Portable Altair - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 Aug 2005

...

Subject: RE: Portable Altair
   From: "'Computer Collector Newsletter'" <news at
computercollector.com>
   Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2005 12:10:57 -0400
     To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'"	<cctalk
at classiccmp.org>

Thanks to all who sent me this link:
http://www.virtualaltair.com/virtualaltair.com/vac_attache.asp ... I guess
the definition of "portable" varies quite a bit!  Even the text of this ad
refers to it as a "desktop" computer. 
In that era (pre 1981) portable was very difficult as power needs were very 
high.  The only CMOS cpus were 1802 and 6100(PDP-8) for the most part.  So 
portable was the same as color TV,IE: you can pick up by a provided handle
and move it a distance. Compared to a fully loaded NS* or altair8800B (at
some 60 pounds for the cpu box and another 60 for the disk box) the idea of
portable (transportable) is significant.

At that time I did build one machine with a dual floppy and a minimal PS 
for 4 s100slots (Z80, 64k ram, VDM1, FDC) that was very light.  Still 
required carrying a keyboard, monitor, System box the the total package 
was under 40 pounds. FYI: The bulk of the weight was the two Floppies
(SA400s diecast aluminum) and the power transformer.  lightweight 
switching supplies were rare then.

Allison

...

-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
On Behalf Of 'Computer Collector Newsletter'
Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2005 10:58 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: Portable Altair

Hi folks,

I posted this message tonight to a couple of Altair sites, but might as well
ask on the big list too: does anyone know about the existence of a portable
Altair, which was designed as the "Altair 2"...?  According to Steven
Levy's
book "Hackers" (p. 257), by mid-1976, Ed Roberts "had been designing an
exciting new Altair 2 computer -- a high-powered, compact machine which
could fit inside a briefcase" before selling the company to Pertec.

I'm more interested in the computer's size / form factor than its technical
abilities, since I mostly study the history of portable systems.

 - Evan

-----------------------------------------
Evan Koblentz's personal homepage: http://www.snarc.net Also see:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/midatlanticretro/
Where did PDAs come from? http://www.snarc.net/pda/pda-treatise.htm

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