. Laptops can be powered either from an internal battery or by an external power supply from an AC adapter. Hardware specifications, such as the processor speed and memory capacity, significantly vary between different types, models and price points.
Design elements, form factor and construction can also vary significantly between models depending on the intended use. Examples of specialized models of laptops include rugged notebooks for use in construction or military applications, as well as low production cost laptops such as those from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organization, which incorporate features like solar charging and semi-flexible components not found on most laptop computers. Portable computers, which later developed into modern laptops, were originally considered to be a small niche market, mostly for specialized field applications, such as in the military, for accountants, or traveling sales representatives. As portable computers evolved into modern laptops, they became widely used for a variety of purposes.
History
As the personal computer (PC) became feasible in 1971, the idea of a portable personal computer soon followed. A "personal, portable information manipulator" was imagined by Alan Kay at Xerox PARC in 1968, and described in his 1972 paper as the "Dynabook". The IBM Special Computer APL Machine Portable (SCAMP) was demonstrated in 1973. This prototype was based on the IBM PALM processor. The IBM 5100, the first commercially available portable computer, appeared in September 1975, and was based on the SCAMP prototype.
As 8-bit CPU machines became widely accepted, the number of portables increased rapidly. The first "laptop-sized notebook computer" was the Epson HX-20, invented (patented) by Suwa Seikosha's Yukio Yokozawa in July 1980, introduced at the COMDEX computer show in Las Vegas by Japanese company Seiko Epson in 1981, and released in July 1982. It had an LCD screen, a rechargeable battery, and a calculator-size printer, in a chassis, the size of an A4 notebook. It was described as a "laptop" and "notebook" computer in its patent.
The portable micro computer Portal of the French company R2E Micral CCMC officially appeared in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris. It was a portable microcomputer designed and marketed by the studies and developments department of R2E Micral at the request of the company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting. It was based on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz. It was equipped with a central 64 KB RAM, a keyboard with 58 alphanumeric keys and 11 numeric keys (separate blocks), a 32-character screen, a floppy disk: capacity = 140,000 characters, of a thermal printer: speed = 28 characters / second, an asynchronous channel, asynchronous channel, a 220 V power supply. It weighed 12 kg and its dimensions were 45 x 45 x 15 cm. It provided total mobility. Its operating system was aptly named Prologue.
The Osborne 1, released in 1981, was a luggable computer that used the Zilog Z80 and weighed . It had no battery, a cathode ray tube (CRT) screen, and dual single-density floppy drives. Both Tandy/RadioShack and Hewlett Packard (HP) also produced portable computers of varying designs during this period. The first laptops using the flip form factor appeared in the early 1980s. The Dulmont Magnum was released in Australia in 1981–82, but was not marketed internationally until 1984–85. The US$8,150 (US$ today) GRiD Compass 1101, released in 1982, was used at NASA and by the military, among others. The Sharp PC-5000, Ampere and Gavilan SC released in 1983. The Gavilan SC was described as a "laptop" by its manufacturer, while the Ampere had a modern clamshell design. The Toshiba T1100 won acceptance not only among PC experts but the mass market as a way to have PC portability.
From 1983 onward, several new input techniques were developed and included in laptops, including the touch pad (Gavilan SC, 1983), the pointing stick (IBM ThinkPad 700, 1992), and handwriting recognition (Linus Write-Top, 1987). Some CPUs, such as the 1990 Intel i386SL, were designed to use minimum power to increase battery life of portable computers and were supported by dynamic power management features such as Intel SpeedStep and AMD PowerNow! in some designs.
Displays reached 640x480 (VGA) resolution by 1988 (Compaq SLT/286), and color screens started becoming a common upgrade in 1991, with increases in resolution and screen size occurring frequently until the introduction of 17" screen laptops in 2003. Hard drives started to be used in portables, encouraged by the introduction of 3.5" drives in the late 1980s, and became common in laptops starting with the introduction of 2.5" and smaller drives around 1990; capacities have typically lagged behind physically larger desktop drives.
Common resolutions of laptop webcams are 720p (HD), and in lower-end laptops 480p. The earliest known laptops with 1080p (Full HD) webcams like the Samsung 700G7C were released in the early 2010s.
Optical disc drives became common in full-size laptops around 1997; this initially consisted of CD-ROM drives, which were supplanted by CD-R, DVD, and Blu-ray drives with writing capability over time. Starting around 2011, the trend shifted against internal optical drives, and as of 2021, they have largely disappeared; they are still readily available as external peripherals.
Etymology
While the terms laptop and notebook are used interchangeably today, there is some question as to the original etymology and specificity of either term—the term laptop appears to have been coined in the early 1980s to describe a mobile computer which could be used on one's lap, and to distinguish these devices from earlier and much heavier, portable computers (informally called "luggables"). The term "notebook" appears to have gained currency somewhat later as manufacturers started producing even smaller portable devices, further reducing their weight and size and incorporating a display roughly the size of A4 paper; these were marketed as notebooks to distinguish them from bulkier mainstream or desktop replacement laptops.
Types
Since the introduction of portable computers during the late 1970s, their form has changed significantly, spawning a variety of visually and technologically differing subclasses. Except where there is a distinct legal trademark around a term (notably, Ultrabook), there are rarely hard distinctions between these classes and their usage has varied over time and between different sources. Since the late 2010s, the use of more specific terms has become less common, with sizes distinguished largely by the size of the screen.
Smaller and Larger Laptops
There were in the past a number of marketing categories for smaller and larger laptop computers; these included "subnotebook" models, low cost "netbooks", and "Ultra-mobile PCs" where the size class overlapped with devices like smartphone and handheld tablets, and "Desktop replacement" laptops for machines notably larger and heavier than typical to operate more powerful processors or graphics hardware. All of these terms have fallen out of favor as the size of mainstream laptops has gone down and their capabilities have gone up; except for niche models, laptop sizes tend to be distinguished by the size of the screen, and for more powerful models, by any specialized purpose the machine is intended for, such as a "gaming laptop" or a "mobile workstation" for professional use.
Convertible, hybrid, 2-in-1
The latest trend of technological convergence in the portable computer industry spawned a broad range of devices, which combined features of several previously separate device types. The hybrids, convertibles, and 2-in-1s emerged as crossover devices, which share traits of both tablets and laptops. All such devices have a touchscreen display designed to allow users to work in a tablet mode, using either multi-touch gestures or a stylus/digital pen.
Convertibles are devices with the ability to conceal a hardware keyboard. Keyboards on such devices can be flipped, rotated, or slid behind the back of the chassis, thus transforming from a laptop into a tablet. Hybrids have a keyboard detachment mechanism, and due to this feature, all critical components are situated in the part with the display. 2-in-1s can have a hybrid or a convertible form, often dubbed 2-in-1 detachable and 2-in-1 convertibles respectively, but are distinguished by the ability to run a desktop OS, such as Windows 10. 2-in-1s are often marketed as laptop replacement tablets.
2-in-1s are often very thin, around , and light devices with a long battery life. 2-in-1s are distinguished from mainstream tablets as they feature an x86-architecture CPU (typically a low- or ultra-low-voltage model), such as the Intel Core i5, run a full-featured desktop OS like Windows 10, and have a number of typical laptop I/O ports, such as USB 3 and Mini DisplayPort.
2-in-1s are designed to be used not only as a media consumption device but also as valid desktop or laptop replacements, due to their ability to run desktop applications, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is possible to connect multiple peripheral devices, such as a mouse, keyboard, and several external displays to a modern 2-in-1.
Microsoft Surface Pro-series devices and Surface Book are examples of modern 2-in-1 detachable, whereas Lenovo Yoga-series computers are a variant of 2-in-1 convertibles. While the older Surface RT and Surface 2 have the same chassis design as the Surface Pro, their use of ARM processors and Windows RT do not classify them as 2-in-1s, but as hybrid tablets. Similarly, a number of hybrid laptops run a mobile operating system, such as Android. These include Asus's Transformer Pad devices, examples of hybrids with a detachable keyboard design, which do not fall in the category of 2-in-1s.
Rugged laptop
A rugged laptop is designed to reliably operate in harsh usage conditions such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or dusty environments. Rugged laptops are bulkier, heavier, and much more expensive than regular laptops, and thus are seldom seen in regular consumer use.
Hardware
The basic components of laptops function identically to their desktop counterparts. Traditionally they were miniaturized and adapted to mobile use, although desktop systems increasingly use the same smaller, lower-power parts which were originally developed for mobile use. The design restrictions on power, size, and cooling of laptops limit the maximum performance of laptop parts compared to that of desktop components, although that difference has increasingly narrowed.
In general, laptop components are not intended to be replaceable or upgradable by the end-user, except for components that can be detached; in the past, batteries and optical drives were commonly exchangeable. This restriction is one of the major differences between laptops and desktop computers, because the large "tower" cases used in desktop computers are designed so that new motherboards, hard disks, sound cards, RAM, and other components can be added. Memory and storage can often be upgraded with some disassembly, but with the most compact laptops, there may be no upgradeable components at all.
Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta, and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building Block standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused by the lack of standards and inability to upgrade components.
The following sections summarizes the differences and distinguishing features of laptop components in comparison to desktop personal computer parts.
Display
Internally, a display is usually an LCD panel, although occasionally OLEDs are used. These interface to the laptop using the LVDS or embedded DisplayPort protocol, while externally, it can be a glossy screen or a matte (anti-glare) screen. As of 2021, mainstream consumer laptops tend to come with either 13" or 15"-16" screens; 14" models are more popular among business machines. Larger and smaller models are available, but less common – there is no clear dividing line in minimum or maximum size. Machines small enough to be handheld (screens in the 6–8" range) can be marketed either as very small laptops or "handheld PCs," while the distinction between the largest laptops and "All-in-One" desktops is whether they fold for travel.
Sizes
In the past, there was a broader range of marketing terms (both formal and informal) to distinguish between different sizes of laptops. These included Netbooks, subnotebooks, Ultra-mobile PC, and Desktop replacement computers; these are sometimes still used informally, although they are essentially dead in terms of manufacturer marketing.
Resolution
Having a higher resolution display allows more items to fit onscreen at a time, improving the user's ability to multitask, although at the higher resolutions on smaller screens, the resolution may only serve to display sharper graphics and text rather than increasing the usable area. Since the introduction of the MacBook Pro with Retina display in 2012, there have been an increase in the availability of "HiDPI" (or high Pixel density) displays; as of 2021, this is generally considered to be anything higher than 1920 pixels wide. This has increasingly converged around 4K (3840-pixel-wide) resolutions.
External displays can be connected to most laptops, and models with a Mini DisplayPort can handle up to three.
Refresh rates and 3D
The earliest laptops known to feature a display with doubled 120 Hz of refresh rate and active shutter 3D system were released in 2011 by Dell (M17x) and Samsung (700G7A).
Central processing unit
A laptop's central processing unit (CPU) has advanced power-saving features and produces less heat than one intended purely for desktop use. Mainstream laptop CPUs made after 2018 have four processor cores, although some inexpensive models still have 2-core CPUs, and 6-core and 8-core models are also available.
For the low price and mainstream performance, there is no longer a significant performance difference between laptop and desktop CPUs, but at the high end, the fastest desktop CPUs still substantially outperform the fastest laptop processors, at the expense of massively higher power consumption and heat generation; the fastest laptop processors top out at 56 watts of heat, while the fastest desktop processors top out at 150 watts.
There has been a wide range of CPUs designed for laptops available from both Intel, AMD, and other manufacturers. On non-x86 architectures, Motorola and IBM produced the chips for the former PowerPC-based Apple laptops (iBook and PowerBook). Between around 2000 to 2014, most full-size laptops had socketed, replaceable CPUs; on thinner models, the CPU was soldered on the motherboard and was not replaceable or upgradable without replacing the motherboard. Since 2015, Intel has not offered new laptop CPU models with pins to be interchangeable, preferring ball grid array chip packages which have to be soldered;and as of 2021, only a few rare models using desktop parts.
In the past, some laptops have used a desktop processor instead of the laptop version and have had high-performance gains at the cost of greater weight, heat, and limited battery life; this is not unknown as of 2021, but since around 2010, the practice has been restricted to small-volume gaming models. Laptop CPUs are rarely able to be overclocked; most use locked processors. Even on gaming models where unlocked processors are available, the cooling system in most laptops is often very close to its limits and there is rarely headroom for an overclocking–related operating temperature increase.
Graphical processing unit
On most laptops, a graphical processing unit (GPU) is integrated into the CPU to conserve power and space. This was introduced by Intel with the Core i-series of mobile processors in 2010, and similar accelerated processing unit (APU) processors by AMD later that year.
Before that, lower-end machines tended to use graphics processors integrated into the system chipset, while higher-end machines had a separate graphics processor. In the past, laptops lacking a separate graphics processor were limited in their utility for gaming and professional applications involving 3D graphics, but the capabilities of CPU-integrated graphics have converged with the low-end of dedicated graphics processors since the mid-2010s.
Higher-end laptops intended for gaming or professional 3D work still come with dedicated and in some cases even dual, graphics processors on the motherboard or as an internal expansion card. Since 2011, these almost always involve switchable graphics so that when there is no demand for the higher performance dedicated graphics processor, the more power-efficient integrated graphics processor will be used. Nvidia Optimus and AMD Hybrid Graphics are examples of this sort of system of switchable graphics.
Memory
Since around the year 2000, most laptops have used SO-DIMM RAM, although, as of 2021, an increasing number of models use memory soldered to the motherboard. Before 2000, most laptops used proprietary memory modules if their memory was upgradable.
In the early 2010s, high end laptops such as the 2011 Samsung 700G7A have passed the 10 GB RAM barrier, featuring 16 GB of RAM.
When upgradeable, memory slots are sometimes accessible from the bottom of the laptop for ease of upgrading; in other cases, accessing them requires significant disassembly. Most laptops have two memory slots, although some will have only one, either for cost savings or because some amount of memory is soldered. Some high-end models have four slots; these are usually mobile engineering workstations, although a few high-end models intended for gaming do as well.
As of 2021, 8 GB RAM is most common, with lower-end models occasionally having 4GB. Higher-end laptops may come with 16 GB of RAM or more.
Internal storage
The earliest laptops most often used floppy disk for storage, although a few used either RAM disks or tape, by the late 1980s hard disk drives had become the standard form of storage.
Between 1990 and 2009, almost all laptops typically had a hard disk drive (HDD) for storage; since then, solid-state drives (SSD) have gradually come to supplant hard drives in all but some inexpensive consumer models. Solid-state drives are faster and more power-efficient, as well as eliminating the hazard of drive and data corruption caused by a laptop's physical impacts, as they use no mechanical parts such as a rotational platter. In many cases, they are more compact as well. Initially, in the late 2000s, SSDs were substantially more expensive than HDDs, but as of 2021 prices on smaller capacity (under 1 terabyte) drives have converged; larger capacity drives remain more expensive than comparable-sized HDDs.
Since around 1990, where a hard drive is present it will typically be a 2.5-inch drive; some very compact laptops support even smaller 1.8-inch HDDs, and a very small number used 1" Microdrives. Some SSDs are built to match the size/shape of a laptop hard drive, but increasingly they have been replaced with smaller mSATA or M.2 cards. SSDs using the newer and much faster NVM Express standard for connecting are only available as cards.
As of 2021, many laptops no longer contain space for a 2.5" drive, accepting only M.2 cards; a few of the smallest have storage soldered to the motherboard. For those that can, they can typically contain a single 2.5-inch drive, but a small number of laptops with a screen wider than 15 inches can house two drives.
A variety of external HDDs or NAS data storage servers with support of RAID technology can be attached to virtually any laptop over such interfaces as USB, FireWire, eSATA, or Thunderbolt, or over a wired or wireless network to further increase space for the storage of data. Many laptops also incorporate a card reader which allows for use of memory cards, such as those used for digital cameras, which are typically SD or microSD cards. This enables users to download digital pictures from an SD card onto a laptop, thus enabling them to delete the SD card's contents to free up space for taking new pictures.
Removable media drive
Optical disc drives capable of playing CD-ROMs, compact discs (CD), DVDs, and in some cases, Blu-ray discs (BD), were nearly universal on full-sized models between the mid-1990s and the early 2010s. As of 2021, drives are uncommon in compact or premium laptops; they remain available in some bulkier models, but the trend towards thinner and lighter machines is gradually eliminating these drives and players – when needed they can be connected via USB instead.
Inputs
An alphanumeric keyboard is used to enter text, data, and other commands (e.g., function keys). A touchpad (also called a trackpad), a pointing stick, or both, are used to control the position of the cursor on the screen, and an integrated keyboard is used for typing. Some touchpads have buttons separate from the touch surface, while others share the surface. A quick double-tap is typically registered as a click, and operating systems may recognize multi-finger touch gestures.
An external keyboard and mouse may be connected using a USB port or wirelessly, via Bluetooth or similar technology. Some laptops have multitouch touchscreen displays, either available as an option or standard. Most laptops have webcams and microphones, which can be used to communicate with other people with both moving images and sound, via web conferencing or video-calling software.
Laptops typically have USB ports and a combined headphone/microphone jack, for use with headphones, a combined headset, or an external mic. Many laptops have a card reader for reading digital camera SD cards.
Input/output (I/O) ports
On a typical laptop there are several USB ports; if they use only the older USB connectors instead of USB-C, they will typically have an external monitor port (VGA, DVI, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort or occasionally more than one), an audio in/out port (often in form of a single socket) is common. It is possible to connect up to three external displays to a 2014-era laptop via a single Mini DisplayPort, using multi-stream transport technology.
Apple, in a 2015 version of its MacBook, transitioned from a number of different I/O ports to a single USB-C port. This port can be used both for charging and connecting a variety of devices through the use of aftermarket adapters. Google, with its updated version of Chromebook Pixel, shows a similar transition trend towards USB-C, although keeping older USB Type-A ports for a better compatibility with older devices. Although being common until the end of the 2000s decade, Ethernet network port are rarely found on modern laptops, due to widespread use of wireless networking, such as Wi-Fi. Legacy ports such as a PS/2 keyboard/mouse port, serial port, parallel port, or FireWire are provided on some models, but they are increasingly rare. On Apple's systems, and on a handful of other laptops, there are also Thunderbolt ports, but Thunderbolt 3 uses USB-C. Laptops typically have a headphone jack, so that the user can connect external headphones or amplified speaker systems for listening to music or other audio.
Expansion cards
In the past, a PC Card (formerly PCMCIA) or ExpressCard slot for expansion was often present on laptops to allow adding and removing functionality, even when the laptop is powered on; these are becoming increasingly rare since the introduction of USB 3.0. Some internal subsystems such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or a wireless cellular modem can be implemented as replaceable internal expansion cards, usually accessible under an access cover on the bottom of the laptop. The standard for such cards is PCI Express, which comes in both mini and even smaller M.2 sizes. In newer laptops, it is not uncommon to also see Micro SATA (mSATA) functionality on PCI Express Mini or M.2 card slots allowing the use of those slots for SATA-based solid-state drives.
Battery and power supply
Since the late 1990s, laptops have typically used lithium ion or lithium polymer batteries, These replaced the older nickel metal-hydride typically used in the 1990s, and nickel–cadmium batteries used in most of the earliest laptops. A few of the oldest laptops used non-rechargeable batteries, or lead–acid batteries.
Battery life is highly variable by model and workload and can range from one hour to nearly a day. A battery's performance gradually decreases over time; a substantial reduction in capacity is typically evident after one to three years of regular use, depending on the charging and discharging pattern and the design of the battery. Innovations in laptops and batteries have seen situations in which the battery can provide up to 24 hours of continued operation, assuming average power consumption levels. An example is the HP EliteBook 6930p when used with its ultra-capacity battery.
Laptops with removable batteries may support larger replacement batteries with extended capacity.
A laptop's battery is charged using an external power supply, which is plugged into a wall outlet. The power supply outputs a DC voltage typically in the range of 7.2—24 volts. The power supply is usually external and connected to the laptop through a DC connector cable. In most cases, it can charge the battery and power the laptop simultaneously. When the battery is fully charged, the laptop continues to run on power supplied by the external power supply, avoiding battery use. If the used power supply is not strong enough to power computing components and charge the battery simultaneously, the battery may charge in a shorter period of time if the laptop is turned off or sleeping. The charger typically adds about to the overall transporting weight of a laptop, although some models are substantially heavier or lighter. Most 2016-era laptops use a smart battery, a rechargeable battery pack with a built-in battery management system (BMS). The smart battery can internally measure voltage and current, and deduce charge level and State of Health (SoH) parameters, indicating the state of the cells.
Power connectors
Historically, DC connectors, typically cylindrical/barrel-shaped coaxial power connectors have been used in laptops. Some vendors such as Lenovo made intermittent use of a rectangular connector.
