25 Mar
1998
25 Mar
'98
7:31 p.m.
On Wed, 25 Mar 1998, David Mather wrote:
Well - it wasn't non-descript at the time! It had
a full-size (80x25) LCD
display and WAS the first >truly< portable PC compatible - depending what
you meant by truly of course. Compaq and Olivetti (and Zenith?)
had luggable things compared to which the DG1 was extremely
elegant, especially with the rather smart beige/brown DG trim. At the
time it had "buy me" written all over it.
Both HP and GRiD had similar >truly< portable PC's out before the DG/One.
The HP 110 was battery-powered, so the DG/One doesn't even get the earlier
distinction I gave it of being the first battery-powered clamshell.
However, neither the GRiD nor the HP were 100% IBM compatible, so the
DG/One may be the winner there.
Here's a NEWSBYTE's blurb from the DG/One's intro:
BIG SCREEN PORTABLE:
1984 September 25 (NB) -- Data General unveiled its first
microcomputer to a Lincoln Center, New York audience (9/20). The major
selling point to the 10-pound portable machine, dubbed the Data
General/One, is its liquid crystal display. The LCD is the size of a
standard monitor, displaying 25 lines of text at a time across 12
diagonal inches of monitor space. The second selling point is its
ability to run a variety of operating systems: MS-DOS, UNIX and CP/M.
The basic system, with 128K of RAM, has one disk drive but no built-in
software, making it different from the competing HP Portable. The
machine, with a traditionally power draining built-in drive, actually
runs 8 hours without recharging, according to Data General. Still to
be determined is how the mainframe computer company will retail the
new $2,895 machine and its $525 tiny printer. Data General only has
200 U.S. distributors but has financed the portable computers in
advance for new retailers. A D.G. spokesman says there will be several
major computer store chains carrying the machine by the middle of
1985. One thing in the company's favor: it beat IBM to the punch.
IBM's portable machine code-named "Clamshell" isn't going to be
unveiled until 1985.
-- Doug