Misplaced Pages

#148851

55-403: The Macintosh Portable is a portable computer that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer, Inc. from September 1989 to October 1991. It is the first battery -powered Macintosh , which garnered significant excitement from critics, but sales to customers were quite low. It featured a fast, sharp, and expensive monochrome active matrix LCD screen in a hinged design that covered

110-478: A 32-character screen, a floppy disk: capacity = 140 000 characters, of a thermal printer: speed = 28 characters / sec, an asynchronous channel, a synchronous channel, a 220 V power supply. Designed for an operating temperature of 15–35 °C (59–95 °F), it weighed 12 kilograms (26 lb) and its dimensions were 45 cm × 45 cm × 15 cm (17.7 in × 17.7 in × 5.9 in). It provided total mobility. Its operating system

165-487: A backlit Macintosh Portable (model M5126). The backlight feature was a welcomed improvement, but it reduced the battery life by about a half. An upgrade kit was also offered for the earlier model as well, which plugged into the ROM expansion slot. The Portable used expensive SRAM memory in an effort to maximize battery life and to provide an "instant on" low-power sleep mode. In the newer backlit Portable, Apple changed SRAM memory to

220-518: A build of BeOS specifically targeted to internet appliances . The company lost several employees who disagreed with this strategy and who had no desire to work on an appliance OS. While there was vendor interest in BeIA and at least one shipping product based on it (the Sony eVilla ), the market for internet appliances proved to be nearly non-existent, and Be laid off most of its employees in 2001, with its assets and

275-557: A charge and allow the computer to start. As with other lead-acid batteries, such as automotive batteries, the sealed lead-acid (SLA) cells used in the Portable's battery pack sulfated and eventually failed if they were left for an extended time in a fully discharged state, such as when the computer was stored for a period of months or longer. It is possible to repack the battery with new cells, or use alternative 6 V batteries. There were three "X" size cylindrical sealed lead-acid cells inside

330-546: A general partner at Allegis Capital , a venture capital fund based in Palo Alto, California , where he is still in position. In November 2004, Gassée became chairman of PalmSource, Inc. , where several former Be executives and engineers still worked. BeOS technology was being worked on for use in Palm OS "Cobalt" (Version 6), but as of February 2006, there were no major customers—including Palm, Inc. itself—who have committed to using

385-486: A hard drive and a floppy drive. The floppy drive is 1.44 MB. Most Macintosh Portable units came with a hard drive , a custom-engineered Conner CP-3045 (known by Apple as "Hard Disk 40SC"). It holds 40 MB of data, consumes less power compared to most hard drives of its time, and has a proprietary SCSI connector; adapters that allow standard SCSI drives to be used on the Portable exist, but they are expensive. At 16 pounds (7.2 kilograms) and 4 inches (10 centimetres) thick,

440-496: A laptop or other mobile computing device , have a standard motherboard or backplane providing plug-in slots for add-in cards. This allows mission specific cards such as test, A/D, or communication protocol (IEEE-488, 1553) to be installed. Portable computers also provide for more disk storage by using standard disk drives and provide for multiple drives. In 1973, the IBM Los Gatos Scientific Center developed

495-602: A lengthy development time with a silkscreen date stamp of 1987 on the production keyboard PCB, indicating a close-to-final design was likely to have been determined by then. The computer, however would not be launched for over two years, with the final launch date being September 20, 1989. The Macintosh Portable product launch was held at the Universal Amphitheater in Universal City, California at an estimated cost of $ 1 million with over 5,000 guests. The press reaction

550-631: A number of Apple employees held a demonstration, marching around in circles, carrying signs, on the lawn in front of one Apple building, to petition Apple management to retain Gassée. A USA Today reporter saw the demonstration and asked an employee what it was about. The employee, well aware of Apple's rules on divulging trade secrets to the press, succinctly explained the issues. The next day, USA Today reported that Apple employees, many wearing black leather jackets and berets in honor of Gassée, had demonstrated to persuade management to keep him at Apple. In fact,

605-588: A paperback copy of Fred Brooks 's The Mythical Man-Month for all product-development employees, in the hope of inspiring good sense in project management. Brooks gave a lecture at nearby De Anza College : the room was filled with Apple employees with copies of his book, who told him stories that confirmed his conclusions. In 1988, Gassée became head of Apple's advanced product development and worldwide marketing, and rumors of his taking over as CEO of Apple from Sculley were circling. Other rumors concerning Michael Spindler were also circulating. At one point in 1990,