Some connector heads feature a center pin to allow the end device to determine the power supply type by measuring the resistance between it and the connector's negative pole (outer surface). Vendors may block charging if a power supply is not recognized as original part, which could deny the legitimate use of universal third-party chargers.
With the advent of USB-C, portable electronics made increasing use of it for both power delivery and data transfer. Its support for 20 V (common laptop power supply voltage) and 5 A typically suffices for low to mid-end laptops, but some with higher power demands such as gaming laptops depend on dedicated DC connectors to handle currents beyond 5 A without risking overheating, some even above 10 A. Additionally, dedicated DC connectors are more durable and less prone to wear and tear from frequent reconnection, as their design is less delicate.
Cooling
Waste heat from the operation is difficult to remove in the compact internal space of a laptop. The earliest laptops used passive cooling; this gave way to heat sinks placed directly on the components to be cooled, but when these hot components are deep inside the device, a large space-wasting air duct is needed to exhaust the heat. Modern laptops instead rely on heat pipes to rapidly move waste heat towards the edges of the device, to allow for a much smaller and compact fan and heat sink cooling system. Waste heat is usually exhausted away from the device operator towards the rear or sides of the device. Multiple air intake paths are used since some intakes can be blocked, such as when the device is placed on a soft conforming surface like a chair cushion. Secondary device temperature monitoring may reduce performance or trigger an emergency shutdown if it is unable to dissipate heat, such as if the laptop were to be left running and placed inside a carrying case. Aftermarket cooling pads with external fans can be used with laptops to reduce operating temperatures.
Docking station
A docking station (sometimes referred to simply as a dock) is a laptop accessory that contains multiple ports and in some cases expansion slots or bays for fixed or removable drives. A laptop connects and disconnects to a docking station, typically through a single large proprietary connector. A docking station is an especially popular laptop accessory in a corporate computing environment, due to a possibility of a docking station transforming a laptop into a full-featured desktop replacement, yet allowing for its easy release. This ability can be advantageous to "road warrior" employees who have to travel frequently for work, and yet who also come into the office. If more ports are needed, or their position on a laptop is inconvenient, one can use a cheaper passive device known as a port replicator. These devices mate to the connectors on the laptop, such as through USB or FireWire.
Charging trolleys
Laptop charging trolleys, also known as laptop trolleys or laptop carts, are mobile storage containers to charge multiple laptops, netbooks, and tablet computers at the same time. The trolleys are used in schools that have replaced their traditional static computer labs suites of desktop equipped with "tower" computers, but do not have enough plug sockets in an individual classroom to charge all of the devices. The trolleys can be wheeled between rooms and classrooms so that all students and teachers in a particular building can access fully charged IT equipment.
Laptop charging trolleys are also used to deter and protect against opportunistic and organized theft. Schools, especially those with open plan designs, are often prime targets for thieves who steal high-value items. Laptops, netbooks, and tablets are among the highest–value portable items in a school. Moreover, laptops can easily be concealed under clothing and stolen from buildings. Many types of laptop–charging trolleys are designed and constructed to protect against theft. They are generally made out of steel, and the laptops remain locked up while not in use. Although the trolleys can be moved between areas from one classroom to another, they can often be mounted or locked to the floor or walls to prevent thieves from stealing the laptops, especially overnight.
Solar panels
In some laptops, solar panels are able to generate enough solar power for the laptop to operate. The One Laptop Per Child Initiative released the OLPC XO-1 laptop which was tested and successfully operated by use of solar panels. Presently, they are designing an OLPC XO-3 laptop with these features. The OLPC XO-3 can operate with 2 watts of electricity because its renewable energy resources generate a total of 4 watts. Samsung has also designed the NC215S solar–powered notebook that will be sold commercially in the U.S. market.
Accessories
A common accessory for laptops is a laptop sleeve, laptop skin, or laptop case, which provides a degree of protection from scratches. Sleeves, which are distinguished by being relatively thin and flexible, are most commonly made of neoprene, with sturdier ones made of low-resilience polyurethane. Some laptop sleeves are wrapped in ballistic nylon to provide some measure of waterproofing. Bulkier and sturdier cases can be made of metal with polyurethane padding inside and may have locks for added security. Metal, padded cases also offer protection against impacts and drops. Another common accessory is a laptop cooler, a device that helps lower the internal temperature of the laptop either actively or passively. A common active method involves using electric fans to draw heat away from the laptop, while a passive method might involve propping the laptop up on some type of pad so it can receive more airflow. Some stores sell laptop pads that enable a reclining person on a bed to use a laptop.
Modularity
Some of the components of earlier models of laptops can easily be replaced without opening completely its bottom part, such as keyboard, battery, hard disk, memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc.
Some of the components of recent models of laptops reside inside. Replacing most of its components, such as keyboard, battery, hard disk, memory modules, CPU cooling fan, etc., requires removal of its either top or bottom part, removal of the motherboard, and returning them.
In some types, solder and glue are used to mount components such as RAM, storage, and batteries, making repairs additionally difficult.
Obsolete features
Features that certain early models of laptops used to have that are not available in most current laptops include:
Reset ("cold restart") button in a hole (needed a thin metal tool to press)
Instant power off button in a hole (needed a thin metal tool to press)
Integrated charger or power adapter inside the laptop
Floppy disk drive
Serial port
Parallel port
Modem
Shared PS/2 input device port
IrDA
S-video port
S/PDIF audio port
PC Card / PCMCIA slot
ExpressCard slot
CD/DVD Drives (starting with 2013 models)
VGA port (starting with 2013 models)
Comparison with desktops
Advantages
Portability is usually the first feature mentioned in any comparison of laptops versus desktop PCs. Physical portability allows a laptop to be used in many places—not only at home and the office but also during commuting and flights, in coffee shops, in lecture halls and libraries, at clients' locations or a meeting room, etc. Within a home, portability enables laptop users to move their devices from the living room to the dining room to the family room. Portability offers several distinct advantages:
Productivity: Using a laptop in places where a desktop PC cannot be used can help employees and students to increase their productivity on work or school tasks, such as an office worker reading their work e-mails during an hour-long commute by train, or a student doing their homework at the university coffee shop during a break between lectures, for example.
Immediacy: Carrying a laptop means having instant access to information, including personal and work files. This allows better collaboration between coworkers or students, as a laptop can be flipped open to look at a report, document, spreadsheet, or presentation anytime and anywhere.
Up-to-date information: If a person has more than one desktop PC, a problem of synchronization arises: changes made on one computer are not automatically propagated to the others. There are ways to resolve this problem, including physical transfer of updated files (using a USB flash memory stick or CD-ROMs) or using synchronization software over the Internet, such as cloud computing. However, transporting a single laptop to both locations avoids the problem entirely, as the files exist in a single location and are always up-to-date.
Connectivity: In the 2010s, a proliferation of Wi-Fi wireless networks and cellular broadband data services (HSDPA, EVDO and others) in many urban centers, combined with near-ubiquitous Wi-Fi support by modern laptops meant that a laptop could now have easy Internet and local network connectivity while remaining mobile. Wi-Fi networks and laptop programs are especially widespread at university campuses.
Other advantages of laptops:
Size: Laptops are smaller than desktop PCs. This is beneficial when space is at a premium, for example in small apartments and student dorms. When not in use, a laptop can be closed and put away in a desk drawer.
Low power consumption: Laptops are several times more power-efficient than desktops. A typical laptop uses 20–120 W, compared to 100–800 W for desktops. This could be particularly beneficial for large businesses, which run hundreds of personal computers thus multiplying the potential savings, and homes where there is a computer running 24/7 (such as a home media server, print server, etc.).
Quiet: Laptops are typically much quieter than desktops, due both to the components (quieter, slower 2.5-inch hard drives) and to less heat production leading to the use of fewer and slower cooling fans.
Battery: a charged laptop can continue to be used in case of a power outage and is not affected by short power interruptions and blackouts. A desktop PC needs an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to handle short interruptions, blackouts, and spikes; achieving on-battery time of more than 20–30 minutes for a desktop PC requires a large and expensive UPS.
All-in-One: designed to be portable, most 2010-era laptops have all components integrated into the chassis (however, some small laptops may not have an internal CD/CDR/DVD drive, so an external drive needs to be used). For desktops (excluding all-in-ones) this is usually divided into the desktop "tower" (the unit with the CPU, hard drive, power supply, etc.), keyboard, mouse, display screen, and optional peripherals such as speakers.
Disadvantages
Compared to desktop PCs, laptops have disadvantages in the following areas:
Performance
While the performance of mainstream desktops and laptops are comparable, and the cost of laptops has fallen less rapidly than desktops, laptops remain more expensive than desktop PCs at the same performance level. The upper limits of performance of laptops remain much lower than the highest-end desktops (especially "workstation class" machines with two processor sockets), and "leading-edge" features usually appear first in desktops and only then, as the underlying technology matures, are adapted to laptops.
For Internet browsing and typical office applications, where the computer spends the majority of its time waiting for the next user input, even relatively low-end laptops (such as Netbooks) can be fast enough for some users. Most higher-end laptops are sufficiently powerful for high-resolution movie playback, some 3D gaming and video editing and encoding. However, laptop processors can be disadvantaged when dealing with a higher-end database, maths, engineering, financial software, virtualization, etc. This is because laptops use the mobile versions of processors to conserve power, and these lag behind desktop chips when it comes to performance. Some manufacturers work around this performance problem by using desktop CPUs for laptops.
Upgradeability
The upgradeability of laptops is very limited compared to thoroughly standardized desktops. In general, hard drives and memory can be upgraded easily. Optical drives and internal expansion cards may be upgraded if they follow an industry standard, but all other internal components, including the motherboard, CPU, and graphics, are not always intended to be upgradeable. Intel, Asus, Compal, Quanta and some other laptop manufacturers have created the Common Building Block standard for laptop parts to address some of the inefficiencies caused by the lack of standards. The reasons for limited upgradeability are both technical and economic. There is no industry-wide standard form factor for laptops; each major laptop manufacturer pursues its own proprietary design and construction, with the result that laptops are difficult to upgrade and have high repair costs. Moreover, starting with 2013 models, laptops have become increasingly integrated (soldered) with the motherboard for most of its components (CPU, SSD, RAM, keyboard, etc.) to reduce size and upgradeability prospects. Devices such as sound cards, network adapters, hard and optical drives, and numerous other peripherals are available, but these upgrades usually impair the laptop's portability, because they add cables and boxes to the setup and often have to be disconnected and reconnected when the laptop is on the move.
Ergonomics and health effects
Wrists
Prolonged use of laptops can cause repetitive strain injury because of their small, flat keyboard and trackpad pointing devices. Usage of separate, external ergonomic keyboards and pointing devices is recommended to prevent injury when working for long periods of time; they can be connected to a laptop easily by USB, Bluetooth or via a docking station. Some health standards require ergonomic keyboards at workplaces.
Neck and spine
A laptop's integrated screen often requires users to lean over for a better view, which can cause neck or spinal injuries. A larger and higher-quality external screen can be connected to almost any laptop to alleviate this and to provide additional screen space for more productive work. Another solution is to use a computer stand.
Possible effect on fertility
A study by State University of New York researchers found that heat generated from laptops can increase the temperature of the lap of male users when balancing the computer on their lap, potentially putting sperm count at risk. The study, which included roughly two dozen men between the ages of 21 and 35, found that the sitting position required to balance a laptop can increase scrotum temperature by as much as . However, further research is needed to determine whether this directly affects male sterility. A later 2010 study of 29 males published in Fertility and Sterility found that men who kept their laptops on their laps experienced scrotal hyperthermia (overheating) in which their scrotal temperatures increased by up to . The resulting heat increase, which could not be offset by a laptop cushion, may increase male infertility.
A common practical solution to this problem is to place the laptop on a table or desk or to use a book or pillow between the body and the laptop. Another solution is to obtain a cooling unit for the laptop. These are usually USB powered and consist of a hard thin plastic case housing one, two, or three cooling fans – with the entire assembly designed to sit under the laptop in question – which results in the laptop remaining cool to the touch, and greatly reduces laptop heat buildup.
Thighs
Heat generated from using a laptop on the lap can also cause skin discoloration on the thighs known as "toasted skin syndrome".
Durability
Laptops are less durable than desktops/PCs. However, the durability of the laptop depends on the user if proper maintenance is done then the laptop can work longer.
Equipment wear
Because of their portability, laptops are subject to more wear and physical damage than desktops. Components such as screen hinges, latches, power jacks, and power cords deteriorate gradually from ordinary use and may have to be replaced. A liquid spill onto the keyboard, a rather minor mishap with a desktop system (given that a basic keyboard costs about US$20), can damage the internals of a laptop and destroy the computer, result in a costly repair or entire replacement of laptops. One study found that a laptop is three times more likely to break during the first year of use than a desktop. To maintain a laptop, it is recommended to clean it every three months for dirt, debris, dust, and food particles. Most cleaning kits consist of a lint-free or microfiber cloth for the LCD screen and keyboard, compressed air for getting dust out of the cooling fan, and a cleaning solution. Harsh chemicals such as bleach should not be used to clean a laptop, as they can damage it.
Heating and cooling
Laptops rely on extremely compact cooling systems involving a fan and heat sink that can fail from blockage caused by accumulated airborne dust and debris. Most laptops do not have any type of removable dust collection filter over the air intake for these cooling systems, resulting in a system that gradually conducts more heat and noise as the years pass. In some cases, the laptop starts to overheat even at idle load levels. This dust is usually stuck inside where the fan and heat sink meet, where it can not be removed by a casual cleaning and vacuuming. Most of the time, compressed air can dislodge the dust and debris but may not entirely remove it. After the device is turned on, the loose debris is reaccumulated into the cooling system by the fans. Complete disassembly is usually required to clean the laptop entirely. However, preventative maintenance such as regular cleaning of the heat sink via compressed air can prevent dust build-up on the heat sink. Many laptops are difficult to disassemble by the average user and contain components that are sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD).
Battery life
Battery life is limited because the capacity drops with time, eventually requiring replacement after as little as a year. A new battery typically stores enough energy to run the laptop for three to five hours, depending on usage, configuration, and power management settings. Yet, as it ages, the battery's energy storage will dissipate progressively until it lasts only a few minutes. The battery is often easily replaceable and a higher capacity model may be obtained for longer charging and discharging time. Some laptops (specifically ultrabooks) do not have the usual removable battery and have to be brought to the service center of their manufacturer or a third-party laptop service center to have their battery replaced. Replacement batteries can also be expensive.
Security and privacy
Because they are valuable, commonly used, portable, and easy to hide in a backpack or other type of travel bag, laptops are often stolen. Every day, over 1,600 laptops go missing from U.S. airports. The cost of stolen business or personal data, and of the resulting problems (identity theft, credit card fraud, breach of privacy), can be many times the value of the stolen laptop itself. Consequently, the physical protection of laptops and the safeguarding of data contained on them are both of great importance. Most laptops have a Kensington security slot, which can be used to tether them to a desk or other immovable object with a security cable and lock. In addition, modern operating systems and third-party software offer disk encryption functionality, which renders the data on the laptop's hard drive unreadable without a key or a passphrase. As of 2015, some laptops also have additional security elements added, including eye recognition software and fingerprint scanning components.
Software such as LoJack for Laptops, Laptop Cop, and GadgetTrack have been engineered to help people locate and recover their stolen laptops in the event of theft. Setting one's laptop with a password on its firmware (protection against going to firmware setup or booting), internal HDD/SSD (protection against accessing it and loading an operating system on it afterward), and every user account of the operating system are additional security measures that a user should do. Fewer than 5% of lost or stolen laptops are recovered by the companies that own them, however, that number may decrease due to a variety of companies and software solutions specializing in laptop recovery. In the 2010s, the common availability of webcams on laptops raised privacy concerns. In Robbins v. Lower Merion School District (Eastern District of Pennsylvania 2010), school-issued laptops loaded with special software enabled staff from two high schools to take secret webcam shots of students at home, via their students' laptops.
Sales
Manufacturers
There are many laptop brands and manufacturers. Several major brands that offer notebooks in various classes are listed in the adjacent box.
The major brands usually offer good service and support, including well-executed documentation and driver downloads that remain available for many years after a particular laptop model is no longer produced. Capitalizing on service, support, and brand image, laptops from major brands are more expensive than laptops by smaller brands and ODMs. Some brands specialize in a particular class of laptops, such as gaming laptops (Alienware), high-performance laptops (HP Envy), netbooks (EeePC) and laptops for children (OLPC).
Many brands, including the major ones, do not design and do not manufacture their laptops. Instead, a small number of Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) design new models of laptops, and the brands choose the models to be included in their lineup. In 2006, 7 major ODMs manufactured 7 of every 10 laptops in the world, with the largest one (Quanta Computer) having 30% of the world market share. Therefore, identical models are available both from a major label and from a low-profile ODM in-house brand.
Market share
Battery-powered portable computers had just 2% worldwide market share in 1986. However, laptops have become increasingly popular, both for business and personal use. Around 109 million notebook PCs shipped worldwide in 2007, a growth of 33% compared to 2006. In 2008 it was estimated that 145.9 million notebooks were sold, and that the number would grow in 2009 to 177.7 million. The third quarter of 2008 was the first time when worldwide notebook PC shipments exceeded desktops, with 38.6 million units versus 38.5 million units.
May 2005 was the first time notebooks outsold desktops in the US over the course of a full month; at the time notebooks sold for an average of $1,131 while desktops sold for an average of $696. When looking at operating systems, for Microsoft Windows laptops the average selling price (ASP) showed a decline in 2008/2009, possibly due to low-cost netbooks, drawing an average US$689 at U.S. retail stores in August 2008. In 2009, ASP had further fallen to $602 by January and to $560 in February. While Windows machines ASP fell $129 in these seven months, Apple macOS laptop ASP declined just $12 from $1,524 to $1,512.
Disposal
The list of materials that go into a laptop computer is long, and many of the substances used, such as beryllium (used in beryllium-copper alloy contacts in some connectors and sockets), lead (used in lead-tin solder), chromium, and mercury (used in CCFL LCD backlights) compounds, are toxic or carcinogenic to humans. Although these toxins are relatively harmless when the laptop is in use, concerns that discarded laptops cause a serious health risk and toxic environmental damage, were so strong, that the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive) in Europe specified that all laptop computers must be recycled by law. Similarly, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has outlawed landfill dumping or the incinerating of discarded laptop computers.
Most laptop computers begin the recycling process with a method known as Demanufacturing, this involves the physical separation of the components of the laptop. These components are then either grouped into materials (e.g. plastic, metal and glass) for recycling or more complex items that require more advanced materials separation (e.g.) circuit boards, hard drives and batteries.
Corporate laptop recycling can require an additional process known as data destruction. The data destruction process ensures that all information or data that has been stored on a laptop hard drive can never be retrieved again. Below is an overview of some of the data protection and environmental laws and regulations applicable for laptop recycling data destruction:
Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)
EU Privacy Directive (Due 2016)
Financial Conduct Authority
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
PCI-DSS Data Security Standard
Waste, Electronic & Electrical Equipment Directive (WEEE)
Basel Convention
Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)
FACTA Sarbanes-Oxley Act
FDA Security Regulations (21 C.F.R. part 11)
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA)
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)
NIST SP 800–53
Add NIST SP 800–171
Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act
Patriot Act of 2002
PCI Data Security Standard
US Safe Harbor Provisions
Various state laws
JAN 6/3
Gramm-leach-Bliley Act
DCID
Extreme use
The ruggedized Grid Compass computer was used since the early days of the Space Shuttle program. The first commercial laptop used in space was a Macintosh portable in 1991 aboard Space Shuttle mission STS-43. Apple and other laptop computers continue to be flown aboard crewed spaceflights, though the only long-duration flight certified computer for the International Space Station is the ThinkPad. As of 2011, over 100 ThinkPads were aboard the ISS. Laptops used aboard the International Space Station and other spaceflights are generally the same ones that can be purchased by the general public but needed modifications are made to allow them to be used safely and effectively in a weightless environment such as updating the cooling systems to function without relying on hot air rising and accommodation for the lower cabin air pressure. Laptops operating in harsh usage environments and conditions, such as strong vibrations, extreme temperatures, and wet or dusty conditions differ from those used in space in that they are custom designed for the task and do not use commercial off-the-shelf hardware.
See also
List of computer size categories
List of laptop brands and manufacturers
Netbook
Smartbook
Chromebook
Ultrabook
Smartphone
Subscriber Identity Module
Mobile broadband
Mobile Internet device (MID)
Personal digital assistant
VIA OpenBook
Tethering
XJACK
Open-source computer hardware
Novena
Portal laptop computer
Mobile modem
Stereoscopy glasses
Notes
References
Classes of computers
Japanese inventions
Mobile computers
Office equipment
Personal computers
1980s neologisms | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.462 | 14,465 |
History of laptops
The history of laptops describes the efforts, begun in the 1970s, to build small, portable personal computers that combine the components, inputs, outputs and capabilities of a desktop computer in a small chassis.
