Alphabook is indeed a real thing; it was made by RDI, IIRC. They also did a
HPPA laptop as well as their more commonly known SPARC machines sold in
competition against Tadpole. These machines all suffered from the vices you
describe however some people seem to still dig them just to have the exotic
processors in the laptop form factor :O
But I think the OP is describing something that's significantly older;
maybe some kind of early near-PC-compatible x86 machine?
Best,
Sean
On Sat, Aug 29, 2015 at 2:09 PM, Sue Skonetski <
Sue.Skonetski at vmssoftware.com> wrote:
I can not see the picture but could it be an
alphabook? Forgive me if
this sounds like a joke,, but there a very short lived hardware called an
Alphabook. Ran very hot, to hot for a laptop and weighed 14 pounds. If
you have one I would hold onto it, People have mistakeny thought it was
laptop (same dimensions). A friend picked on up for $25 because the person
thought t was a broken laptop. This is a real Alpha.
On Aug 29, 2015, at 12:29 PM, Jules Richardson
<
jules.richardson99 at gmail.com> wrote:
Anyone know anything about this system? Someone on a vintage computer
group on
Facebook has one (missing its keyboard[1]), and having seen some
photos, although it seems to be mostly a generic PC-compatible with 8-bit
ISA, it's notable for having a "video in" connector on the back, as well
as
LAN in/out ports (proprietary? presumably some kind of ring network though)
Surprisingly, Google's coughing up nothing of any use. I'm guessing
someone tried making a PC-compatible with a few built-in extras as a
selling point (not that uncommon back then), and of course it didn't work
out.
[1] Although the keyboard socket is something oddball, I see four wires
leading
back to the motherboard and an 8042 near to where the keyboard
connects, so there's a possibility that it can be wired to a standard AT
(or possibly XT) keyboard - although of course maybe the scan codes or even
the protocol are completely different, and the owner has themselves a nice
boat anchor...
cheers
Jules
Sue Skonetski
VP of Customer Advocacy
Sue.Skonetski at
vmssoftware.com
Office: +1 (978) 451-0116
Mobile: +1 (603) 494-9886
Mit freundlichen Gr??en ? Avec mes meilleures salutations