SECTION 10

#1732852245149

660-541: A portable computer prototype called SCAMP (Special Computer APL Machine Portable) based on the IBM PALM processor with a Philips compact cassette drive, small CRT and full function keyboard. SCAMP emulated an IBM 1130 minicomputer in order to run APL\1130. In 1973, APL was generally available only on mainframe computers, and most desktop sized microcomputers such as the Wang 2200 or HP 9800 offered only BASIC . Because SCAMP

715-440: A prototype and did not enter production. Successful demonstrations of the 1973 SCAMP prototype led to the first commercial IBM 5100 portable microcomputer launched in 1975. The product incorporated an IBM PALM processor , 5-inch (130 mm) CRT, full function keyboard and the ability to be programmed in both APL and BASIC for engineers, analysts, statisticians and other business problem-solvers. (IBM provided different models of

770-494: Is about the size and weight of a sewing machine, and was advertised as the only computer that would fit underneath an airline seat . Another early portable computer released in 1982 was named the Kaypro II , although it was the company's first commercially available product. Some of the press mocked its design—one magazine described Kaypro Corporation as "producing computers packaged in tin cans". Others raved about its value, as

825-535: Is unknown but ADD instructions are documented as taking 16μs, i.e. ~62k ADD/s. Jean-Louis Gass%C3%A9e Jean-Louis Gassée (born 24 March 1944) is a business executive. He is best known as a former executive at Apple Computer , where he worked from 1981 to 1990. He also founded Be Inc. , creators of the BeOS computer operating system. After leaving Be, he became Chairman of PalmSource, Inc. in November 2004. Gassée

880-686: The Atari STacy , a version of the Atari ST computer with a built in keyboard and monitor. Macintosh Portable can run Macintosh System 6.0.4 through System 7.5.5 . By the late 1980s, Macintosh users yearned for a portable version of their computer. Don Crabb titled his February 1989 column in BYTE "Hey Apple, I Need a Laptop". While third-party Macintosh conversions such as Dynamac and Colby existed, they were very expensive, and some are as heavy as or heavier than Apple's compact Macs ; Crabb's column's subtitle

935-619: The "portable" Hyperion Computer System. Both Eagle Computer and Columbia were sued by IBM for copyright infringement of its BIOS. They settled and were forced to halt production. Neither the Columbia nor the Eagle were nearly as IBM PC DOS compatible as Compaq's offerings. The first full-color portable computer was the Commodore SX-64 in January 1984.. Originally announced in 1987, the Atari STacy

990-774: The 2000s mobile devices and by 2007 smartphones made the term "portable" rather meaningless. The 2010s introduced wearable computers such as smartwatches . Portable computers, by their nature, are generally microcomputers . Larger portable computers were commonly known as 'Lunchbox' or 'Luggable' computers. They are also called 'Portable Workstations' or 'Portable PCs'. In Japan they were often called 'Bentocom'. ( ベントコン , Bentokon ) from " bento ". Portable computers, more narrowly defined, are distinct from desktop replacement computers in that they usually were constructed from full-specification desktop components, and often do not incorporate features associated with laptops or mobile devices. A portable computer in this usage, versus

1045-445: The 50-pound (23 kg) IBM 5100 (1975), Osborne 's 24-pound (11 kg) CP/M -based Osborne 1 (1981) and Compaq 's 28-pound (13 kg), advertised as 100% IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable (1983). These luggable computers still required a continuous connection to an external power source; this limitation was later overcome by the laptop computers . Laptops were followed by lighter models such as netbooks , so that in

1100-460: The 5100 supporting only BASIC, only APL, or both selectable by a physical switch on the front panel.) IBM referred to its PALM processor as a microprocessor , though they used that term to mean a processor that executes microcode to implement a higher-level instruction set , rather than its conventional definition of a complete processor on a single silicon integrated circuit ; the PALM processor

1155-629: The French affiliates of Data General and Exxon Office Systems. In 1981, Gassée became Director of European Operations at Apple Computer . In 1985, after learning of Steve Jobs 's plan to oust CEO John Sculley over Memorial Day weekend while Sculley was in China, Gassée preemptively informed the board of directors, which eventually led to Jobs leaving Apple. Later, Sculley personally appointed Gassée to Jobs's old position as head of Macintosh development. Gassée introduced several Macintosh products on-stage in