Portable precursors
Portal R2E CCMC
The portable micro computer the "Portal" of the French company R2E Micral CCMC officially appeared in September 1980 at the Sicob show in Paris. The Portal was a portable microcomputer designed and marketed by the studies and developments department of the French firm R2E Micral in 1980 at the request of the company CCMC specializing in payroll and accounting. It was based on an Intel 8085 processor, 8-bit, clocked at 2 MHz. It was equipped with a central 64K byte RAM, a keyboard with 58 alphanumeric keys and 11 numeric keys (in separate blocks), a 32-character screen, a floppy disk (capacity - 140,000 characters), a thermal printer (speed - 28 characters/second), an asynchronous channel, a synchronous channel, and a 220-volt power supply. Designed for an operating temperature of 15–35 °C, it weighed 12 kg and its dimensions were 45 × 45 × 15 cm. It ran the Prologue operating system and provided total mobility.
Osborne 1
The Osborne 1 is considered the first true mobile computer by most historians. Adam Osborne founded Osborne Computer and produced the Osborne 1 in 1981. The Osborne 1 had a five-inch screen, incorporating a modem port, two 5 1/4 floppy drives, and a large collection of bundled software applications. An aftermarket battery pack was available. The computer company was a failure and did not last for very long. Although it was large and heavy compared to today's laptops, with a tiny 5" CRT monitor, it had a near-revolutionary impact on business, as professionals were able to take their computer and data with them for the first time. This and other "luggables" were inspired by what was probably the first portable computer, the Xerox NoteTaker. The Osborne was about the size of a portable sewing machine, and could be carried on commercial aircraft. The Osborne 1 weighed close to 11 kg and was priced at $1,795 ($ in dollars ).
Compaq Portable
The Compaq Portable was the first PC-compatible portable computer created in 1982. The first shipment was in March 1983 and was priced at $2,995 ($ in dollars ). The Compaq Portable folded up into a luggable case the size of a portable sewing machine, similar in size to the Osbourne 1. The third model of this development, Compaq Portable II, featured high resolution graphics on its tube display. It was the first portable computer ready to be used on the shop floor, and for CAD and diagram display. It established Compaq as a major brand on the market.
Epson HX-20
The first significant development towards laptop computing was announced in 1981 and sold from July 1982, the 8/16-bit Epson HX-20. It featured a full-transit 68-key keyboard, rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, a small (120×32-pixel) dot-matrix LCD with 4 lines of text, 20 characters per line text mode, a 24 column dot matrix printer, a Microsoft BASIC interpreter, and 16 KB of RAM (expandable to 32 KB). The HX-20's very limited screen, tiny internal memory and lack of mass storage support, made serious word-processing and spreadsheet applications impractical and the device was described as "primitive" by some.
Grid Compass
The first clamshell laptop, the Grid Compass, was made in 1982. Enclosed in a magnesium case, it introduced the now familiar design in which the flat display folded shut against the keyboard. The computer was equipped with a 320×200-pixel electroluminescent display and 384 kilobyte bubble memory. It was not IBM-compatible, and its high price (US$8,000–10,000, equivalent to $- in ) limited it to specialized applications. However, it was used heavily by the U.S. military, and by NASA on the Space Shuttle during the 1980s. The GRiD's manufacturer subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace. GRiD Systems Corp. was later bought by the Tandy (now RadioShack) Corporation. The Grid's portability was restricted as it had no internal battery pack and relied on mains power.
Dulmont Magnum/Kookaburra
The first contender for true laptop computing was the 16-bit Dulmont Magnum, designed by David Irwin and John Blair of Dulmison, Australia, in 1982 and released in Australia in September 1983 by Dulmont. This battery-powered device included an 80 character × 8 line display in a lid that closed against the keyboard. The Dulmont was thus the first computer that could be taken anywhere and offered significant computing potential on the user's laptop (though weighing in at 4.8 kg). It was based on the MS-DOS operating system and applications stored in ROM (A:) and also supported removable modules in expansion slots (B: and C:) that could be custom programmed EPROM or standard word processing and spreadsheet applications. The Magnum could suspend and retain memory in battery-backed CMOS RAM, including a RAM Disk (D:). A separate expansion box provided dual 5.25-inch floppy or 10 MB hard disk storage. The product was marketed internationally from 1984 to 1986. Dulmont was eventually taken over by Time Office Computers, who relabeled the brand "Kookaburra" and marketed 16- and 25-line LCD display versions.
Sharp and Gavilan
Three other noteworthy early laptops were the Sharp PC-5000 (similar in many respects to the Dulmont Magnum), the Gavilan SC, announced in 1983 but first sold in 1984, Gavilan filing bankruptcy the same year. Both ran the 8/16-bit Intel 8088 CPU. The Gavilan was notably the first computer to be marketed as a "laptop". It was equipped with an internal floppy disk drive and a pioneering touchpad-like pointing device, installed on a panel above the keyboard. Like the GRiD Compass, the Gavilan and the Sharp were housed in clamshell cases, but they were partly IBM-compatible, although primarily running their own system software. Both had LCDs, and could connect to optional external printers.
Kyotronic 85 (Tandy Model 100)
The year 1983 also saw the launch of what was probably the biggest-selling early laptop, the 8-bit Kyocera Kyotronic 85. Owing much to the design of the previous Epson HX-20, and although at first a slow seller in Japan, it was quickly licensed by Tandy Corporation, Olivetti, and NEC, who recognised its potential and marketed it respectively as the TRS-80 Model 100 line (or Tandy 100), Olivetti M-10, and NEC PC-8201. The machines ran on standard AA batteries. The Tandy's built-in programs, including a BASIC interpreter, a text editor, and a terminal program, were supplied by Microsoft, and were written in part by Bill Gates himself. The computer was not a clamshell, but provided a tiltable 8 line × 40-character LCD screen above a full-travel keyboard. With its internal modem, it was a highly portable communications terminal. Due to its portability, good battery life (and ease of replacement), reliability (it had no moving parts), and low price (as little as US$300), the model was highly regarded, becoming a favorite among journalists. It weighed less than 2 kg with dimensions of 30×21.5×4.5 centimeters (12×8½×1¾ in). Initial specifications included 8 kilobytes of RAM (expandable to 24 KB) and a 3 MHz processor. The machine was in fact about the size of a paper notebook, but the term had yet to come into use and it was generally described as a "portable" computer.
Bondwell 2
Although it was not released until 1985, well after the decline of CP/M as a major operating system, the Bondwell 2 is one of only a handful of CP/M laptops. It used an 8-bit Z-80 CPU running at 4 MHz, had 64 KBs of RAM, and a 3.5" floppy disk drive built in, which was unusual for CP/M laptops. The flip-up LCD display's resolution was 640x200 pixels. Bondwell 2 also included MicroPro's complete line of CP/M software, including WordStar. The Bondwell 2 was capable of displaying bitmapped graphics. The price of the Bondwell 2 was listed at $995.
Kaypro 2000
Possibly the first commercial IBM-compatible laptop was the 8/16-bit Kaypro 2000, introduced in 1985. With its brushed aluminum clamshell case, it was remarkably similar in design to modern laptops. It featured a 25 line by 80 character LCD, a detachable keyboard, and a pop-up 90 mm (3.5-inch) floppy drive.
Toshiba T1100, T1000, and T1200
Toshiba launched the 8/16-bit Toshiba T1100 in 1985, and has subsequently described it as "the world's first mass-market laptop computer". It did not have a hard drive, and ran entirely from floppy disks. The CPU was a 4.77 MHz Intel 80C88, a variation of the popular Intel 8088, and the display was a monochrome, text-only 640x200 LCD. It was followed in 1987 by the T1000 and T1200. Although limited floppy-based DOS machines, with the operating system stored in ROM, the Toshiba models were small and light enough to be carried in a backpack, and could be run from lead-acid batteries. They also introduced the now-standard "resume" feature to DOS-based machines: the computer could be paused between sessions without having to be restarted each time.
IBM PC Convertible
Also among the first commercial IBM-compatible laptops was the 8/16-bit IBM PC Convertible, introduced in 1986. It had a CGA-compatible LCD and 2 floppy drives.It weighed .
Epson L3S
The L3S was an early portable computer that ran MS-DOS and featured a parallel port.
ZDS Super sport
The first laptops successful on a large scale came in large part due to a Request For Proposal (RFP) by the U.S. Air Force in 1987. This contract would eventually lead to the purchase of over 200,000 laptops. Competition to supply this contract was fierce and the major PC companies of the time; IBM Corporation, Toshiba, Compaq, NEC Corporation, and Zenith Data Systems (ZDS), rushed to develop laptops in an attempt to win this deal. ZDS, which had earlier won a landmark deal with the IRS for its Z-171, was awarded this contract for its Super sport series. The Super sport series was originally launched with an Intel 8086 processor, dual floppy disk drives, a backlight backlit, blue and white STN LCD screen, and a NiCd battery pack. Later models featured a 16-bit Intel 80286 processor and a 20 MB hard disk drive. On the strength of this deal, ZDS became the world's largest laptop supplier in 1987 and 1988. ZDS partnered with Tottori Sanyo in the design and manufacturing of these laptops. This relationship is notable because it was the first deal between a major brand and an Asian original equipment manufacturer.
Hewlett-Packard Vectra Portable CS
In 1987, HP released a portable version of their 16-bit Vectra CS computer. It had the classic laptop configuration (keyboard and monitor closes up clam-shell style in order to carry), however, it was very heavy and fairly large. It had a full-size keyboard (with separate numeric keypad) and a large amber LCD screen. While it was offered with dual 3.5-inch floppy disk drives, the most common configuration was a 20 MB hard drive and a single floppy drive. It was one of the first machines with a 1.44 MB density 3.5-inch disk drive.
Cambridge Z88
Another notable computer was the 8-bit Cambridge Z88, designed by Clive Sinclair, introduced in 1988. About the size of an A4 sheet of paper as well, it ran on standard batteries, and contained basic spreadsheet, word processing, and communications programs. It anticipated the future miniaturization of the portable computer, and as a ROM-based machine with a small display, can – like the TRS-80 Model 100 – also be seen as a forerunner of the personal digital assistant.
Compaq SLT/286
By the end of the 1980s, laptop computers were becoming popular among business people. The 16-bit COMPAQ SLT/286 debuted in October 1988, being the first battery-powered laptop to support an internal hard disk drive and a VGA compatible LCD screen. It weighed .
NEC UltraLite
The NEC UltraLite, released in October 1988, was perhaps the first "notebook" computer, weighing just 2 kg (4.4 lbs), which was achieved by obviating floppy or hard drive, it was powered by the NEC V30 16-bit CPU. The very restrictive 2 megabyte RAM drive cramped the product's utility. Although portable computers with clamshell LCD screens already existed at the time of its release, the Ultralite was the first computer in a notebook form-factor. It was significantly smaller than all earlier portable computers and could be carried like a notebook and its clamshell LCD folded over the body like a book cover.
Apple and IBM
Apple Macintosh Portable
Apple's first laptop product was the 16-bit lead-acid battery powered 7.2 kg Macintosh Portable released in September 1989. The Portable pioneered inclusion of a pointing device (a trackball) in the laptop/portable sphere.
IBM PS/2 note
The IBM PS/2 note was a first IBM laptop with clamshell design, and the 1992's CL57sx model was IBM's first commercial laptop with color screen; the introduced options and features include the now-common peripherals-oriented PS/2 port as mobile device option, introduced the laptop BIOS and predecessor of laptop docking station (IBM Communications Cartridge).
Apple Powerbook
The Apple PowerBook series, introduced in October 1991, pioneered changes that are now de facto standards on laptops, including room for a palm rest.
Later PowerBooks featured optional color displays (PowerBook 165c, 1993), and first true touchpad (PowerBook 500 series, 1994), first 16-bit stereo audio, and first built-in Ethernet network adapter (PowerBook 500, 1994).
IBM ThinkPad
Introduced in 1992, IBM released its ThinkPad 700C, featuring a similar to PS/2 line clamshell design (though with a distinctive red TrackPoint pointing device). The ThinkPad laptop raised the new standard for business class of laptops, include modular design, durability standards and other productivity options, include first built-in camera (800 series, 1994), removable drive bays, secondary batteries and keyboard backlit.
APM and SMI/SMM
Windows 3.1 was the first version of Windows to support APM, which was usually implemented with SMI in the BIOS (introduced with the Intel 80386SL). Windows 95 introduced standardized support for docking via the PnP BIOS (among other things). Prior to this point each brand used custom BIOS, drivers and in some cases, ASICs, to optimize the battery life of its machines. This move by Microsoft was controversial in the eyes of notebook designers because it greatly reduced their ability to innovate; however, it did serve its role in simplifying and stabilizing certain aspects of notebook design.
Intel Pentium processor
Windows 95 ushered in the importance of the CD-ROM drive in mobile computing, and helped the shift to the Intel Pentium processor as the base platform for notebooks. The Gateway Solo was the first notebook introduced with a Pentium processor and a CD-ROM. Also featuring a removable hard disk drive and floppy drive, the Solo was the first three-spindle (optical, floppy, and hard disk drive) notebook computer, and was extremely successful within the consumer segment of the market. In roughly the same time period the Dell Latitude, Toshiba Satellite, and IBM ThinkPad were reaching great success with Pentium-based two-spindle (hard disk and floppy disk drive) systems directed toward the corporate market.
Improved technology
Early laptop displays were so primitive that PC Magazine in 1986 published an article discussing them with the headline "Is It On Yet?". It said of the accompanying montage of nine portable computers, "Pictured at the right are two screens and seven elongated smudges". The article stated that "LCD screens still look to many observers like Etch-a-Sketch toys, or gray chalk on a dirty blackboard", and predicted that until displays improved, "laptops will continue to be a niche rather than a mainstream direction". As technology improved during the 1990s, the usefulness and popularity of laptops increased. Correspondingly prices went down. Several developments specific to laptops were quickly implemented, improving usability and performance. Among them were:
Improved battery technology. The heavy lead-acid batteries were replaced with lighter and more efficient technologies, first nickel cadmium or NiCd, then nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and then Lithium-ion battery and lithium polymer.
Power-saving processors. While laptops in 1989 were limited to the 80286 processor (often Harris CMOS) because of the energy demands of the more powerful 80386 on the original CHMOS III process, the introduction of the Intel 386SL processor, designed for the specific power needs of laptops, marked the point at which laptop needs were included in CPU design. The 386SL integrated a 386SX core with a memory controller and this was paired with an I/O chip to create the SL chipset. It was more integrated than any previous solution although its cost was higher. It was heavily adopted by the major notebook brands of the time. Intel followed this with the 486SL chipset which used the same architecture. However, Intel had to abandon this design approach as it introduced its Pentium series. Early versions of the mobile Pentium required TAB mounting (also used in LCD manufacturing) and this initially limited the number of companies capable of supplying notebooks. However, Intel did eventually migrate to more standard chip packaging. One limitation of notebooks has always been the difficulty in upgrading the processor which is a common attribute of desktops. Intel did try to solve this problem with the introduction of the MMC for mobile computing. The MMC was a standard module upon which the CPU and external cache memory could sit. It gave the notebook buyer the potential to upgrade his CPU at a later date, eased the manufacturing process somewhat, and was also used in some cases to skirt U.S. import duties as the CPU could be added to the chassis after it arrived in the U.S. Intel stuck with MMC for a few generations but ultimately could not maintain the appropriate speed and data integrity to the memory subsystem through the MMC connector. A more specialized power saving CPU variant for laptops is the PowerPC 603 family. Derived from IBM's 601 series for laptops (while the 604 branch was for desktops), it found itself used on many low end Apple desktops before it was widely used in laptops, starting with PowerBook models 5300, 2400, 500 upgrades. What started out as a laptop processor was eventually used across all platforms in its follow up, the PowerPC 750 AKA G3.
Improved Liquid-crystal displays, in particular active-matrix TFT (Thin-film transistor) LCD technology. Early laptop screens were black and white, blue and white, or grayscale, STN (Super Twist Nematic) passive-matrix LCDs prone to heavy shadows, ghosting and blurry movement (some portable computer screens were sharper monochrome plasma displays, but these drew too much current to be powered by batteries). Color STN screens were used for some time although their viewing quality was poor. By about 1991, two new color LCD technologies hit the mainstream market in a big way; Dual STN and TFT. The Dual STN screens solved many of the viewing problems of STN at a very affordable price and the TFT screens offered excellent viewing quality although initially at a steep price. DSTN continued to offer a significant cost advantage over TFT until the mid-90s before the cost delta dropped to the point that DSTN was no longer used in notebooks. Improvements in production technology meant displays became larger, sharper, had higher native resolutions, faster response time and could display color with great accuracy, making them an acceptable substitute for a traditional CRT monitor.
Improved storage technology. Early laptops and portables had only floppy disk drives. As thin, high-capacity hard disk drives with higher reliability and shock resistance and lower power consumption became available, users could store their work on laptop computers and take it with them. The 3.5" HDD was created initially as a response to the needs of notebook designers that needed smaller, lower power consumption products. With continuing pressure to shrink the notebook size even further, the 2.5" HDD was introduced. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and other new laptops use Flash RAM (non volatile, non mechanical memory device) instead of the mechanical hard disk.
Improved connectivity. Internal modems and standard serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports on IBM PC-compatible laptops made it easier to work away from home; the addition of network adapters and, from 1997, USB, as well as, from 1999, Wi-Fi, made laptops as easy to use with peripherals as a desktop computer. Many newer laptops are also available with built-in 3G Broadband wireless modems.
Other peripherals may include:
an integrated video camera for video communication
a fingerprint sensor for implementing a restriction of access to a sensitive data or the computer itself.
Netbooks
In June 2007, Asus announced the Eee PC 701 to be released in October, a small lightweight x86 Celeron-M ULV 353 powered laptop with 4 GB SDHC disk and a 7-inch screen. Despite previous attempts to launch small lightweight computers such as ultra-portable PC, the Eee was the first success story largely due to its low cost, small size, low weight and versatility. The term 'Netbook' was later dubbed by Intel. Asus then extended the Eee line with models with features such as a 9-inch screen and other brands, including Acer, MSI and Dell followed suit with similar devices, often built on the fledgling low-power Intel Atom processor architecture.
Smartbooks
In 2009, Qualcomm introduced a new term "smartbook", which stands for a hybrid device between smartphone and laptop.
See also
History of mobile phones
History of personal computers
History of software
Timeline of portable computers
Portal laptop computer
References
External links
Further reading
History of computing hardware
Laptops
History of Silicon Valley | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.461 | 14,466 |
Mi Notebook Air
The Mi Notebook Air is a portable computer introduced in 2016 by Xiaomi Corporation. There are two versions of the computer, which differ in screen size (12.5-inch and 13.5-inch) and some other hardware elements. The first 12.5-inch generation used an Intel Core M3-6Y30 microprocessor, which was later upgraded to an Intel Core m3-7Y30 microprocessor. Both models feature a Full-HD screen with a back-lit keyboard.
Specifications
Operating system
The Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air is configured with an OEM activated Windows 10 operating system. However, it supports the most recent Linux distributions, as demonstrated by the Deepin Linux Team.
Processor
The Mi Laptop Air 13.3" version comes pre-installed with the Intel® Core™ i5 processor and the 12.5" version comes with the Intel® Core™ M3 processor.
Motherboard
The motherboard installed in the Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air is manufactured by Timi Personal Computing Co. Ltd.
Power Management
The Mi Laptop Air features a 7.4V/5000mAh 37Wh battery.
References
External links
Xiaomi Airdots
Netbooks
Xiaomi | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.453 | 14,467 |
Laptop (disambiguation)
A laptop is a personal computer for mobile use.
Laptop may also refer to:
Laptop (2008 film), a 2008 Malayalam film
Laptop (2012 film), a 2012 Bengali film
Laptop (band), an American band with Jesse Hartman
See also | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.445 | 14,468 |
Sony Vaio UX Micro PC
The Sony Vaio UX Micro PC is an Ultra-Mobile Portable Computer (UMPC) first marketed in 2006. It weighs around 490–544 g (1.20–1.27 lb), and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen, Intel Core 2 Solo processor, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and WWAN. Though not officially stated as such, and even to a point implied by Sony that the UX is a move in a new direction and not a specific continuation of such, the Sony UX is speculated by some to be the newest model in the popular Sony U-series.
NOTE : Japanese models include 533 MHz memory and so do the minority markets ( Europe, Australia etc. ) models. The US ones do not have 533 MHz but slower 400 MHz.
