Portable Altair

[Allison]

>
>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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