SECTION 20

#1732852245149

1210-621: The MIT Digital Systems Laboratory as a thesis project, it never entered production. It is currently in the collection of Dr. Hoo-Min D. Toong. An early portable computer was manufactured in 1979 by GM Research, a small company in Santa Monica, California. The machine which was designed and patented by James Murez. It was called the Micro Star and later the name was changed to The Small One. Although Xerox claims to have designed

1265-468: The Portable is a heavy and bulky portable computer. The main contributor to the Portable's weight and bulk was its lead-acid battery. Despite the dramatic improvement in terms of ergonomics offered by the responsiveness, sharpness, and uniformity of its active matrix panel, one of the primary drawbacks of the Portable was poor readability in low-light situations. Consequently, in February 1991, Apple introduced

1320-419: The battery pack installed. This is due to the relatively low power output of the included AC charger, 1.5A @ 7.5 V, which is insufficient to spin up the hard disk, which has an initial startup current draw requirement of 2-3 Amps. The battery pack must be installed and have sufficient charge to provide the additional current required during hard disk startup. Once booted and running, the total power required to run

1375-505: The battery pack, manufactured by Gates Energy Products (now EnerSys); the same cells were also used in Quantum 1 battery packs for photographic flash use. The battery pack can be rebuilt with new EnerSys "Cyclon" brand batteries, using either three part number 0800-0004 single cells of 2V each, or using one 6V monobloc part number 0809-0012. There is some indication that Apple executives at the time, particularly, Jean-Louis Gassée , were aware of

1430-537: The company advertised the Kaypro II as "the $ 1,595 computer that sells for $ 1,595 ", some noting that the included software bundle had a retail value over $ 1,000 by itself, and by mid-1983 the company was selling more than 10,000 units a month, briefly making it the fifth-largest computer maker in the world. It managed to correct most of the Osborne 1 's deficiencies: the screen was larger and showed more characters at once,

1485-401: The company their former co-founder Steve Jobs had earlier left Apple to found, for $ 429 million, with the high price justified by Apple getting Jobs and his NeXT engineers in tow. NeXTSTEP was used as the basis for their new operating system, Mac OS X . After the return of Jobs, Apple withdrew the license to make Macintosh clones . With Intel's assistance, BeOS moved to "Plan B", a port to

1540-497: The computer drops below 1.5A and the Portable can continue to run on the AC charger alone. Several popular unauthorized workarounds were devised to allow the Portable to boot without a battery pack installed, including using an AC power supply from the PowerBook 100 series, which provides higher output. The battery packs are no longer manufactured and it is very rare to find one that will hold

1595-533: The computer only generated lackluster sales of 10,000 units in its first quarter on the market. Apple then reduced the price of the Macintosh Portable by $ 1,000 in 1990, just 7 months after launch. The company discontinued the computer in 1991 with the launch of its replacement, the PowerBook series. Portable computer The first commercially sold portable computer might be the 20-pound (9.1 kg) MCM/70 , released 1974. The next major portables were

1650-493: The design problems concerning the Macintosh Portable. These problems, combined with supply issues of the newly developed active matrix screen , caused numerous delays in launching the computer. While it cannot be determined what the initial internal intended launch date was, an AppleDesign illustration depicts prototypes dated 1986. Initial officially announced launch dates indicated that the Macintosh Portable would be available by June 1988. The Macintosh Portable itself also suggests

1705-464: The first such system, the machine by Murez predated anything on the market or that had been documented in any publication at the time – hence the patent was issued. As early as 1979, the U.S. Government was contracting to purchase these machines. Other major customers included Sandia Labs, General Dynamics, BBN (featured on the cover of their annual report in 1980 as the C.A.T. system) and several dozen private individuals and companies around

Macintosh Portable - Misplaced Pages Continue

1760-473: The floppy drives stored over twice as much data, the case was more attractive-looking, and it was also much better-built and more reliable. The Grid Compass ran its own operating system, GRiD-OS. Its specialized software and high price (US$ 8,000–10,000) meant that it was limited to specialized applications. The main buyer was the U.S. government. NASA used it on the Space Shuttle during the early 1980s, as it