All models share these features:
4.5" XBrite TFT LCD touchscreen with 1024x600 display resolution.
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 Graphics Card (128 MB (128 MB) Shared RAM) - some have 256 MB
Memory Stick Duo Slot
Built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth
Fingerprint reader
Front and back digital cameras
References in popular culture
A black Vaio UX was used by John Connor in Terminator Salvation. It was used to hack mototerminator, track the cell Kyle Reese was being held captive in at Skynet.
A Vaio UX is featured in the music video for the song "Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" by Wyclef Jean. The UX delivers the message to Wyclef Jean that he must rescue the "sweetest girl" from deportation to a hostile country.
Rodney McKay can be seen using one in several episodes of Stargate Atlantis, he's also used OQO UMPCs.
Bill Tanner can be seen using a Sony Vaio UX in the 2008 motion picture Quantum of Solace.
"Same Girl" by R. Kelly featuring Usher: R. Kelly looks at Usher's slideshow of the a lady on what appears to be the Sony VGN-UX 390.
A Vaio UX is used as suitcase nuke arming device in one episode (hour) of the television show 24.
A Sony Vaio UX is used by the antagonist in Paul Blart: Mall Cop.
Riley Poole used a Vaio UX in National Treasure while capturing the security camera stream of the declaration of independence and to infiltrate Buckingham Palace in National Treasure 2.
In The Pink Panther 2, Kenji uses a Sony Vaio UX when the Dream Team is investigating the crime scene of the stolen Pink Panther diamond.
In the James Bond movie Casino Royale The Micro PC was used by Bill Tanner in the movie, and shown on the boat near the end of the film. There was a promotional "Spy Gear" set created for the movie.
References
External links
Micro PC Talk
Sony UX280P - Review at Skatter Tech
Sony Vaio UX series Sony Vaio UX series: At a glance from pocketables.net
Sony Singapore Sony VAIO UX product listing
Ux
Ultra Mobile PC | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.435 | 14,469 |
ThinkPad P series
The ThinkPad P series line of laptops is produced by Lenovo and was introduced by the company as a successor to the previous ThinkPad W series. With 15.6" and 17.3" screens, the ThinkPad P series saw the reintroduction of physically large laptops into the ThinkPad line. Marketed largely as portable workstations, many P series laptops can be configured with high-end quad-core, hexa-core or octo-core Intel processors as well as ECC memory (only with Xeon Processors) and a discrete Nvidia Quadro GPU. The P series offers ISV certifications from software vendors such as Adobe and Autodesk for various CAD software. The P52 and P72 models are the last current Lenovo laptops with a dedicated magnesium structural frame.
All 15" and 17" models have a standard 6-row ThinkPad Precision Keyboard (with Numeric Keypad and optional backlight), TrackPoint and touchpad, and optional fingerprint reader. The HQ processor-based models (such as a P50/P70 and above) use only 170 W AC power adapters, or optional 230 W adapters for the larger 17" configurations.
Models
First Generation
The first generation comes with a variety of "high-end" options such as Intel Xeon processors, 4K IPS screens and DDR4 RAM up to 64 GB. 1080p screens and Intel Core Series CPUs come standard along with PCIe SSDs. The P Series introduced a cooling system known as FLEX that features two fans connected by a heat pipe and located near the CPU and GPU. A three-button touchpad is included.
P40 Yoga
P40 Yoga is a version of the ThinkPad Yoga 460 with Nvidia Quadro graphics.
P50s
ThinkPad P50s is an update of ThinkPad W550s, focused on mobility. Its chassis is based on that of the T560.
P50
The ThinkPad P50, while having a 15-inch display, shared little in design with the W541 which it replaced. Its ports had been re-arranged, it was slightly thinner than its predecessor, and it reintroduced indicator lights for hard drive activity. It supports up to three internal storage devices and has a single USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 port while also featuring Mini DisplayPort and HDMI connections. Weighing 2.5 kilograms and having thickness of 2.6 centimeters, the P50 was lighter than previous W series laptops.
P70
The ThinkPad P70 is the successor to the W701. It has a 17-inch display, weighs 3.4 kilograms and is 3.1 centimeters thick. It supports up to four internal storage devices and includes two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Second Generation
P51
A minor update to the P50, which included the updated CM238 chipset.
P51s
The P51s chassis was based on the T570 chassis. The CPU and integrated chipset was updated to Kaby Lake-U.
P71
A minor update to the P70, including the updated CM238 chipset.
Third generation
P1
The ThinkPad P1 was based on the first generation of ThinkPad X1 Extreme. It features Intel Xeon CPUs and Nvidia Quadro graphics.
P52
The P52 was a redesign of the P51, which introduced Coffee Lake CPUs, all with 6 cores and 12 threads, the CM246 chipset, and Nvidia Pascal GPUs. It removed the mechanical docking port and ExpressCard slot, and features a narrower keyboard which is present on other ThinkPads, and an integrated battery.
P52s
Based on the ThinkPad T580, the P52s features a camera shutter, lateral instead of bottom-mounted docking port, and 8th Gen Core i5/i7 low power CPUs. The P52s includes quad-core Kaby Lake-R 15W CPUs and Nvidia Quadro P500 GPUs.
P72
The P72 was a redesign of the P71, with features similar to those of the P52. It also features the narrower keyboard of the P52, an integrated battery, and is the first 17" ThinkPad with a soldered GPU.
Fourth generation
P1 Gen2
The P1 Gen2 was an update to the P1 which features Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh Core i5/i7/i9 and Xeon E mobile Processors and Nvidia Quadro T series GPUs.
P43s
The ThinkPad P43s has a new 14 Inch design. It features Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake U-Series Processors and Nvidia Quadro P Series graphics.
P53
Based on the ThinkPad P52, the P53 features a 4K UHD OLED Touch display, WiFi 6, Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh Core i5/i7/i9 and Xeon E mobile Processors and Nvidia Quadro RTX Turing GPUs.
P53s
The P53s is an update to the P52s, which features Intel 8th Gen Coffee Lake U-Series Processors, Nvidia Quadro P520 Graphics and up to 4k UHD (3840 x 2160) display, available with Dolby Vision high dynamic range (HDR) technology.
P73
The P73 was a redesign of the P72, with hardware upgrades similar to those of the P53. The P73 features new Intel 9th Gen Coffee Lake Refresh CPUs and Nvidia Quadro RTX Turing GPUs.
Fifth generation
P1 Gen3
P14s
P15 Gen1
P15s
P15v
P17 Gen1
Sixth generation
P1 Gen4
P14s Gen2
The second generation P14s is just an iterative update of the previous model with new AMD Ryzen 5xxx series and Intel 11th gen CPUs. The main difference between the Intel and AMD version is the Thunderbolt with USB 3.1 Gen 1 capabilities of the USB-C ports, which (including the USB-A) are USB 3.2 Gen 2 (no TB) on the AMD model, but also support DisplayPort alternate mode. The AMD and Intel model now also offer the same display panel options, while the aluminium case option is still exclusive to the Intel variant.
P15 Gen2
P15s Gen2
P17 Gen2
Notes
References
External links
Lenovo page
Lenovo laptops
P series
Computer-related introductions in 2015 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.429 | 14,470 |
Lenovo IdeaCentre A740
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A740 is an all-in-one desktop computer with a 27-inch touchscreen released by Lenovo in 2014.
Specifications and features
The A740 has a 27-inch frameless glossy screen with a resolution of up to 2560x1440 and capacitive ten-finger touch technology. The A740's screen is only 0.15" at its thinnest point. The screen is anchored by a base which includes most of the unit's hardware and all of its ports, and the mount allows adjusting the angle from 90 degrees down to -5 degrees – one example use is as a "chess board".
The A740 uses a quad-core Intel Core-i7 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 1-terabyte Solid State Hybrid Drive with an 8GB SSD part. There is no optical drive in the machine itself, but a USB DVD burner is given as a standard accessory along with the USB (wireless) keyboard and mouse. Ports include ethernet, HDMI, combined audio jack for headphones/microphone, four USB 3.0 connections and a 6-in-1 card reader. The A740's ability to accept HDMI input allows for using the screen with external devices. An internal TV-tuner is optional.
Reviews
In a review published by Techaeris, Alex Hernandez wrote "Overall the A740 scores a 4.3 out of 5 here. There are some great things about this all-in-one and just a few things that need improvement. The hardware and design are great on this machine, Lenovo has been doing some very awesome things in that department. The display is a high point as well and even the price and value is right up there and competes with Apple’s iMac".
References
External links
Product page on Lenovo.com
Products introduced in 2014
Lenovo | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.427 | 14,471 |
Skytone Alpha-400
The Skytone Alpha-400 is a Linux-based low-cost netbook with a 7 in 800×480 LCD screen, introduced in 2008. Its measurements (length×width×depth) are 210×140×32 mm and it weighs 0.65 kg.
It is made in China by Skytone and Exon International Technology Co Ltd, with the former providing the Linux software and the latter producing the hardware. It uses a Chinese Ingenic Jz4730 336 MHz MIPSII-compatible one core 32-bit system-on-a-chip (SoC) with 128 MiB of SDRAM, and a 1–2 GB solid state drive.
The Skytone Alpha-400 was designed with low cost and child-friendliness in mind, with some versions being sold for as little as $130 retail. There is an option to swap the standard theme with a children's theme. It also comes with applications geared toward children, and a Flash player to play animated children's songs. The Flash player is not built into the browser, so Flash-dependent sites such as YouTube will not work, but a standalone Flash player is available to run .swf files and can be used to play Flash based games and such.
Alternative names
The Skytone Alpha is often marketed, sometimes in slightly altered form, under many different brand names.
A non-exhaustive list of variants:
3k Razorbook 400 (also with Windows CE and more flash memory)
Bestlink/Belco Alpha 400
Belco 450R
CherryPal Africa
CnMBook
CnM Lifestyle CnMbook
Datacask Jupiter 0708l
Elonex ONEt (ONEt+ with 2 GB NAND flash)
Exon PC701-LX
HiVision MiniNote/NB0700
Impulse NPX-9000
Impulse TNX-9500
iPC400 — available in Greece
IDA 400 — available in India
JAY-tech Jee-PC 400S
Letux 400 (uses Debian)
Maplin miniBook
Novatech Minibook
PC701-LX
Sakar MiniBook / PC-01017
Semprotech T70AM04
Semprotech T70DJ10
Silverstar E-PC
Skytone Alpha 400
SurfOne INOS1
Trendtac 700 EPC
Yinlips Micro PC
Features
The Skytone Alpha-400 uses a customized version of Linux, based on a 2.4.x kernel, with a user-friendly interface optimized for children.
The Linux desktop is implemented as Kiosk software, meaning that nothing the user can do can modify the available applications, and no new applications can be (easily) added or removed.
Browsing can be done through the use of the built in browser called Bon Echo, an Alpha release of Mozilla Firefox 2, using the built-in 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet port, or the integrated 802.11 Wireless LAN, but the browser does not support Flash, meaning that Flash intensive tools, such as YouTube, cannot be used. However, recently Exon, the original design manufacturer of most of these devices, announced full support for YouTube and most Flash enabled websites.
The device sports three USB ports, a small but fully functioning keyboard, a touchpad, stereo speakers, and a 2 cell 2.1 Ah battery.
The Skytone Alpha's processor uses as little as 0.2 W of power, and does not have a heat sink, and thus no ventilation openings. Some versions have extra features like a VGA video port, or a USB On-The-Go port.
Available distributions
The default OS, based on CELinux with the matchbox window manager and an Asus Eee PC inspired interface.
Xenium This project seems to have been abandoned.
3MX based on the default OS, Xenium and Debian. Comes with the jwm window manager. Release 3.1 now available provides good functionality including wi-fi stumbler, aircrack-ng, a web server, and a good range of browser alternatives.
Debian etch
So far, all distributions for this device use the 2.4.20-celf3 kernel. The kernel itself is not on the root file system itself, and gets loaded by u-boot.
Other similar devices by Exon/Skytone
The successor of the device, the Alpha 400P, comes with a 416 MHz XScale, fifth generation ARM architecture, SoC (likely a Marvell PXA27x), USB 2.0 and up to 256 MiB of DDR2 memory. Another similar device comes with the 248 MHz ARM SoC AK7802Q216, 64/128 MiB of DDR RAM and Windows CE 5.0.
Skytone announced another device called Alpha 680 running Android that features a 533 MHz Jade Tech Z228 ARM CPU. The Alpha-680 has a rotatable touchscreen that can be turned and flipped over, so that the unit becomes a tablet computer.
Another similar machine produced by Exon, but not sold by Skytone, comes with an x86 legacy compatible 800 MHz DM&P PDX-600 SoC CPU and is thus able to run Windows XP.
It uses a XGI Volari Z9s GPU without 3D acceleration. As it is usually sold with Windows XP pre-installed, its default configuration has 512 MiB DDR2 SDRAM and 4/8 GB flash. It is also available with a built-in 0.3 Mpixel camera. This version was first presented at CES 2009.
Known issues
The 3G support is limited to few USB 3G modems as a result of the old kernel. The same is true for the Wi-Fi module. The Ath5k driver used in the device for the ZD1211B module had been replaced since 2.6.18 for providing an unstable connection. As it is running 2.4.20, the old driver is still in use.
While it is possible to install gnash in order to obtain Flash support, it has been reported that the processor is too slow, so that it can take near enough to ten minutes or more for something to load.
The default distribution does not provide root access per default, but it is possible to install a root terminal through the software manager.
See also
Dingoo, a Chinese handheld game system based on the same Ingenic Xburst processor
References
Linux-based devices
Netbooks | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.424 | 14,472 |
IBM ThinkPad T30
The IBM ThinkPad T30 is a laptop computer manufactured by IBM.
Hardware
This model was equipped with mobile implementation of Pentium 4 CPU, and high power consumption of Intel chip was a reasonable point for designing this model as the heaviest and most bulky T series ThinkPad of IBM era.
ThinkPad T30 was the last classic ThinkPad with a battery with bottom placement, was the first 14.1" ThinkPad with screen option and first T series ThinkPad with touchpad option.
The new platform with Intel processor also include the new Intel 845MP Chipset, and ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 video controller with 16 MB graphics memory, and up to 1 GB PC2100 RAM (maximum according to IBM manual, but it has been reported to accept 2 GB of RAM) with 256 MB as standard memory. When the processor ranging from 1.6 GHz to 2.0 GHz, A T30 may accommodate up to a 2.4 GHz processor only with the latest BIOS and Embedded Controller upgrades. Graphics are provided by ATI Radeon, which supports external Full-HD resolutions: users have even reported success with output resolutions of 1920 × 1200 via DVI on the optional Port Replicator II docking station, although IBM officially claims a limit of 1280 × 1024 due to a weak TMDS transmitter. Features available include the embedded security subsystem, a 20, 40 or 60 GB hard disk, Ultrabay Plus drive or additional battery option instead of DVD-ROM, wireless (with miniPCI slot usable for a wireless card), and Bluetooth.
Reception
The notebook was favorably received by TechRepublic; and the ZDnet praises the good performance and relatively compact case for a NetBurst-based laptop.
See also
ThinkPad A30 series - 15" contemporary models
ThinkPad R30 series - 14" low-cost contemporary model
References
IBM laptops
ThinkPad | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.42 | 14,473 |
Dell laptops
Dell laptops are developed and marketed by the computer manufacturer Dell.
History
The first Dell laptop was the Dell 316LT, launched in 1989. Dell's premium XPS laptop range was introduced in 2007.
Laptop brands
Dell brands its laptop models to indicate their suitability for particular market segments.
Current
G Series (gaming laptops)
Inspiron (mass-market consumer laptops)
Latitude (business-class laptops)
Precision (mobile workstations)
Vostro (low-end business-class laptops)
XPS (high-end consumer laptops)
Former
Studio (consumer laptops)
Adamo (premium subnotebooks)
Reception
Dell has been noted for achieving a competitive market impact with its laptops.
References | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.418 | 14,474 |
IBM ThinkPad 240
IBM ThinkPad 240 is an ultra-portable laptop computer designed and produced by IBM from June 1999 to 2001. It is one of the few ThinkPad 200 series models made available in America and was the smallest and lightest ThinkPad model produced to date. The 240 series was discontinued, and it (as well as the 570 series) was replaced with the ThinkPad X series in 2000.
Features
The first 240 series models included the 300 MHz Mobile Celeron processor, 64 MB built-in RAM and one slot for memory expansion (maximum 320 MB). The laptop also was one of the first to feature the Mini PCI card slot. No built-in optical drive or diskette drive was included due to size limitations. External drive access was via a USB 1.0 port and/or the IBM external floppy drive connector. The unit shipped either with a standard 6 GB hard disk drive or with the 12 GB upgrade option.
All 240 series models feature a 10.4 TFT display, and the first models featured NeoMagic MagicGraph128XD graphics chips with 2 MB of video memory. The 240 is capable of displaying up to SVGA (800x600) on the TFT display, with XGA output available to an external monitor. All 240s also have audio controllers and VGA ports to connect to external display devices.
Models
Reception
A review from the South China Morning Post in December 1999 appreciated the compactness and portability of the ThinkPad 240. It also noted the short battery life and that it only has a single Type II PC Card slot.
Transmeta Crusoe
At the June 2000 PC Expo in New York, IBM demonstrated a ThinkPad 240 with a Transmeta Crusoe. In November, it was announced that IBM would not be using the Transmeta CPU in a 240. According to a source close to Transmeta, this was due to pressure from Intel.
References
Further reading
A retro 'ThinkPad Classic' could be a killer laptop not crippled by insane thinness
ThinkWiki.de
ThinkPad 240 internals & maintenance
ThinkPad 240 Hardware Maintenance Manual
ThinkPad 240X Hardware Maintenance Manual
ThinkPad 240
240 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.417 | 14,475 |
Notebook processor
A notebook processor is a CPU optimized for laptops.
One of the main characteristics differentiating notebook processors from other CPUs is low-power consumption, however, they are not without tradeoffs; they also tend to not perform as well as their desktop counterparts.
The notebook processor is becoming an increasingly important market segment in the semiconductor industry. Notebook computers are an increasingly popular format of the broader category of mobile computers. The objective of a notebook computer is to provide the performance and functionality of a desktop computer in a portable size and weight.
Cell phones and PDAs use "system on a chip" integrated circuits that use less power than most notebook processors.
While it is possible to use desktop processors in laptops, this practice is generally not recommended, as desktop processors heat faster than notebook processors and drain batteries faster.
Models
Current
ARM architecture (used in Chromebooks, Windows 10 laptops, Linux netbooks and recent Macs)
Apple M series
MediaTek
Nvidia: Tegra
Qualcomm: Snapdragon
Rockchip
Samsung Electronics: Exynos
x86
AMD: Ryzen, Athlon, and A-Series APU
Intel: Xeon mobile, Core, Pentium, and Celeron
Former
PowerPC
Motorola and Freescale Semiconductor made PowerPC G4 processors for the pre-Intel Apple Computer notebooks.
x86
Transmeta: Crusoe and Efficeon
Intel: Pentium M
AMD: Mobile Athlon II, Mobile Athlon 64, Mobile Sempron
Image gallery
See also
Computer architecture
Microprocessor
Personal computing
References
Laptops
Microprocessors
Mobile computers | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.414 | 14,476 |
Lenovo IdeaCentre A720
The Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 is an all-in-one desktop computer with a 27-inch touchscreen released by Lenovo in 2012.
Specifications and features
The A720 has a 27-inch frameless glossy screen with a resolution of 1920x1080 and capacitive touch technology. The A720's screen is only 24.5mm thick. Lenovo claims it is the slimmest in its class. The hinge connecting the base to the display is key to the design of the A720. The screen is anchored by a base which includes most of the unit's hardware and all of its ports. Lenovo says that this design makes ports more accessible.
The A720 uses a quad-core Intel Core-i7 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 1-terabyte hard drive. A DVD-drive comes standard and an upgrade to Blu-ray is an option. Ports include ethernet, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 connections respectively, and HDMI ports for both input and output. The A720's ability to accept HDMI input allows for using the screen with external devices. An internal TV-tuner is optional.
A wireless mouse and keyboard that connect via Wi-Fi are included.
Reviews
A review published in the Bangkok Post stated, "With all its merits, the A720 is not the perfect home computing solution. It is the most expensive on the market, has a very reflective screen, suffers the same service issues as notebooks with its compact form factor, and its touchscreen has few applications (for now). But the screen is fantastic (reflection issues apart), it's plenty powerful and it can be used as a replacement TV, which should win many punters over."
In a review published by ZDNet, James Kendrick wrote, "The 27-inch display is simply gorgeous whether working on the desktop or playing video in full-screen glory. The latter is a key function of the A720, whether using the Blu-ray drive or other video source. There is an optional TV tuner and full remote control to turn the system into an HD TV system. This is such a good desktop PC that it's easy to forget that it supports full touch operation. This is very precise and handles 10 finger touch. The display swivels down at virtually any angle for touch operation, including almost flat on the desktop."
References
Products introduced in 2012
Lenovo | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.413 | 14,477 |
Pedion (laptop)
The Pedion was a subnotebook computer developed by Mitsubishi Electric with Hewlett-Packard in 1998. At thick, it was the thinnest notebook computer in the world, even thinner than the "Macbook Air" (although the Apple equivalent was 4 mm at its thinnest point), released nearly ten years later. The notebook included a Pentium 233 MMX processor, 64 MB RAM, and a 1 GB Hard disk.
The Greek word, pedion (πεδίον) means "plain", "flat", "field".
Mitsubishi ceased production and withdrew the notebook from the market due to "mechanical problems".
References
Mitsubishi Electric products, services and standards
Subnotebooks | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.409 | 14,478 |
Toshiba T1100
The Toshiba T1100 is a laptop manufactured by Toshiba in 1985, and has subsequently been described by Toshiba as "the world's first mass-market laptop computer". Its technical specifications were comparable to the original IBM PC desktop, using floppy disks (it had no hard drive), a 4.77 MHz Intel 80C88 CPU (a variation of the Intel 8088), 256 kB of conventional RAM extendable to 512 kB, and a monochrome LCD capable of displaying 80x25 text and 640x200 CGA graphics. Its original price was 1899 USD.
The T1100 PLUS is a later model of this laptop, released to the market in 1986. Some significant differences to the T1100 are, 80C86 CPU, 7.16 MHz or 4.77 MHz operation, 256 kB of conventional RAM (16-bit) extendable to 640 kB, and two internal diskette drives.
The T1100 was named an IEEE Milestone in 2009.
Clones
Toshiba T1100 PLUS was cloned in the USSR as Electronika MS 1504 in 1991.
See also
Toshiba T1000
Toshiba T1200
Toshiba T3100
Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset(ELKS formerly Linux-8086)
References
External links
T1100 information at minuszerodegrees.net
360 degree view of T1100 at Russian Vintage Laptop Museum
360 degree view of T1100 PLUS at Russian Vintage Laptop Museum
T1100 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.405 | 14,479 |
Sony Vaio AW series
The Vaio AW series is a discontinued range of high-end multimedia laptop computers from Sony introduced in September 2008, replacing the AR Series. They feature an 18.4" 16:9 screen with 1680x945 or LED-backlit 1920x1080 (1080p) screen, NVidia GeForce 9300M GS 256MB or 9600M GT 512MB graphics, Blu-ray drive (Blu-ray burner option), Intel 5100AGN wireless chipset, Core 2 Duo P or T CPUs and a 1.3 megapixel webcam, optional RAID SSD storage (in addition to the hard drive) and HDMI output.
The AW weighs 3.7kg/8.2lbs.
External links
Product info
AW | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.404 | 14,480 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 is a convertible laptop created by Lenovo and first announced at the International CES 2012 in January. The Yoga 13 gets its name from its ability to take on various form factors due to its screen being mounted on a special two-way hinge.
Launch
The 13-inch Yoga was released by Lenovo on Oct. 26, 2012. Best Buy released an alternative version of the Yoga 13 with an Intel Core i5 processor (vs. Lenovo's base model's i3 processor) and no Microsoft Office (whereas Lenovo's base model includes Microsoft Office). Its smaller cousin, Yoga 11, which runs Windows RT (as opposed to the Yoga 13, running Windows 8), was released in December 2012.
Design
The name "Yoga" is a reference to the unit's design that makes use of a double hinge to allow four different configurations in order to provide maximum flexibility to the user.
The Yoga 13 is 17mm thick. The Yoga's hybrid design was achieved through the use of a special patented hinge that allows the keyboard to flip flush to the back of the display. The Yoga 13’s hinge allows the device to be held partway open so it can be set upright on a flat surface as a display. When the keyboard is folded away the computer functions as a touch-controlled tablet. Much of the Yoga 13's usability as a tablet is made possible through Microsoft's Windows 8.
The Yoga 13 was compared to the IdeaPad U300s ultrabook, in terms of appearance: the aluminum look, shape and size. However, the wrist rest on the Yoga 13 has plastic with a texture similar to leather. This wrist rest is also elevated, allowing the Yoga 13 to be placed, keyboard-down on a table, without users "worrying too much about damaging the keys".
The Yoga 13 has a chiclet-style keyboard that has been the subject of criticism. In his review for Popular Science, Dan Nosowitz wrote about the keyboard, "The one big fault, oddly, is the keyboard. Oddly, because Lenovo is kind of known for making ugly but incredibly usable keyboards. Yet the Yoga 13 has a half-sized backspace and right shift key, which means I mistyped a lot. When you're in tablet mode, there's the Windows 8 on-screen keyboard, which, due to the Yoga 13's huge screen (compared to other tablets), is great. You can actually use all ten fingers on the keyboard, rather than the two-fingers-and-a-thumb strategy you'd use on an iPad."
The reason for the convertible tablet design was explained by Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo. He said, "Whether a notebook that bends and folds, or an all-in-one that puts the 'wide' into wide-angle, today's announcements reflect our focus on delivering the inspirational innovations that consumers are looking for."
The Yoga 13 has been described as being thicker and heavier than most tablet devices at 17mm thin and a 13.3 inch screen. However, PC World indicated that it was thinner and easy to carry than most convertible notebooks. Engadget shared the same opinion, indicating that it was thick by the standards of a tablet, but slim for a laptop-tablet convertible. Among several changes that contribute to the slim design is an altered power port.
Engadget also praised the build quality and the IPS display. The hinge was designed to weather 25,000 open/close cycles and the back covered was described as having a "soft, tactile finish". The display offered wide viewing angles and vibrant colors. It was also indicated to be responsive, to taps, swipes, and up to ten-finger touchscreen input.
Specifications
The Yoga 13's capacitive touch display allows for up to 10-point touch control. The Yoga 13 is powered by an Intel Chief River platform, using an Ivy Bridge processor, has 4 GB or 8 GB of RAM, and SSD with 128 GB or 256 GB.
The battery life of the Yoga 13 is estimated at eight hours. After testing the Yoga 13's battery life TechRadar said, "Our only real concern is that the battery life is squarely average. In our Battery Eater test, which maxes out the system until the battery dies, we only clocked 177 minutes, which is short of the 200-minute gold standard. This said, in normal day-to-day usage, we experienced closer to six to eight hours of life, depending on the screen brightness and CPU saturation."
The Yoga 13 makes use of a 13.3-inch display with a resolution of 1600 x 900. The display uses an IPS panel in order to provide wide viewing angles and maintain the thin profile of the Yoga 13.
The Yoga 13 has 720p front-facing webcam. It has one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI output, a memory card reader, and a combo jack for audio input and output.
Reviews
A reviewer for ZDNet wrote, "The Yoga 13 looks like a fit for those primarily wanting an Ultrabook, with occasional use as a tablet. I’m not sure 3.4 pounds makes for a comfortable tablet experience for very long. It will likely get more extended use as a laptop with a touchscreen."
In an editors' review, CNET stated that, "The Yoga works best as a full-time laptop and part-time tablet, because when it's folded back into a slate, you still have the keyboard pointing out from the back of the system. Although the keyboard and touch pad are deactivated in this mode, it's still not ideal. Plus, despite the hype, Windows 8 is still not a 100-percent tablet-friendly OS, and there are some frustrations that span all the Windows 8 tablet-style devices we've tested. The Yoga certainly seems to be everyone's choice for a great Windows 8 ambassador -- both Microsoft and Intel have touted it as a best-in-class example, and Best Buy is currently featuring it in a television ad."
In a review for Popular Science Dan Nosowitz wrote, "For most users, in 2012, I think an ultrabook is the way to go. Small, fast, sturdy, and light--that's what's important now. If your media is mostly in the cloud--you use Rdio or Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, Google Docs, any of a million cloud photo services--then this is perfect (though there's some weirdness with the 128GB SSD; you only have about 50GB available, and I'm not sure why). It's light enough to throw in a backpack, battery life reached more than five hours with moderate-to-heavy use, and, importantly and unusually for a Windows machine, the Yoga is actually fun to use. The hinge seems like a gimmick, but I actually think it's great, and whizzing through the colorful tablet mode is futuristic and cool."
In a review for TechRadar George Jones wrote, "With the hyper-flexible Yoga, Lenovo has the most, or at least the first, meaningful intangible. For now, it's hard to imagine anyone topping a device that can be favorably compared to other laptops as well as tablet convertibles."
In its review of the Yoga 13, Trusted Reviews writes, "Like most of the Windows 8 convertible tablet/laptops we’ve looked at, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13 isn’t quite the perfect hybrid. However, if you regard it as a touch-screen Ultrabook with a cool twist, it certainly succeeds. It’s generally well-built, looks stylish and feels great, and its flexible hinge gives you lots of different usage scenarios. While no match for the ThinkPad range, its keyboard is pleasant enough to type on and its touchpad is lovely, while that 1,600 x 900 IPS screen supports 10-finger touch. It also has plenty of power under the hood, and backs this with decent battery life."
Awards
When it was showcased at CES 2012, the IdeaPad Yoga 13 won the "Best Ultrabook" award.
See also
IdeaPad tablets
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11
References
Tablet computers
Convertible laptops
Yoga 13
Ultrabooks | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.401 | 14,481 |
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 IBM product line. Like modern laptops, it featured power management and the ability to run from batteries.
It was replaced in 1991 by the IBM PS/2 L40 SX, and in Japan by the IBM Personal System/55note, the predecessor to the ThinkPad.
Predecessors
IBM had been working on a laptop for some time before the Convertible. In 1983, work was underway on a laptop similar to the Tandy Model 100, codenamed "Sweetpea," but it was rejected by Don Estridge for not being PC compatible. Another attempt in 1984 produced the "P-14" prototype machine, but it failed to pass IBM's human factors tests, especially after poor public reception of the display in the competing Data General-One.
Description
The PC Convertible came in three models: PC Convertible, PC Convertible Model 2 and PC Convertible Model 3. The latter two were released in October 1987 and are primarily distinguished by their LCD panels. The original Convertible used a non-backlit panel which was considered difficult to read. The Model 2 lacked a backlight as well but upgraded to an improved supertwist panel, and the Model 3 included a backlight. The other hardware specifications are largely the same for all three models.
The CPU is an Intel 80C88, the CMOS version of the Intel 8088 CPU. The base configuration included 256 KB of RAM, expandable to 640 KB, dual 720 KB 3.5-inch floppy drives, and a monochrome, CGA-compatible LCD screen. It weighed just over 12 pounds and featured a built-in carrying handle, with a battery rated for 10 hours (4 in the backlit Model 3.)
The first model was introduced at a price of $1,995, the Model 2 at $1,395 with 256K of RAM and $1,900 with 640K, and the Model 3 at $1,695 with 256K of RAM.
The LCD screen displayed 80x24 characters, but has a very wide aspect ratio, so text characters and graphics are compressed vertically, appearing half their normal height. The display is capable of 80x25 text and graphics modes of 640x200 and 320x200 pixels.
The PC Convertible has expansion capabilities through a proprietary ISA bus-based port on the rear of the machine. Extension modules, including a small printer and a video output module, were provided as plastic modules that snap into place. The machine can also take an internal modem, but has no room for an internal hard disk. The concept and the design of the body was made by German industrial designer Richard Sapper.
Pressing the power button on the computer does not turn it off, but puts the machine into "suspend" mode, which will hold the machine's state as long as battery power lasts, to save on boot time. The CMOS 80C88 CPU has a static core, which holds its state indefinitely by stopping the system clock oscillator, and can resume processing when the clock signal is restarted as long as it is kept powered. The system RAM in the Convertible is SRAM rather than DRAM, both for lower power consumption and less circuitry to fit into the cramped laptop case.
Pressing a lever between the two floppy drives just below the display detaches the entire screen from the unit. This feature allows the use of a full-size desktop monitor while at one's desk, an early forerunner of the "docking station" concept, and similar to Apple's PowerBook Duo.
Reception
The machine had difficulty in the marketplace and was seen as a poor value for money, since other laptops in the market had more built-in features, although it enjoyed some success with business users, who saw its battery life and portability as selling points. Even after the release of the Model 3 in October 1987, which fixed some of the machine's issues, lack of built-in features remained a pain point. The parallel, serial and video ports all required adapters, while competing machines included these as integrated features. The Convertible was heavy, not much faster than the Portable it replaced, had no traditional PC expansion ports (such as serial ports and a parallel port) without an add-on, and had a hard-to-read, oddly-shaped LCD screen. It also competed against faster portables based on the Intel 80286 that offered optional hard drives, from companies such as Compaq, and laptops from companies such as Toshiba and Zenith that were lighter and offered similar specifications, sometimes at half the price. The keyboard was also criticized for lacking several important keys.
See also
IBM Portable Personal Computer
IBM PS/2 L40SX
IBM PS/55note
History of laptops
Convertible (computer)
References
External links
IBM-5140 Convertible and collection of old digital and analog computers at oldcomputermuseum.com
5140 Convertible
5140 Convertible
Computer-related introductions in 1986 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.4 | 14,482 |
NP300E5A-A01UB
The NP300E5A-A01UB is a laptop computer produced by Samsung. Its standard operating system is a 64-bit version of Windows 7, its central processing unit is an Intel Core i3-2330M Processor with a processing speed of 2.20 gigahertz. It comes with 4 gigabytes of DDR3 SDRAM, expandable up to 8. It has a display size of 15.6 inches with a 1366 x 768 resolution.
The graphics chipset is an Intel HD Graphics 3000, has a built-in 1.3MP HD webcam, a wireless LAN of 802.11 a/b/g/n, is Bluetooth 3.0 compatible, and has VGA, HDMI, and three USB ports. It has a built-in track point mouse.
References
Samsung computers | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.4 | 14,483 |
Sony Vaio S series
The Vaio S series was a line of notebook computers from Sony introduced in summer 2004. They have been touted as business laptops, and their designs have focused on being thin and light. They also have features friendly to businesspeople, such as TPM chips, matte (anti-glare) displays, RAID SSDs, and extended sheet batteries, as well as continuing to include RJ-45 and VGA (D-Sub) connections.
2010
Sony introduced the VAIO S series in January 2010 to replace the SR series. The aspect ratio of the display was changed to 16:9 (1600x900) from the older 16:10 (1280x800). The CPU was upgraded from Intel's Core2 Duo to Intel's First-Generation Core i3/i5, and the system RAM was updated to DDR3. The graphics options were either the CPU-integrated Intel GMA HD Graphics or a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 310M. As with the SR, the S offered an optional Blu-ray Disc drive. Unlike the SR, the new VAIO S Series had a mini-PCI slot that allowed for an optional internal WWAN (mobile broadband) adapter. The keyboard was also redesigned with new backlit chiclet (island-style) keys.
2011: The SA/SB/SC/SE series
The VAIO SA/SB/SC series was released in February 2011. It once again featured a 13.3-inch screen with a matte anti-glare finish, with a native 16:9 aspect ratio and maximum resolution of either 1366×768 or 1600×900. It was notably thinner and lighter than its predecessor, weighing just under 4 lbs (half a pound lighter) and 0.95" thick (1/4" thinner). It also had a completely redesigned chassis, replacing the large rounded hinge with a sleek and angular design, featuring chrome accents on the hinge and VAIO logo. The processors were updated to Second-Generation Intel Core i5 and i7 CPUs, and the graphic options were either AMD Radeon HD 6470M (512 MB DDR3) or 6630M (1 GB DDR3). The laptop also featured a physical switch that could disable or enable the discrete graphics card at will and make the computer use the integrated processor GPU to increase battery life. It had 4 GB of DDR3-1333 memory soldered to the motherboard, and one open RAM slot which was customer-accessible and supported an additional 4 GB of RAM. It also features a sheet battery that increases the battery life to 15 hours. The 3rd VAIO S Series was the first VAIO with a non-removable battery.
Reviewers noted that the display felt quite flimsy, and that applying everyday amounts of torque, such as opening the display from one corner, would result in noticeable bending. Sony responded that this was by design, saying that under torque it would bend rather than break.
In August 2011, Sony introduced the SE model as a larger variant of the existing S Series notebook. It featured a larger 15.5-inch IPS panel with a native resolution of 1920×1080, and a full number pad was added to the keyboard. Its hardware was otherwise identical to the 13.3" S Series, with an optional Blu-ray Disc drive and up to an Intel Core i7-2640M CPU and AMD Radeon HD 6630M GPU.
2011 Series SATA 6 Gbps controversy
The early release of SA/SB/SC had chipset support for SATA 6 Gbit/s, useful for fast speeds in solid state drive. In late 2011, Sony released a BIOS update which disabled SATA 6 Gbit/s speeds (thereafter capped at 3 Gbit/s) for no apparent reason, and without notifying users in the update changelog. A hacked BIOS was subsequently created and spread via the internet which re-enabled SATA 6 Gbit/s speeds.
2012
Another refresh of the VAIO S Series lineup was released in the spring of 2012, coinciding with the launch of Intel's 22 nm Ivy Bridge processors, the 3rd Generation Core i3/i5/i7 processors. The number of models were consolidated to only three versions: S13, S15, and S13 Premium. The S13 followed the basic model of the previous generation with a 13.3" screen at a native resolution of 1366x768, and retained the same overall angular design and backlit chiclet keyboard. From a physical standpoint the most major change was that the touchpad was changed to a "clickpad" and the dedicated buttons were removed. It weighed 3.8 lbs and was 0.95" thick. Most of the changes from the last generation of VAIO S laptops were update hardware. It featured dual-core 3rd Generation Intel Core i5/i7 processors. For the graphics options, Sony switched from AMD back to NVIDIA with the GeForce GT 640M LE with 1GB DDR3 dedicated video RAM. NVIDIA's Optimus technology allowed the laptop to conserve battery life by switching from the discrete GPU and the low-power Intel HD Graphics 4000 chip integrated in the CPU when high-powered graphics were not required. Like the 13.3" S notebook before it, it had 4GB of RAM soldered to the board, and 0, 2GB, or 4GB of removable memory in a user-accessible memory slot. It also had an optional internal Blu-ray reader or burner available, as well as a sheet battery for additional power.
The S13 Premium was constructed of carbon fiber (as opposed to the magnesium casing of the standard S13) and as such was slightly thinner (0.90") and lighter (3.69 lbs). It also featured a higher resolution 1600x900 display that was not available on the standard S13, and an option to upgrade to 2GB of dedicated video RAM instead of 1GB.
The S15 was the larger variant in the 4th VAIO S Series, with (like its predecessor, the SE) a 15.5" IPS Panel with a matte finish and a 1920x1080 native resolution. Also as with the SE before it, its additional size let it fit a full number pad in the keyboard as well as a 3.5mm microphone jack; both S13 models have only a headphone jack. It was upgradable to the quad-core Core i7-3612QM CPU, which was not available on either of the 13.3" models, and the first quad-core processor in the S Series. The graphics card was the same GeForce GT 640M LE found in the 13.3" models, and like the S13 Premium, the S15 had an option to upgrade to 2GB of dedicated video RAM. The S15 was remarkably slim for its size, weighing only 4.42 lbs and keeping the 0.95" thickness of the standard S13 model. There was no carbon fiber variant of the S15.
In October 2012, VAIO had a small refresh for the release of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system. The quad-core Intel Core i7-3612QM processor that was available in the S15 was swapped for its updated replacement, the Core i7-3632QM. There were no other hardware changes, however Sony did reorganize their available configurations, slashing hardware upgrade prices and making the 1600x900 resolution display available as an upgrade on the non-premium S13.
In addition, they added new colors (Pink and Red) to the existing options of Black, White, Silver for the standard S13. These colors were not added to the S15 options, which remained Black, White, and Silver. The S13 Premium color options (Carbon Fiber Black, Carbon Fiber Gunmetal, and Carbon Fiber Gold) likewise were not changed.
2013 discontinuation
On August 26, 2013, the Sony Vaio S Series was removed from the Sony Shop, as it has been dropped from their line of laptop computers. The Sony Outlet will continue to carry refurbished models including the S, E and T series.
On June 27, 2014, the VAIO name was sold by Sony. The Sony Outlet no longer sells VAIO.
Technical specifications
References
S | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.398 | 14,484 |
HP Pavilion dv5
The HP Pavilion dv5 was a model series of laptop/mobile computers manufactured by Hewlett-Packard Company that features a 15.4" diagonal display. The HP Pavilion dv4 features a 14.1" and the HP Pavilion dv7 a 17" display. The dv5 series has been discontinued, being partially replaced by the dv6 (16") series, and released again as a 14.5" model in 2010.