1815-456: The keyboard when the machine was not in use. The Portable was one of the early consumer laptops to employ an active matrix panel—only the most expensive of the initial PowerBook line, the PowerBook 170 , had such a panel. The machine was designed to deliver high performance, at the cost of increased price and weight. The Portable was discontinued in October 1991. The Portable has features similar to

1870-570: The late 1980s including the Macintosh Portable in 1989, and also the Macintosh IIfx . In his product introductions, he was often very comical. Gassée was less formal than many executives. He wore tailored suits when necessary, but he often addressed employees wearing a black (lambskin) leather jacket and a single diamond-stud earring. When the idea of licensing the Mac OS for other companies use

1925-428: The less expensive (but more power-hungry) pseudo-SRAM, which reduced the total RAM expansion to 8 MB, and lowered the price. The lead-acid battery pack on the non-backlit Portable offered up to ten hours of usage time, and the Portable draws the same amount of power when turned off, and when in sleep mode. The Portable, unlike many later portable computers from Apple and other manufacturers, will not boot without

1980-661: The only person wearing a leather jacket (a brown goatskin A-2 ) and a beret had been the person whom she had asked to explain the purpose of the demonstration. In 1989, Gassée successfully killed a Claris project, 'Drama', which aimed to start a new brand to sell low-end Macintosh computers. Gassée argued that consumers would continue to be willing to pay the premium price for a full Macintosh experience. Despite Gassée's efforts and those of his supporters, in 1990 he left Apple, forced out by Sculley and Apple board members dissatisfied with his performance in delivering new products. Spindler got

2035-456: The project to rewrite and modernize the Macintosh operating system. BeOS had many of the features Apple sought, and around Christmas time they offered to buy Be for $ 120 million, later raising their bid to $ 200 million. However, despite estimates of Be's total worth at approximately $ 80 million, Gassée held out for $ 275 million, and Apple balked. In a surprise move, Apple went on to purchase NeXT ,

2090-418: The remaining engineers being bought by Palm, Inc. for $ 11 million that August. Gassée stayed on through that transition, but left in January 2002. After leaving Be, Gassée served as president and CEO of Computer Access Technology Corporation (CATC), a company which made network protocol analyzers, but left within a year (CATC was purchased in fall 2004 by LeCroy Corporation, a competitor). Gassée resurfaced as

2145-537: The then-CEO of AT&T made a personal phone call to Sculley), Gassée would have none of it, and so the idea of licensing the Mac OS was shelved. In the mid-1980s, Gassée started the skunkworks project to create what eventually became the Newton MessagePad . In 1987, Apple CEO John Sculley published his memoir Odyssey. In the hope of inspiring "excellence," he ordered a hardback copy for each Apple employee, at Apple's expense. Shortly afterward, Gassée ordered

2200-574: The top job. In 1991, Gassée started a new venture, Be Inc., with the ambitious goal of creating an entire new computer platform, hardware and software, from the ground up. A number of Apple employees left with him, including Steve Sakoman , the developer of the Apple Newton . Be developed a new operating system , optimized for multiple CPUs and multithreaded applications, which became known simply as "the Be Operating System," or BeOS . BeOS

2255-667: The world. In 1979, Adam Osborne viewed the machine along with several hundred other visitors at the first computer show that was sponsored by the IEEE Westec in Los Angeles. Later that year the machine was also shown at the first COMDEX show. 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

Macintosh Portable - Misplaced Pages Continue

2310-439: The x86 platform. While it arguably never grew past a cult following, it sold enough copies to have a nascent development and user community, and had several thousand programs available for it, including several dozen commercial products. BeOS was also used as an embedded operating system in multimedia production systems from Edirol, TEAC and Level Control Systems. However, partially due to behind-the-scenes pressure from Microsoft, Be

2365-512: Was Prolog . A few hundred were sold between 1980 and 1983. The first mass-produced microprocessor-based portable computer released in 1981 was the Osborne 1 , developed by Osborne, which owed much to the NoteTaker's design. The company had early success with the design and went public but later due to small screen sizes and other devices being released found trouble selling the Osborne. The Osborne 1