Models
dv5se (Special Edition) - Features the Renewal Imprint finish
dv5t - Uses An Intel Processor
dv5z - Uses An AMD Processor
Weight And Dimensions
Note: Weight varies by configuration
Customizable Features
The following are customizable features only available in the United States (HP CTO Notebooks). Information retrieved on the HP store website, November 2008.
References
HP dv5tse Information webpage
HP dv5t Information webpage
HP dv5z Information webpage
HP dv5 14.5-Inch Edition, 2010
See also
Hewlett-Packard
HP Pavilion
Pavilion dv5 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.395 | 14,485 |
Compaq LTE
Compaq LTE was a line of laptop computers made by Compaq, introduced in 1989. The first models, Compaq LTE and Compaq LTE 286, were among the first computers to be close to the size of a paper notebook, spurring the use of the term "notebook" to describe a smaller laptop, and earned a notable place in laptop history. They were also among the first to include both a built-in hard disk and a floppy disk drive, and later models offered optional docking stations, providing performance comparable to then-current desktop machines.
History
Compaq introduced the LTE in 1989. At the time of launch, virtually no "notebook"-style fully-fledged computers existed. Prior to the LTE series, portable computers were bulky, such as Compaq SLT, which is coined as the predecessor to the LTE series, despite both models existing side by side for some time. Compaq SLT had large full-size 3.5-inch hard drives, and was heavy at 6.5 kg in comparison to the LTE at approximately 2.5 kg.
Models
Original model specifications
The two original LTE models differed primarily in the processor availability; however, the 286 model came with a standard 40 MB hard drive in place of the base model's 20 MB. Both computers weighed . They ran MS-DOS version 3.31.
Later models
The success of the original LTE series led Compaq to apply the designation to later models. LTE 386s/20 made extensive use of flexible electronics for the motherboard and motherboard interconnects. Other later Compaq LTE computers had a pointing stick in the middle of the keyboard, however, the LTE Elite 486 models had a trackball mounted to the right of the LCD screen. The LTE Elite series had an easily removable hard drive for data security purposes. Starting with LTE 386s/20, the LTE series computers were able to connect to a (in some cases, powered) docking station to act as a regular desktop computer. Later models' designs provide for the easy removal the floppy drive to add an internal CD-ROM drive, which was an expensive upgrade option for the late LTE series. The last LTE laptops were the 5000 series, ending with the 5400, which had a 150 MHz Pentium processor, and was quite capable of running Windows 98SE. It also allowed for swappable Floppy/CD-ROM drives.
Docking stations
The LTE range was marketed as a desktop replacement solution, and with its docking options, allowed peripherals to be permanently connected. The LTE laptop would be simply removed from the docking station to be used on the go, and then docked to use in the office.
There were different docking station options for the differing LTE models.
^ Note: The MultiBay Expansion Base and MultiBay-ISA Expansion Base are virtually the same, with the MultiBay-ISA Expansion Base having an ISA slot in the back panel, and a speaker assembly.
Trivia
When the LTE Lite series was first released in 1992, there were only four models released: Lite/25, Lite/25E, Lite/25C, and Lite 4/25C (486/25). Later, in 1993, there was a 486 33 MHz version of the Lite model, which was relatively unknown
Compaq LTE 5280, released in 1995, was still used in 2016 by McLaren Automotive to service the McLaren F1 supercar.
The LTE Lite allows you to have two serial interfaces with an add-in card. The part number is . It's one of the very few laptops that have this capability.
In popular culture
The Compaq LTE/286 model was used seen in the 1994 Season 1, Episode 22 of Frasier.
The Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX model was featured in Jungle 2 Jungle.
In a Homestar Runner DVD exclusive Easter egg short "Real-Live E-Mails", a Compaq LTE was used as a live-action stand-in for Strong Bad's Lappy 486 computer.
See also
NEC UltraLite
References
External links
Article describing original LTE/286
Compaq LTE Owners Facebook Enthusiasts Group
LTE
History of computing hardware
Computer-related introductions in 1989
Articles containing video clips | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.393 | 14,486 |
Sony Vaio FW series
Sony Vaio FW is a discontinued series of notebook computers which were the first laptops ever to have a 1080p 16.4" 16:9 widescreen LCD. Higher end models in the series can support an integral Blu-ray Disc reader or writer. The laptop weighed 3.1 kg. The battery lasts up to 2 hours. In June 2009, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 was replaced by the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 with the release of the FW 4xx series. Additionally, Sony also released a special model of this series apart from the signature series models (Model:VGN-FW590FFD). This model had a futuristic themed cover and came equipped with moderately high-end specifications for $1069.99 U.S. dollars. The VGN-FW590FFD model was also only available for purchase through Sony Style's website.
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
Color: Black, Chocolate Brown, Nebula, Silver
Memory: 2, 3, 4, 6, or 8 GB of DDR2 SDRAM @ 800 MHz
Hard Drive: 160, 250, 320, 400, or 500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive @ 5400 RPM, 320 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive @ 7,200 RPM, 128 GB Solid State Drive
Optical Disc Drive: CD/DVD reader/writer, Blu-ray Disc reader, or Blu-ray Disc reader/writer
Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 w/256 MB of vRAM, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 w/512 MB of vRAM, or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 w/1 GB of vRAM
Display: 16.4" XBRITE-ECO w/1600×900 resolution, or 16.4" HiColor-FullHD w/1920×1080 resolution, or 16.4" XBRITE-FullHD w/1920×1080 resolution
Extras: SD and magic gate pro card reader, 3 USB 2.0 slots, i.LINK IEEE 1394 slot and a HDMI cable slot
References
External links
Sony products | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.39 | 14,487 |
Barebook
A barebook computer (or barebone laptop) is an incomplete notebook PC. A barebone laptop is similar to a barebone computer, but in a laptop form.
As it leaves the factory, it contains only elements strictly tied to the computer's design (case, motherboard, display, keyboard, pointing device, etc.), and the consumer or reseller has to add standardized off-the-shelf components such as CPU and GPU (when not integrated on the motherboard), memory, mass storage, WiFi card, etc. separately.
Because it is not manufactured with storage media such as harddisks or SSDs, a barebook does not typically include an operating system, which may make barebooks appealing to opposers of the bundling of Microsoft Windows.
References
See also
Barebone computer
Homebuilt computer
Do it yourself
Laptops | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.39 | 14,488 |
Lenovo IdeaPad S12
The IdeaPad S12 is a line of consumer-oriented netbook computers designed by Lenovo. It is a model in the IdeaPad series and their first netbook to have a 12" screen. The computers were put on the market in 2009 and currently come in black and white.
Description
It contains either an Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz processor or a Via Nano 1.3 GHz processor. They support 802.11 b/g wireless networking and come with three USB ports, an ExpressCard/34 expansion slot, a 4-in-1 media reader, VGA and HDMI outputs and an ethernet port. The S12 is one of the first netbooks to support nVidia's ION platform for mobile HD video playback.
Past revision
The IdeaPad S12 has a base price of (USD) $449 for the Intel Atom N270 model and (USD) $429 for the Via Nano ULV 2250. It features a 12.1" 1280×800 WXGA display with a 160GB hard disk drive, which can be upgraded by removing the keyboard and 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, which is easily upgraded via a user access panel on the bottom of the netbook.
Current lineup
The S12 was revised on 22 October 2009 and is priced between (USD) $399 and $649. It comes with either Windows XP Home Edition or Windows 7 Home Premium, a 160–320 GB hard drive, and 1–3 GB of RAM.
References
External links
S12
Netbooks | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.39 | 14,489 |
Motherboard form factor
In computing, the form factor is the specification of a motherboard – the dimensions, power supply type, location of mounting holes, number of ports on the back panel, etc. Specifically, in the IBM PC compatible industry, standard form factors ensure that parts are interchangeable across competing vendors and generations of technology, while in enterprise computing, form factors ensure that server modules fit into existing rackmount systems. Traditionally, the most significant specification is for that of the motherboard, which generally dictates the overall size of the case. Small form factors have been developed and implemented.
Overview of form factors
A PC motherboard is the main circuit board within a typical desktop computer, laptop or server. Its main functions are as follows:
To serve as a central backbone to which all other modular parts such as CPU, RAM, and hard drives can be attached as required to create a computer
To be interchangeable (in most cases) with different components (in particular CPU and expansion cards) for the purposes of customization and upgrading
To distribute power to other circuit boards
To electronically co-ordinate and interface the operation of the components
As new generations of components have been developed, the standards of motherboards have changed too. For example, the introduction of AGP and, more recently, PCI Express have influenced motherboard design. However, the standardized size and layout of motherboards have changed much more slowly and are controlled by their own standards. The list of components required on a motherboard changes far more slowly than the components themselves. For example, north bridge microchips have changed many times since their introduction with many manufacturers bringing out their own versions, but in terms of form factor standards, provisions for north bridges have remained fairly static for many years.
Although it is a slower process, form factors do evolve regularly in response to changing demands. IBM's long-standing standard, AT (Advanced Technology), was superseded in 1995 by the current industry standard ATX (Advanced Technology Extended), which still governs the size and design of the motherboard in most modern PCs. The latest update to the ATX standard was released in 2007. A divergent standard by chipset manufacturer VIA called EPIA (also known as ITX, and not to be confused with EPIC) is based upon smaller form factors and its own standards.
Differences between form factors are most apparent in terms of their intended market sector, and involve variations in size, design compromises and typical features. Most modern computers have very similar requirements, so form factor differences tend to be based upon subsets and supersets of these. For example, a desktop computer may require more sockets for maximum flexibility and many optional connectors and other features on board, whereas a computer to be used in a multimedia system may need to be optimized for heat and size, with additional plug-in cards being less common. The smallest motherboards may sacrifice CPU flexibility in favor of a fixed manufacturer's choice.
Comparisons
Tabular information
Maximum number of expansion card slots
ATX case compatible:
Visual examples of different form factors
PC/104 and EBX
PC/104 is an embedded computer standard which defines both a form factor and computer bus. PC/104 is intended for embedded computing environments. Single board computers built to this form factor are often sold by COTS vendors, which benefits users who want a customized rugged system, without months of design and paper work.
The PC/104 form factor was standardized by the PC/104 Consortium in 1992. An IEEE standard corresponding to PC/104 was drafted as IEEE P996.1, but never ratified.
The 5.75 × 8.0 in Embedded Board eXpandable (EBX) specification, which was derived from Ampro's proprietary Little Board form-factor, resulted from a collaboration between Ampro and Motorola Computer Group.
As compared with PC/104 modules, these larger (but still reasonably embeddable) SBCs tend to have everything of a full PC on them, including application oriented interfaces like audio, analog, or digital I/O in many cases. Also it's much easier to fit Pentium CPUs, whereas it's a tight squeeze (or expensive) to do so on a PC/104 SBC. Typically, EBX SBCs contain: the CPU; upgradeable RAM subassemblies (e.g., DIMM); Flash memory for solid state drive; multiple USB, serial, and parallel ports; onboard expansion via a PC/104 module stack; off-board expansion via ISA and/or PCI buses (from the PC/104 connectors); networking interface (typically Ethernet); and video (typically CRT, LCD, and TV).
Mini PC
Mini PC is a PC small form factor very close in size to an external CD or DVD drive. Mini PCs have proven popular for use as HTPCs.
Examples
AOpen XC mini
Apple Mac mini
Intel NUC
Gigabyte Brix
Zotac ZBOX
Asus Vivopc
Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny
Dell Optiplex Mini/Micro
Acer Veriton
See also
Hard-disk-drive form factors
Small form factor
PICOe
References
External links
The official Intel Form factors website containing form factor descriptions
Computing comparisons | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.389 | 14,490 |
Comparison of netbooks
These tables provide a comparison of netbooks.
Aspects of netbooks that should be considered:
Mouse layout that is used. Touchpad with 2-buttons below, or touchpad with buttons on each side. The latter may make it hard with some operations needing simultaneous presses.
Battery capacity and operating time.
Weight and size. The original concept was below but some manufacturers tend toward 2 kg (4.4 lb).
Noise from CPU fan.
Driver availability for the built-in hardware.
Operating system choice.
Presence of built-in HSDPA, etc., may help to avoid USB dongles.
Current production
Legend (weight)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
| Color ||(kg) ||(lb)
|- style="background:#90ffff"
| Blue || < 0.9 || < 2.0
|- style="background:#e0ffe0"
| Green || 0.9 to 1.125 || 2 to 2.5
|- style="background:#ffffc0"
| Yellow || 1.125 to 1.5 || 2.5 to 3.3
|- style="background:#ffb000"
| Orange || > 1.5 || > 3.3
|- style="background:#a0a0a0"
| Grey || Variable || Variable
|- style="background:#F8F4FF"
| White || Not Known|| Not Known
|}
Specifications
See also
Comparison of netbook-oriented Linux distributions
Comparison of tablet computers
Ultra-mobile PC (UMPC)
Linux-based devices
Netbook, Ultrabook, Chromebook, SubNotebook, Laptop, Portable computer
References
Netbooks comparison
Netbooks | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.389 | 14,491 |
Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S
The Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 11S is a compact ultralight hybrid notebook/tablet computer released in late 2012. Like the Yoga 13 and the Yoga 11 the Yoga 11S gets its name from its ability to take on various form factors due to its screen being mounted on a special two-way hinge. The Yoga 11S runs the full version of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system.
Launch
The Yoga 11s started shipping in the United States in June 2013.
Features
Design
Like other models in the IdeaPad Yoga line, the Yoga 11S has a convertible form factor. Its screen can flip into a range of positions that allow it to serve as a regular laptop and tablet device as well as being able to function in "tent mode" and "stand mode." Like the Yoga 11, the 11S is available in silver and clementine orange.
Specifications
The Yoga 11S can be configured with processors as powerful as Intel's "Ivy Bridge" Core i7 processor, will support up to a 256GB solid-state drive, and can hold as much as 8GB of RAM. The Yoga 11S has an 11.6" display. Displays will be available with options for resolutions of 1366 by 768 pixels and 1600 by 900 pixels. The 11S runs the full version of Microsoft Windows 8.
Reviews
CNET writes, "The 11-inch Yoga -- Lenovo's clever laptop/tablet hybrid -- had a great physical design, but ran the lame Windows RT operating system. The 13-inch Yoga ran full Windows 8, but was a bit too large for tablet duties. The upcoming Yoga 11S may be the "just right" marriage of the two: the smaller and lighter 11-inch chassis, but running full Windows 8 -- while still keeping the unique folding design."
Writing for Slash Gear, Eric Abents states, "In fact, at first glance, the only noticeable difference between the Yoga 13 and the Yoga 11S is size. The 11S is quite a bit smaller than the Yoga 13, but both are running Windows 8 (remember that – this isn’t Windows RT you’ll be dealing with. The fact that the Yoga series is running Windows 8 is definitely appreciated, and I’m sure it might just end up convincing a few people who are on the fence. One thing I want to point out is that I think the Yoga 11S might make a better tablet. That isn’t to say that the Yoga 13 didn’t make a good tablet (it did), it was just a little on the large side as far as slates go. The Yoga 11S fits very well in your hand, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see many people opting for tablet mode over the other configurations."
References
External links
The official website exists only in specific countries such as:
With specs:
Without specs:
Yoga 11S
Convertible laptops | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.386 | 14,492 |
IBM ThinkPad 700
The IBM ThinkPad 700 (model 700 PS/2) is the first notebook computer for the ThinkPad brand that was released by IBM on October 5, 1992. Another series was released alongside it, the ThinkPad 300 series. The 300 series was meant to be a cheaper, lower performance model line over the 700.
History
Because of design issues with the L40SX, the next iteration of IBM laptops were going to involve industrial designer Richard Sapper. Richard designed the ThinkPad 700, being inspired from a rectangular cigar box, and kept it simplistic.
Before the announcement of the 700 series, it has been speculated that the 700 and 700T would be manufactured by AST Research, Inc.
The first IBM ThinkPad, the 700 and 700C, were launched on October 5, 1992, alongside the 300 series.
The IBM 2521 (IBM 700T) was announced on April 17 of 1992 and launched the following year in July. It was marketed as a data entry tablet for hospitals, health care providers, and field operation workers.
The ThinkPad 700C uses a color screen made by a joint venture between IBM and Toshiba. It was the largest active matrix display in a laptop when it was released.
Features and models
Both the 700 and 700C were based on the 25 MHz Intel 486SLC processor with 4 MB of memory, and had a nickel metal hydride battery that was claimed by IBM to last almost 4 hours. The 700 had the option of a 80 or 120 MB hard disk size, and a 9.5in 640 x 480 monochrome screen. The 700C had a standard 120 MB hard disk size, and 4, 8 or 16 MB memory options. It also had a 10.4in 640 x 480 active-matrix color screen. Both the 700 and 700C came with MS-DOS 5.02 and Prodigy, an internet service. Other features both included were a modem, serial, VGA, and parallel ports, port replicator, docking station connector, and built in 3 1/2" 1.44 MB floppy disk drive.
Both the 700 and 700C came in a standard black color, but a less-known "IBM-Beige" color was available. Additionally later on a 50 MHz processor upgrade was offered by IBM for the 700 and 700C, giving it more better performance.
The 700T was a portable pen-operated tablet that had a 20 MHz Intel 386SX, 4 or 8 MB of memory, a 10 in 640 x 480 monochrome screen, and also very uncommon for its time, had a 20 MB solid state drive instead of a hard drive for storage. The 700T used a operating system created by Go Corporation known as PenPoint OS. Other features the 700T had was a built in 2.4kbit/s modem, a serial, parallel, external floppy drive, and keyboard connector.
The 700 was the base model, being considerably cheaper than the premium 700C at $2,750 vs $4,350 for the 700C. The 700T was renamed from IBM 2521 so that it was a name fit with the 700 and 700C.
Reception
The 700 and 700C were given good reception, being called "the finest notebooks on the market" by PC Magazine which also complimented its design by saying "After years of un-distinguished portables, IBM has finally gotten it right" and a review by BYTE Magazine said "The IBM ThinkPad 700C notebook wins the award for the most innovative design". PC Computing gave its annual "most valuable product" to the ThinkPad 700C, describing it as "a clear standout by its combination of speed, beauty, hard-nosed practicality, and, yes, grace".
The 700C was given a 8.0 rating in a review by InfoWorld, and many of the praise went to the 700C's active matrix color display which was said to have rich, bright colors and crisp text, and was bigger and better than competitors. The keyboard was also given good reviews, saying it is solid feeling and has quick responsiveness.
A 700C review from Computerworld noted that the implementation of the Advanced Power Management 1.0 specification by Microsoft resulted in a long battery life.
The only cons given about the 700 series by some reviews was the increased weight and size, along with the more expensive price tag and lower battery life.
Trivia
President George H. W. Bush wanted to buy a ThinkPad 700C as a Christmas present for his wife Barbara Bush when it was released. It was sold out, so he called then IBM CEO John Akers. Akers reached out to the general manager of IBM's PC division Jim Cannavino, who took the next ThinkPad from the assembly line and shipped it to the White House.
Notes
References
External links
IBM ThinkPad Series Specifications
IBM laptops
ThinkPad | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.385 | 14,493 |
Lenovo Flex 10
The Lenovo Flex 10 is a flexible dual-mode laptop computer with a 10.1" screen released in 2014.
Launch
The Flex 10 was released in 2014. It was launched with a starting price of $550 in the United States.
Specifications and performance
The Flex 10 has 10.1-inch screen and supports ten-point multitouch in order to take advantage of Windows 8's touch-enabled features, including gestures. The screen rotates up to 300 degrees in order to support different use modes. Its resolution is 1366 by 768. The display is powered by Intel integrated graphics. The Flex 10's keyboard lays flat against the surface the device is sitting on when it is in "stand mode." A 720P webcam sits above the screen. The Flex 10 is 0.68 inches thick and weighs 2.6 pounds. Models with 4GB and 8GB of memory are available. There are options for both standard Pentium-class and Celeron-class processors from Intel. Hard drives are available with capacities up to 500GB. The Flex 10 includes both Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi. Ports included one USB 3.0 port, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI output, and a jack for audio input and output.
The Flex 10 includes software called "Lenovo Energy Manager" that minimises power usage while maximizing battery durability. The Flex 10 includes another piece of software called "Veriface Pro" that uses the built-in camera and facial recognition to log users in without passwords.
Reviews
Writing for NDTV, Jamshed Avari wrote, "As it stands, the Lenovo Flex 10 is a fascinating product but not one we can see a strong target market for. It seems like just another Lenovo form-factor experiment. Pick it up if you love the looks and don't think a tablet would suit your needs..."
A review in the Hindustan Times stated, "The Flex 10 is a device for those who like the feel of a traditional keyboard as well as the thrill of a touchscreen. Thanks to its compact design, it can be carried around easily. However, owing to its low configuration, you will not be able to use resource-hogging software like Photoshop. The notebook is perfect for browsing, responding to mails, making presentations, doing some typing, playing games and watching movies while travelling."
See also
HP Envy x2
References
Flex 10 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.383 | 14,494 |
Form factor (design)
Form factor is a hardware design aspect that defines and prescribes the size, shape, and other physical specifications of components, particularly in electronics. A form factor may represent a broad class of similarly sized components, or it may prescribe a specific standard. It may also define an entire system, as in a computer form factor.
Evolution and standardization
As electronic hardware has become smaller following Moore's law and related patterns, ever-smaller form factors have become feasible. Specific technological advances, such as PCI Express, have had a significant design impact, though form factors have historically been slower to evolve than individual components. Standardization of form factors is vital for compatibility of hardware from different manufacturers.
Trade-offs
Smaller form factors may offer more efficient use of limited space, greater flexibility in the placement of components within a larger assembly, reduced use of material, and greater ease of transportation and use. However, smaller form factors typically incur greater costs in the design, manufacturing, and maintenance phases of the engineering lifecycle, and do not allow the same expansion options as larger form factors. In particular, the design of smaller form-factor computers and network equipment must entail careful consideration of cooling. End-user maintenance and repair of small form-factor electronic devices such as mobile phones is often not possible, and may be discouraged by warranty voiding clauses; such devices require professional servicing—or simply replacement—when they fail.
Examples
Computer form factors comprise a number of specific industry standards for motherboards, specifying dimensions, power supplies, placement of mounting holes and ports, and other parameters. Other types of form factors for computers include:
Small form factor (SFF), a more loosely defined set of standards which may refer to both motherboards and computer cases. SFF devices include mini-towers and home theater PCs.
Pizza box form factor, a wide, flat case form factor used for computers and network switches; often sized for installation in a 19-inch rack.
All-in-one PC
"Lunchbox" portable computer
Components
Hard disk drive form factors, the physical dimensions of a computer hard drive
Hard disk enclosure form factor, the physical dimensions of a computer hard drive enclosure
Motherboard form factor, the physical dimensions of a computer motherboard
Mobile form factors
Laptop or notebook, a form of portable computer with a "clamshell design" form factor.
Subnotebook, ultra-mobile PC, netbook, and tablet computer, various form factors for devices which are smaller and often cheaper than a typical notebook.
Mobile phone form factor, comprising the size, shape, layout, and style of mobile phones. Broad categories of form factors include bars, flip phones, and sliders, with many subtypes and variations of each.
Stick PC, a single-board computer in a small elongated casing resembling a stick
See also
Computer hardware
Electronic packaging
Packaging engineering
List of computer size categories
List of integrated circuit package dimensions
References
Design
Electronic design
Industrial design
Packaging
Broad-concept articles | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.383 | 14,495 |
HP Pavilion dv7
The HP Pavilion dv7 was a model series of laptops manufactured by Hewlett-Packard from 2008 that featured a 17.3" diagonal display. The HP Pavilion dv4 featured a 14.1" and the HP Pavilion dv5 a 15.4" display. The DV7 had bays for two hard drives, but was supplied with one; if a second hard drive was fitted then a hard drive hardware kit of bracket, connector cable, Mylar shield, and screws was required.
As of August 2012, most Pavilion laptops (namely the Pavilion M4, M6, dv6 and dv7 series) have been upgraded, rebranded and integrated into the premium HP Envy lineup with the newer Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. The Pavilion dv7 as such is therefore out of production.
Models
dv7t - Uses An Intel Processor
dv7z - Uses An AMD Processor
dv7-1000 to dv7-1400 series
Model produced alongside dv5 series. Display 17.0" CCFL WXGA+ (1440 × 900) or WSXGA+ (1680 × 1050).
dv7-1000 to dv7-2300 series
Model produced alongside dv6 series. Display 17.3" LED HD+ (1600 × 900), BrightView or flush glass AntiGlare. New look. MediaPlay button has been removed from the capacitive board.
dv7-3000 to dv7-3300 series
Very similar to the dv7-2000. In addition, was introduced a models with an Intel i5 and i7 processors and Nvidia discrete graphics — GeForce G 105M (512 MB) or GeForce GT 230M (1024 MB).
dv7-4000 to dv7-4300 series
Model produced alongside dv6-3000 series. Completely changed the design and construction, reducing the amount of gadget link in used in previous models. This will remove an ExpressCard slot, remote control, capacitive board, built-in TV tuner. Introduced island keyboard and "ClickPad" touchpad without buttons. New motherboard and cooling system reduced the amount of available ports on the left side of the computer. Introduced switchable graphics.
dv7-5000 series
Intel-based notebooks:
Processors: II-generation Intel Core i7 Quad
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics (UMA), switchable ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 1024 MB or ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 512 MB
dv7-6000 to dv7-6100 series
Display 17.3" LED HD+ (1600x900) BrightView or FullHD (1920×1080) AntiGlare. New look. Touchpad with mechanical switch. Quad speakers and subwoofer. eSATA combo port was removed.
dv7-6b00
dv7-6c00
dv7-7000 and dv7-7100 series
Some design changes. Quad speakers (two in the lid) and subwoofer. Supports III-generation Intel Core processors and mSATA SSD drive. Now supports two USB 3.0 ports. Second headphone jack was removed.
ENVY dv7-7200 and dv7-7300
The Pavilion brand was renamed to the brand ENVY. Laptops are sold with Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. For this reason, changed the motherboard. Added some new CPUs. Other specifications are the same as the DV7-7000 series notebooks.
In 2015. HP released a new series of HP Envy Laptops including the dv3, dv5 and dv7 models. The models feature a fingerprint sensor, a lifted hinge, Bang and Olufsen speakers and new Intel Core i processors based on the Skylake architecture. HP claims that this laptop is a very thin laptop.
References
Pavilion dv7 | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.381 | 14,496 |
HP OmniBook
HP OmniBook was a range of laptop personal computers created by Hewlett Packard.
Models
OmniBook 300 — launched in 1993 (F1030A/F1031A/F1032A)
OmniBook 425 (F1033A/F1034A/F1036A)
OmniBook 430 (F1035A/F1037A/F1038A)
OmniBook 500
OmniBook 510
OmniBook 530
OmniBook 600
OmniBook 800
OmniBook 900
OmniBook 2000
OmniBook 2100
OmniBook 3000
OmniBook 4000
OmniBook 4150
OmniBook 4400
OmniBook 4500
OmniBook 5000
OmniBook 5500
OmniBook 5700
OmniBook 6000
OmniBook 6100
OmniBook 6200
OmniBook 7000
OmniBook 7100
OmniBook XE2
OmniBook XE3
The range was discontinued following the acquisition of Compaq by Hewlett Packard in 2002.
Notable models
OmniBook 300
The HP OmniBook 300 (OB300) is a "superportable" laptop released in 1993 that weighed only 2.9 pounds and measured 1.4 × 6.4 × 11.1 inches. It is powered by an Intel 386SXLV processor, featured a full-size keyboard, a pop-up mouse, and a 9-inch VGA screen. Due to storage limitations, the OmniBook 300 included Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word pre-installed in ROM, which was and remains unusual to this day. It had two PCMCIA slots for additional memory, modem, network card or other peripheral. One of its outstanding features was "Instant On". It was sold in three storage configurations: no mass storage (F1030A at US$1515), 10MB flash disc (F1031A at $2375), or 40 MB hard drive (F1032A at $1950). Compared to the hard drive, the flash memory disk reduced the weight and storage capacity but increased battery life. It came with reduced copies of MS-DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. The "International English" version of the OmniBook 300 used code page 850 (rather than the more common code page 437) as hardware code page.
See also
HP OmniGo
HP Pavilion
Compaq Presario
References
External links
Official HP pages
OmniBook search results on HP's website
OmniBook support page, with more extensive list of models here
Others
HP Omnibook Information - by Kieran Garbutt
HP Omnibook site by Sean McCreary
HP subnotebooks
Discontinued products | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.38 | 14,497 |
Netbook
The marketing term netbook identified small and inexpensive laptops that were sold from 2007 to around 2013; these were generally low-performance. While the name has fallen out of use, machines matching their description remain an important part of the market for laptops running Microsoft Windows. Similarly, most lower-end Chromebooks run on hardware which would have been described as "Netbooks" when the term was current, and inexpensive tablets (running either Windows or Android) when used with an external keyboard are functionally equivalent to netbooks.
At their inception in late 2007 as smaller-than-typical notebooks optimized for low weight and low cost—netbooks began appearing with the omission of certain features (such as an optical drive), featuring smaller screens and keyboards, and a reduction of computing power when compared to a full-sized laptop. Over the course of their evolution, netbooks have ranged in size from below 5" screen diagonal to 12". A typical weight is (). Often significantly less expensive than other laptops, by mid-2009, netbooks began to be offered by some wireless data carriers to their users "free of charge", with an extended service-contract purchase.
Soon after their appearance, netbooks grew in size and features, and converged with smaller laptops and subnotebooks. By August 2009, when comparing two Dell models, one marketed as a netbook and the other as a conventional laptop, CNET called netbooks "nothing more than smaller, cheaper notebooks", noting: "the specs are so similar that the average shopper would likely be confused as to why one is better than the other", and "the only conclusion is that there really is no distinction between the devices". In an attempt to prevent cannibalizing the more lucrative laptops in their lineup, manufacturers imposed several constraints on netbooks; however this would soon push netbooks into a niche where they had few distinctive advantages over traditional laptops or tablet computers (see below).
By 2011 the increasing popularity of tablet computers (particularly the iPad)—a different form factor, but with improved computing capabilities and lower production cost—had led to a decline in netbook sales. At the high end of the performance spectrum, ultrabooks, ultra-light portables with a traditional keyboard and display have been revolutionized by the 11.6-inch MacBook Air, which made fewer performance sacrifices albeit at a considerably higher production cost.
Capitalizing on the success of the MacBook Air, and in response to it, Intel promoted Ultrabook as a new high-mobility standard, which some analysts have hailed as succeeding where netbooks failed. As a result of these two developments, netbooks of 2011 had kept price as their only strong point, losing in the design, ease-of-use and portability department to tablets (and tablets with removable keyboards) and to Ultrabook laptops in the features and performance field.
By the end of 2012 few machines were marketed as "netbooks". Many netbook products were replaced on the market by Chromebooks, a hardware- and software-specification in the form of a netbook and a variation on the network-computer concept. HP re-entered the non-Chromebook netbook market with the Stream 11 in 2014, although the term "netbook" is seldom in use anymore. Some specialised computers have also been released more recently with form factors comparable to netbooks, such as the GPD Win and its successor, the GPD Win 2.
History
While Psion had unrelated netBook line of machines, the use of the broad marketing term "netbook", began in 2007 when Asus unveiled the Asus Eee PC. Originally designed for emerging markets, the device weighed about and featured a display, a keyboard approximately 85% the size of a normal keyboard, a solid-state drive and a custom version of Linux with a simplified user interface geared towards consumer use. Following the Eee PC, Everex launched its Linux-based CloudBook; Windows XP and Windows Vista models were also introduced and MSI released the Wind—others soon followed suit.
The OLPC project followed the same market goals laid down by the eMate 300 eight years earlier. Known for its innovation in producing a durable, cost- and power-efficient netbook for developing countries, it is regarded as one of the major factors that led more top computer hardware manufacturers to begin creating low-cost netbooks for the consumer market.
When the first Asus Eee PC sold over 300,000 units in four months, companies such as Dell and Acer took note and began producing their own inexpensive netbooks. And while the OLPC XO-1 targets a different audience than do the other manufacturers' netbooks, it appears that OLPC is now facing competition. Developing countries now have a large choice of vendors, from which they can choose which low-cost netbook they prefer.
By late 2008, netbooks began to take market share away from notebooks. It was more successful than earlier "mini notebooks," most likely because of lower cost and greater compatibility with mainstream laptops.
Having peaked at about 20% of the portable computer market, netbooks started to slightly lose market share (within the category) in early 2010, coinciding with the appearance and success of the iPad. Technology commentator Ross Rubin argued two and a half years later in Engadget that "Netbooks never got any respect. While Steve Jobs rebuked the netbook at the iPad's introduction, the iPad owes a bit of debt to the little laptops. The netbook demonstrated the potential of an inexpensive, portable second computing device, with a screen size of about 10 inches, intended primarily for media consumption and light productivity." Although some manufacturers directly blamed competition from the iPad, some analysts pointed out that larger, fully fledged laptops had entered the price range of netbooks at about the same time.
The 11.6-inch MacBook Air, introduced in late 2010, compared favorably to many netbooks in terms of processing power but also ergonomics, at 2.3 pounds being lighter than some 10-inch netbooks, owing in part to the integration of the flash storage chips on the main logic board. It was described as a superlative netbook (or at least as what a netbook should be) by several technology commentators, even though Apple has never referred to it as such, sometimes describing it—in the words of Steve Jobs—as "the third kind of notebook." The entry level model had a MSRP of $999, costing significantly more than the average netbook, as much as three or four times more.
In 2011 tablet sales overtook netbooks for the first time, and in 2012 netbook sales fell by 25 percent, year-on-year. The sustained decline since 2010 had been most pronounced in the United States and in Western Europe, while Latin America was still showing some modest growth. In December 2011, Dell announced that it was exiting the netbook market. In May 2012, Toshiba announced it was doing the same, at least in the United States. An August 2012 article by John C. Dvorak in PC Magazine claimed that the term "netbook" is "nearly gone from the lexicon already", having been superseded in the market place largely by the more powerful (and MacBook Air inspired) Ultrabook—described as "a netbook on steroids"—and to a lesser extent by tablets. In September 2012 Asus, Acer and MSI announced that they will stop manufacturing 10-inch netbooks. Simultaneously Asus announced they would stop developing all Eee PC products, instead focusing on their mixed tablet-netbook Transformer line.
With the introduction of Chromebooks, major manufacturers produced the new laptops for the same segment of the market that netbooks serviced. Chromebooks, a variation on the network computer concept, in the form of a netbook, require internet connections for full functionality. Chromebooks became top selling laptops in 2014. The threat of Google Chrome OS based Chromebooks prompted Microsoft to revive and revamp netbooks with Windows 8.1 with Bing. HP re-entered the non-Chromebook netbook market with the Stream 11 in 2014..
Educational Use
In Australia, the New South Wales Department of Education and Training, in partnership with Lenovo, provided Year 9 (high school) students in government high schools with Lenovo S10e netbooks in 2009, Lenovo Mini 10 netbooks in 2010, Lenovo Edge 11 netbooks in 2011 and a modified Lenovo X130e netbook in 2012, each preloaded with software including Microsoft Office and Adobe Systems' Creative Suite 4. These were provided under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Digital Education Revolution, or DER. The netbooks ran Windows 7 Enterprise. These netbooks were secured with Computrace Lojack for laptops that the police can use to track the device if it is lost or stolen. The NSW DET retains ownership of these netbooks until the student graduates from Year 12, when the student can keep it. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago—Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bisseser—is also providing HP laptops to form 1 Students (11-year-olds) with the same police trackable software as above.
Greece provided all 13-year-old students (middle school, or gymnasium, freshmen) and their teachers with netbooks in 2009 through the "Digital Classroom Initiative". Students were given one unique coupon each, with which they redeemed the netbook of their choice, up to a €450 price ceiling, in participating shops throughout the country. These netbooks came bundled with localised versions of either Windows XP (or higher) or open source (e.g. Linux) operating systems, wired and wireless networking functionality, antivirus protection, preactivated parental controls, and an educational software package.
Trademarks
In 1996 Psion started applying for trademarks for a line of netBook products that was later released in 1999. International trademarks were issued (including and ) but the models failed to gain popularity and are now discontinued (except for providing accessories, maintenance and support to existing users). Similar marks were recently rejected by the USPTO citing a "likelihood of confusion" under section 2(d).
Despite expert analysis that the mark is "probably generic", Psion Teklogix issued cease and desist letters on 23 December 2008. This was heavily criticised, prompting the formation of the "Save the Netbooks" grassroots campaign which worked to reverse the Google AdWords ban, cancel the trademark and encourage continued generic use of the term. While preparing a "Petition for Cancellation" of they revealed that Dell had submitted one day before on the basis of abandonment, genericness and fraud. They later revealed Psion's counter-suit against Intel, filed on 27 February 2009.
It was also revealed around the same time that Intel had also sued Psion Teklogix (US & Canada) and Psion (UK) in the Federal Court on similar grounds. In addition to seeking cancellation of the trademark, Intel sought an order enjoining Psion from asserting any trademark rights in the term "netbook", a declarative judgment regarding their use of the term, attorneys' fees, costs and disbursements and "such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper".
On June 2, 2009, Psion announced that the suit had been settled out of court. Psion's statement said that the company was withdrawing all of its trademark registrations for the term "Netbook" and that Psion agreed to "waive all its rights against third parties in respect of past, current or future use" of the term.
Hardware
Netbooks typically have less powerful hardware than larger laptop computers and do not include an optical disc drive that contemporaneous laptops often had. Netbooks were some of the first machines to substitute a solid-state storage devices instead of a hard drive, as these were smaller, required less power, and were more shock-resistant. Unlike modern solid state drives, these early models often did not offer better performance.
Almost all netbooks supported Wi-Fi and some supported Mobile broadband. Some also include ethernet and/or modems.
Most netbooks used x86 processors. Most early networks used processors from the Intel Atom line, but some used competing processors from AMD, including Fusion netbook processors, or VIA Technologies, including the C7 and Nano. Some very low cost netbooks use a system-on-a-chip Vortex86 processor meant for embedded systems. A few netbook used non-x86 processors based on ARM or MIPS architectures.
Operating systems
Windows
Microsoft announced on April 8, 2008 that, despite the impending end of retail availability for the operating system that June, it would continue to license low-cost copies of Windows XP Home Edition to OEMs through October 2010 (one year after the release of Windows 7) for what it defined as "ultra low-cost personal computers"—a definition carrying restrictions on screen size and processing power. The move served primarily to counter the use of low-cost Linux distributions on netbooks and create a new market segment for Windows devices, whilst ensuring that the devices did not cannibalize the sales of higher-end PCs running Windows Vista. In 2009, over 90% (96% claimed by Microsoft as of February 2009) of netbooks in the United States were estimated to ship with Windows XP.
For Windows 7, Microsoft introduced a new stripped-down edition intended for netbooks known as "Starter", exclusively for OEMs. In comparison to Home Premium, Starter has reduced multimedia functionality, does not allow users to change their desktop wallpaper or theme, disables the "Aero Glass" theme, and does not have support for multiple monitors.
For Windows 8, in a ploy to counter Chrome OS-based netbooks and low-end Android tablets, Microsoft began to offer no-cost Windows licenses to OEMs for devices with screens smaller than 9 inches in size. Additionally, Microsoft began to offer low-cost licenses for a variant of the operating system set up to use Microsoft's Bing search engine by default.
Windows CE has also been used in netbooks, due to its reduced feature set.
Android
Google's Android software platform, designed for mobile telephone handsets, has been demonstrated on an ASUS Eee PC and its version of the Linux operating system contains policies for mobile internet devices including the original Asus Eee PC 701. ASUS has allocated engineers to develop an Android-based netbook. In May 2009 a contractor of Dell announced it is porting Adobe Flash Lite to Android for Dell netbooks. Acer announced Android netbooks to be available in Q3/2009. In July 2009, a new project, Android-x86, was created to provide an open source solution for Android on the x86 platform, especially for netbooks.
Chrome OS
In 2011, Google introduced Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system designed particularly for netbook-like devices marketed as "Chromebooks". The platform is designed to leverage online services, cloud computing, and its namesake Chrome web browser as its shell—so much so that the operating system initially used a full screen web browser window as its interface, and contained limited offline functionality. Later versions of Chrome OS introduced a traditional desktop interface and a platform allowing "native" packaged software written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS to be developed for the platform.
Other
Netbooks have sparked the development of several Linux variants or completely new distributions, which are optimized for small screen use and the limited processing power of the Atom or ARM processors which typically power netbooks. Examples include Ubuntu Netbook Edition, EasyPeasy, Joli OS and MeeGo. Both Joli OS and MeeGo purport to be "social oriented" or social networking operating systems rather than traditional "office work production" operating systems. Netbook users can also install other UNIX-based operating systems such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, and Darwin.