2420-440: Was "The time has come for a portable mac that doesn't strain your arms or your credit line". The Macintosh Portable's pointer is a built-in trackball that can be removed and located on either side of the keyboard, and can also be replaced with a numeric keypad if a mouse is being used. There were three drive configurations available for Macintosh Portable. A Portable could ship with one floppy drive, with two floppy drives, or with

2475-453: Was a large circuit board populated with over a dozen chips. In the late 1960s, such a machine would have been nearly as large as two desks and would have weighed about half a ton (0.45 t). In comparison, the IBM 5100 weighed about 53 pounds (24 kg and very portable for that time). The MIT Suitcase Computer, constructed in 1975, was the first known microprocessor-based portable computer. It

2530-409: 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. The Portal 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 alpha numeric keys and 11 numeric keys (separate blocks),

2585-454: Was based on the Motorola 6800 . Constructed in a Samsonite suitcase approximately 20 by 30 by 8 inches (510 mm × 760 mm × 200 mm) and weighing approximately 20 lb (9.1 kg), it had 4K of SRAM, a serial port to accept downloaded software and connect to a modem, a keyboard and a 40-column thermal printer taken from a cash register. Built by student David Emberson in

2640-628: Was born 24 March 1944 in Paris , France . Gassée worked for six years at Hewlett-Packard from 1968 to 1974, where he was responsible for overseeing the launching of the company’s first desktop scientific computer and the development of its sales organization in France, before his promotion to Sales Manager of Europe, in Geneva, Switzerland. From 1974 to 1981, Gassée served as the Chief Executive Officer of

2695-460: Was brought up by various members of Apple, Jean-Louis refused to give in to the idea, maintaining that the Macintosh was more powerful than any other computer at the present, and had a superior architectural roadmap for future expansion than any other computer. Although many of the companies were interested (such as AT&T, for the use of the OS in their own equipment—they were so interested in this idea that

2750-501: Was mixed, with many praising the clear LCD screen, but most shunning the computer due to its size, weight and high cost, with the Los Angeles Times stating "It’s too big, too heavy and too expensive." Others noted that the computer seemed behind the times compared to competing laptops, stating that "This machine would have been OK 12 months or 18 months ago. But not today." Apple had forecast first year sales of 50,000 units. However,

2805-448: Was not successful in getting top-tier OEMs to bundle BeOS with their hardware - only Hitachi and AST (who were major in Europe at the time) did so - which Gassée saw as fundamental to their success. At the end of 1999, Be had a "focus shift," giving their desktop OS away for free (with commercial distributions sold by third-party vendors, similar to Linux distributions) to focus on BeIA ,

SECTION 50

#1732852245149

2860-522: Was powerful, lightweight, and compact. The military Special Forces also purchased the machine, as it could be used by paratroopers in combat. Although Columbia Data Product 's MPC 1600, "Multi Personal Computer" came out in June 1983, one of the first extensively IBM PC compatible computers was the Compaq Portable . Eagle Computer then came out with their offering. and Corona Data Systems 's PPC-400.,

2915-843: Was released to the public in December 1989 and was one of the first laptop-like portables. Apple Inc. introduced and released the Macintosh Portable in 1989, though this device came with a battery, which added to its substantial weight. The Portable has features similar to the Atari STacy , include integrated trackball and clamshell case. After release of IBM PC Convertible in 1986, IBM still produced classic portable computers, include released in 1989 PS/2 P70 (with upgrade in 1990 to P75 ), and IBM produce portables for up to release of PS/2 Note and PS/55note notebook lines. In today's world of laptops, smart phones, and tablets, portable computers have evolved and are now mostly used for industrial, commercial or military applications. Clock speed

2970-490: Was the first to emulate APL\1130 performance on a portable, single user computer, PC Magazine in 1983 designated SCAMP a "revolutionary concept" and "the world's first personal computer". The engineering prototype is in the Smithsonian Institution . Xerox NoteTaker , developed in 1976 at Xerox PARC , was a precursor to later portable computers from Osborne Computer Corporation and Compaq , though it remained

3025-565: Was written for Be's own dual-processor machine, the BeBox ; later development releases of BeOS were ported to run on the Macintosh, and Macintosh clone makers, including Power Computing and Motorola , signed deals to ship BeOS with their hardware when the OS was finalized. In light of this, Be stopped production on the BeBox after selling only around 2000 units, and focused entirely on development of BeOS. In 1996, Apple Computer decided to abandon Copland ,

#148851