Since 2010, major netbook manufacturers no longer install or support Linux in the United States. The reason for this change of stance is unclear, although it coincides with the availability of a 'netbook' version of Windows XP, and a later Windows 7 Starter and a strong marketing push for the adoption of this OS in the netbook market. However, companies targeting niche markets, such as System76 and ZaReason, continue to pre-install Linux on the devices they sell.
The Cloud operating system attempts to capitalize on the minimalist aspect of netbooks. The user interface is limited to a browser application only.
Mac OS X has been demonstrated running on various netbooks as a result of the OSx86 project, although this is in violation of the operating system's end-user license agreement. Apple has complained to sites hosting information on how to install OS X onto non-Apple hardware (including Wired and YouTube) who have reacted and removed content in response. One article nicknamed a netbook running OS X a "Hackintosh." The Macbook Air can be considered an expensive netbook.
Use
A June 2009 NPD study found that 60% of netbook buyers never take their netbooks out of the house.
Special "children's" editions of netbooks have been released under Disney branding; their low cost (less at risk), lack of DVD player (less to break) and smaller keyboards (closer to children's hand sizes) are viewed as significant advantages for that target market. The principal objection to netbooks in this context is the lack of good video performance for streaming online video in current netbooks and a lack of speed with even simple games. Adults browsing for text content are less dependent on video content than small children who cannot read.
Netbooks are a growing trend in education for several reasons. The need to prepare children for 21st-century lifestyles, combined with hundreds of new educational tools that can be found online, and a growing emphasis on student centered learning are three of the biggest contributing factors to the rising use of netbook technology in schools. Dell was one of the first to mass-produce a ruggedised netbook for the education sector, by having a rubber outlay, touchscreen and network activity light to show the teacher the netbook is online.
Netbooks offer several distinct advantages in educational settings. First, their compact size and weight make for an easy fit in student work areas. Similarly, the small size make netbooks easier to transport than heavier, larger sized traditional laptops. In addition, prices ranging from $200–$600 mean the affordability of netbooks can be a relief to school budget makers. Despite the small size and price, netbooks are fully capable of accomplishing most school-related tasks, including word processing, presentations, access to the Internet, multimedia playback, and photo management.
See also
References
External links
"The rise of the Netbook" article at CNET
"The State of the Netbook" article at Ars Technica
"The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit the Big Time" article at Wired
"Light and Cheap, Netbooks Are Poised to Reshape PC Industry" article at New York Times
"5 Tips to Boost the Laptop Speed"
Appropriate technology
Cloud clients
Information appliances
Japanese inventions | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.38 | 14,498 |
Acer Aspire laptops
Acer Aspire (stylized as Λspire or ΛSPIRE) is a series of personal computers by Acer Inc. aimed at the casual household user or for small business use. The Aspire series covers both desktop computers and laptops. Acer developed the series in order to cover from essentials to high performances.
Many of the Aspire laptops, such as model 8920G, have built in Blu-ray drives, 5.1 audio outputs and transflective displays. Acer was the first to include these drives in laptops. Most Aspire laptops have water-resistant screens, such as the 1410 and the 5741 Z.
In 2007, Acer introduced the Gemstone series that marked a milestone in the Acer Aspire line.
As with many Windows laptops, different models may have different specification in different parts of the world, but most of the Aspire laptops, produced from 2005 to 2012, were developed with standardized modular internal design (known as Intel Common Building Block).
Aspire series
List of Acer Aspire series models
A111-31
A114-31
A114-32
A311-31
A314-31
A314-32
A314-33
A314-41
A315-21
A315-21G
A315-23
A315-31
A315-32
A315-33
A315-41
A315-41G
A315-51
A315-52
A315-53
A315-53G
A514-51
A514-51G
A514-51K
A515-41G
A515-44
A515-45
A515-51
A515-51G
A515-52
A515-52G
A515-53
A515-53G
A517-51
A517-51G
A517-51GP
A517-51P
A615-51
A615-51G
A715-71G
A715-72G
A715-74G
A715-75G
A717-71G
A717-72GThe Aspire series was introduced in 2017 with four main models: 1, 3, 5 and 7.
Despite similarities with the Aspire E series, in many regions, the Aspire series is sold alongside the Aspire E series.
In 2018, the Aspire 6 was launched exclusively for Malaysia. The Aspire 6 is simply an Aspire 5 with a Captain America inspired aesthetics.
The Aspire 5 was originally launched with Intel Kaby Lake processors (i5-7200u and i7-7500u) and then was updated with Kaby Lake R processors (i5-8250u and i7-8550u) and more recently updated with Whisky Lake processors (i3-8145u, i5-8265u and i7-8565u) which came along with a redesign which involved slimmer bezels but dedicated maintenance panels for RAM and storage was omitted. More recent products such as the A715-74G and A715-75G feature a choice between the Coffee Lake 9th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, or the AMD Ryzen 3 and 5 processors.
Aspire E series
List of Acer Aspire E series models
E1-410
E1-410G
E1-411G
E1-422
E1-422G
E1-430
E1-430G
E1-430P
E1-431
E1-431G
E1-432
E1-432G
E1-432P
E1-451G
E1-470
E1-470G
E1-470P
E1-470PG
E1-471
E1-471G
E1-472
E1-472G
E1-472P
E1-472PG
E1-510
E1-510P
E1-521
E1-522
E1-530
E1-530G
E1-531
E1-531G
E1-532
E1-532G
E1-532P
E1-532PG
E1-570
E1-570G
E1-571
E1-571G
E1-572
E1-572G
E1-572P
E1-572PG
E1-731
E1-731G
E1-732G
E1-771
E1-771G
E1-772
E1-772G
E3-111
E3-112
E3-112M
E5-411
E5-411G
E5-421
E5-421G
E5-422
E5-422G
E5-432
E5-432G
E5-452G
E5-471
E5-471G
E5-471P
E5-471PG
E5-472G
E5-473
E5-473G
E5-473T
E5-473TG
E5-474
E5-474G
E5-475
E5-475G
E5-476
E5-476G
E5-491G
E5-511
E5-511G
E5-511P
E5-521
E5-521G
E5-522
E5-522G
E5-523
E5-523G
E5-531
E5-531G
E5-531P
E5-532
E5-532G
E5-532T
E5-551
E5-551G
E5-552
E5-552G
E5-553
E5-553G
E5-571
E5-571G
E5-571P
E5-571PG
E5-572G
E5-573
E5-573G
E5-573T
E5-573TG
E5-574
E5-574G
E5-574T
E5-574TG
E5-575
E5-575G
E5-575T
E5-575TG
E5-576
E5-576G
E5-721
E5-722
E5-722G
E5-731
E5-731G
E5-752
E5-752G
E5-771
E5-771G
E5-772
E5-772G
E5-773
E5-773G
E5-774
E5-774G
EC-470G
EC-471G
EK-571G
ES1-111
ES1-111M
ES1-131
ES1-132
ES1-311
ES1-331
ES1-332
ES1-411
ES1-420
ES1-421
ES1-422
ES1-431
ES1-432
ES1-433
ES1-433G
ES1-511
ES1-512
ES1-520
ES1-521
ES1-522
ES1-523
ES1-524
ES1-531
ES1-532G
ES1-533
ES1-571
ES1-572
ES1-711
ES1-711G
ES1-731
ES1-731G
ES1-732
VSF-069
The Acer's Aspire E series also contains the Aspire ES sub series. The Aspire E comes with either a 14" or 15.6" 16:9 display named E14 and E15 respectively. The Aspire ES comes with either an 11.6" or 14" 16:9 display named ES11 and ES14 respectively.
The Aspire E series has been updated annually with newer Intel Processors. The Aspire E series is currently offered with Intel 8th generation Intel Core i series processors but has been offered with 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th generation Intel Core i series processors.
The Aspire E15 and Aspire 5 are similar but different.
The Aspire E15 weighs 5.27 lb and its dimensions are: 15.02" x 10.20" x 1.19". It has a SD Card slot, 2x USB 3.0 Type-A ports, 1x USB 2.0 Type-A port, RJ-45 Ethernet network port, HDMI Output, 1x USB 3.1 Type-C port and 1x VGA Port.
Aspire F series
List of Acer Aspire F series models
F5-521
F5-522
F5-571
F5-571G
F5-571T
F5-572
F5-572G
F5-573
F5-573G
F5-573T
F5-771
F5-771G
FDC-VMD4
The Acer's Aspire F15 is a 15-inch laptop.
Aspire M series
List of Acer Aspire M series models
M3-481
M3-481G
M3-580
M3-580G
M3-581G
M3-581PT
M3-581PTG
M3-581T
M3-581TG
M5-481
M5-481G
M5-481PT
M5-481PTG
M5-481T
M5-481TG
M5-581G
M5-581T
M5-581TG
M5-582PT
M5-583P
This sub-series has since been discontinued. Its unofficial successor is the Acer Swift series.
Aspire One
Acer Aspire One is a line of Aspire subcompact notebooks (netbooks) similar to the Asus EEE.
Aspire P series
List of Acer Aspire P series models
P3-131
P3-171
Aspire P3
The Acer Aspire P3 is an 11.6-inch IPS LCD textured titanium-alloy maid ultrabook with an Intel Core i3-3229Y 1.4 GHz processor for i3 models and Intel Core i5-3329Y 1.5 GHz processor for i5 Models, 128 GB Solid State Drive, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity in 9.9 mm thin profile and a 2 or 4 GB of RAM. It also has one ventilation fan inside to cool the ultrabook when it is heavily used. This ultrabook was listed as a top-5 hybrid convertible laptop of 2013 by TechRadar.com.
Aspire R series
List of Acer Aspire R series models
R3-131T
R3-431T
R3-471T
R3-471TG
R5-371T
R5-431T
R5-471T
R5-571T
R5-571TG
R7-371T
R7-372T
R7-571
R7-571G
R7-572
R7-572G
Aspire R 11
The Acer Aspire R 11 (model R3-131-...) is an 11-inch convertible (2-in-1) laptop with a mainstream folding design.
Aspire R 14
The Acer Aspire R 14 (model R3-471T-...) is a 14-inch convertible (2-in-1) laptop with a mainstream folding design, similar to the Lenovo Yoga 3 14 laptop. It has a display resolution of 1,366x7,68, and comes with 5th generation Broadwell Processors, a 1 TB HDD, and 8 GB of RAM.
Aspire R7
The Acer Aspire R7 (model R7-572-...) is a 15.6-inch convertible (2-in-1) laptop with a single-hinge "Ezel" folding design. It has a display resolution of 1,920x1,080 and N-Trig DuoSense technology stylus support. It comes with 4th generation Haswell Processors, a 1 TB HDD, and 8 GB of RAM.
Aspire R 13
The Acer Aspire (model R7-371t-...) is a 13.3" convertible (2-in-1) laptop with a double-hinge "Ezel" folding design. It has two available display resolutions of 1,920x1,080 or 2,560x1,440, and Synaptics stylus support. It comes with either 4th generation Haswell, 5th generation Broadwell Processors or 6th generation Skylake processors, solid state hard drives in sizes of 128, 256, or 512 GB, and 8 GB of RAM.
Aspire R 15
The Acer Aspire R 15 (model R5-571T-...) is a 15.6 inch convertible (2-in-1) laptop with a mainstream folding design.
Aspire S series
List of Acer Aspire S series models
S3-331
S3-371
S3-391
S3-392
S3-392G
S3-951
S5-371
S5-371T
S5-391
S7-191
S7-391
S7-392
S7-392 (InstantGo)
S7-393
Aspire S3
The Acer Aspire S3 is a 13.3-inch Ultrabook with an Intel Core 1.6 GHz processor, 320 GB hard drive, a media card reader. Moreover, it has an integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000-chip and four gigabytes of RAM. Overall, the Ultrabook weighs 2.98 pounds.
Aspire S5
The Acer Aspire S5 is a 13.3-Inch Ultrabook, which the company says is the world's thinnest Ultrabook. It is just 15mm-thick and so two millimeters thinner than the MacBook Air. It weighs 2.97 pounds and includes an Intel Ivy Bridge processor, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance plus professionally tuned Dolby Home Theater v4.
Aspire S7
The Acer Aspire S7 is a 13.3-inch ultrabook, a successor to the Aspire S5. It uses the same aluminum frame wrapping a pearly white plastic and Gorilla Glass encasement and is able to bend backwards 180 degrees and lie flat. It weighs roughly less than 1.3 kg and includes an Intel Ivy Bridge processor, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, SSD storage for speed and increased shock resistance plus professionally tuned Dolby Home Theater v4.
Aspire S13
The Acer Aspire S13 is a 13.3-inch ultrabook, a successor to the Aspire S7. The computer has an Intel Core i5 dual-core processor, 1080p display, SSD storage, USB-C port, and 8GB of ram.
Aspire Timeline series
Acer Aspire Timeline is a discontinued sub-line of the Aspire series which consisted of ultrabooks. The indirect successor to the Aspire Timeline's are the Acer Swift lineup.
Aspire V Nitro series
List of Acer Aspire V Nitro series models
VN7-571
VN7-571G
VN7-572
VN7-572G
VN7-572TG
VN7-591G
VN7-592G
VN7-593G
VN7-791G
VN7-792G
VN7-793G
Aspire V series
List of Acer Aspire V series models
V3-111P
V3-112P
V3-331
V3-371
V3-372
V3-372T
V3-431
V3-471
V3-471G
V3-472
V3-472G
V3-472P
V3-472PG
V3-531
V3-531G
V3-532
V3-532G
V3-551
V3-551G
V3-571
V3-571G
V3-572
V3-572G
V3-572P
V3-572PG
V3-574
V3-574G
V3-574T
V3-574TG
V3-575
V3-575G
V3-575T
V3-575TG
V3-731
V3-731G
V3-771
V3-7710
V3-7710G
V3-771G
V3-772G
V5-121
V5-122P
V5-123
V5-131
V5-132
V5-132P
V5-171
V5-431
V5-431G
V5-431P
V5-431PG
V5-452G
V5-452PG
V5-471
V5-471G
V5-471P
V5-471PG
V5-472
V5-472G
V5-472P
V5-472PG
V5-473
V5-473G
V5-473P
V5-473PG
V5-531
V5-531G
V5-531P
V5-531PG
V5-551
V5-551G
V5-552
V5-552G
V5-552P
V5-552PG
V5-561
V5-561G
V5-561P
V5-561PG
V5-571
V5-571G
V5-571P
V5-571PG
V5-572
V5-572G
V5-572P
V5-572PG
V5-573
V5-573G
V5-573P
V5-573PG
V5-591G
V7-481
V7-481G
V7-481P
V7-481PG
V7-482P
V7-482PG
V7-581
V7-581G
V7-581P
V7-581PG
V7-582P
V7-582PG
The Acer Aspire V series consists of the Acer Aspire V, Acer Aspire V3, Acer Aspire V5, Acer Aspire V 13 and Acer Aspire V15.
Aspire V5
The Acer Aspire V5 is notebook available in 14 and 15.6 inches and comes with a silver scratch resistant exterior. It is considerably slim and is offered in both 10-point multi-touch and non-touch variants. The V5 comes with a HD display with a resolution of 1366×768 pixels and a webcam on top. The left consists of a power slot, the heat-sink, a proprietary slot to plug-in the adaptor for the Gigabit Ethernet port and the VGA port, an HDMI slot, a USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.It also came out sometimearound late 2012 and early 2013
Aspire VX series
Aspire VX 15
The Acer Aspire VX 15 specifications includes the use of either an Intel Core i5-7300HQ or an i7-7700HQ, 8 or 16GB DDR4 SDRAM, a 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) 16:9 and either a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4 GB Dedicated Memory or a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with 4 GB Dedicated Memory.
Aspire VX 5
The Acer Aspire VX 5 specifications includes the use of either an Intel Core i7-7700HQ, 8GB DDR4 SDRAM, single-channel, a 15.6" 16:9, 1920 x 1080 pixel 141 PPI HD and either a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti (Laptop) - 4096 MB, Core: 1493 - 1620 MHz.
Other models
List of other Acer Aspire models
One
1200
1300
1350
1360
1400
1410 (11.6")
1420P
1430
1430Z
1500
1520
1551
1640
1640Z
1650
1660
1670
1680
1690
1700
1710
1800
1810T
1810TZ
1820PT
1830
1830T
1830TZ
2000
2010
2020
2420
2430
2920
2920Z
2930
2930Z
3000
3050
3100
3500
3600
3610
3620
3630
3640
3650
3660
3680
3690
3750
3750G
3750Z
3750ZG
3810T
3810TZ
3820T
3820TG
3820TZ
3830
3830G
3830
3830G
3830T
3830TG
3935
4220
4230
4250
4251
4252
4253
4310
4315
4320
4330
4332
4333
4336
4339
4349
4350
4350G
4352
4352G
4410
4520
4520G
4530
4535
4535G
4540
4540G
4551
4551G
4552
4552G
4553
4553G
4560
4560G
4625G
4710
4710G
4710Z
4710ZG
4715Z
4720
4720G
4720Z
4720ZG
4730
4730Z
4730ZG
4732Z
4733Z
4735Z
4735ZG
4736
4736G
4736Z
4736ZG
4738
4738G
4738Z
4738ZG
4739
4739Z
4740
4740G
4741
4741G
4741ZG
4743
4743Z
4745
4745G
4745Z
4749
4749Z
4750
4750G
4750Z
4750ZG
4752
4752G
4752Z
4752ZG
4755
4755G
4810T
4810TG
4810TZ
4810TZG
4820
4820G
4820T
4820TG
4820TZ
4820TZG
4830
4830G
4830T
4830TG
4830Z
4920
4920G
4925
4925G
4930
4930G
4930ZG
4935
4935G
4937
4937G
5000
5010
5020
5030
5040
5050
5100
5110
5220
5230
5235
5250
5251
5252
5253
5310
5315
5320
5330
5332
5333
5334
5335
5336
5338
5342
5349
5350
5410
5500
5500Z
5510
5515
5516
5517
5520
5520G
5530
5530G
5532
5534
5535
5536
5536G
5538
5538G
5540
5541G
5542
5542G
5550
5551
5551G
5552
5552G
5553
5553G
5560 (15'')
5560G
5570
5570Z
5580
5590
5600
5610
5610Z
5620
5625
5625G
5630
5650
5670
5680
5710
5710G
5710Z
5710ZG
5715Z
5720
5720G
5720Z
5720ZG
5730
5730G
5730Z
5730ZG
5732Z
5732ZG
5733
5733Z
5734Z
5735
5735Z
5736G
5736Z
5737Z
5738
5738DG
5738DZG
5738G
5738PG
5738PZG
5738Z
5738ZG
5739
5739G
5740
5740DG
5740G
5741
5741G
5741Z
5741ZG
5742
5742G
5742Z
5742ZG
5745
5745DG
5745G
5745P
5745PG
5745Z
5749
5749Z
5750
5750G
5750Z
5750ZG
5755
5755G
5810T
5810TG
5810TZ
5810TZG
5820
5820G
5820T
5820TG
5820TZ
5820TZG
5830G
5830T
5830TG
5910
5910G
5920
5920G
5925G
5930
5930G
5930Z
5935G
5940G
5942G
5943G
5951G
6530
6530G
6920
6920G
6930
6930G
6930Z
6930ZG
6935
6935G
7000
7100
7110
7220
7230
7235G
7250
7250G
7315
7320
7330
7339
7520
7520G
7530
7530G
7535
7535G
7540
7540G
7551
7551G
7552G
7560
7560G
7715Z
7720
7720G
7720Z
7720ZG
7730
7730G
7730Z
7730ZG
7735
7735G
7735Z
7735ZG
7736
7736G
7736Z
7736ZG
7738G
7739
7739G
7739Z
7739ZG
7740
7740G
7741
7741G
7741Z
7741ZG
7745
7745G
7745Z
7750
7750G
7750Z
7750ZG
8530
8530G
8730
8730G
8730ZG
8735
8735G
8735ZG
8920G
8930G
8935G
8940G
8942G
8943G
8950G
8951G
9100
9110
9120
9300
9400
9410
9410Z
9420
9500
9510
9520
9800
9810
9920
9920G
Other Acer Aspire branded laptops include the Aspire One Cloudbook.
Aspire 4720z
Acer Aspire 4720z was a line of consumer laptops during 2006 to 2008. It featured Wireless B/G, Bluetooth, 5.1 audio output. These laptops were part of a class action lawsuit which claimed the laptops did not come with enough on-board RAM to run the pre-installed Windows Vista operating system.
Aspire 5738
Acer Aspire 5738 is a dual-booting (Android and MS-Windows) 3D laptop, which includes Dynamic Digital Depth TriDef software.
The Acer Aspire 5738PG computer also includes the Acer multi-touch technology.
References
External links
Acer Official Website
Acer Inc. laptops
Consumer electronics brands | laptop Form Factor and Weight | 0.379 | 14,499 |
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