61-460: The SupersPort is a line of PC-compatible laptops manufactured by Zenith Data Systems and sold from 1988 to 1993. The first two main entries in the SupersPort line included either an Intel 80286 microprocessor clocked at 12 MHz or an 8088 processor clocked at 8 or 4.77 MHz, switchable. Later entries included the 386SX , 486SX and 486 processors. The SupersPort 286 in particular
122-402: A brighter backlight element. They both feature more power-efficient electronics and a smaller profile and weight. While the 8088 SupersPort was marketed toward university students, the SupersPort 286—featuring an Intel 80286 clocked at 12 MHz (with no wait states )—was aimed at business professionals. The SupersPort 286 was one of the first battery-powered 286 laptops; Zenith claimed it was
183-561: A combination of speed, weight, size, and battery life that we've seen in no other laptop" and that "Zenith's engineers have come closer to the ideal laptop than any so far".Levinson particularly praised the processing speed, hard disk access times and battery life of the SupersPort 286 and while finding some software incompatibility with FastBack Plus (a file backup utility for DOS ) and Crosstalk Mk.4 (a terminal emulator for DOS), he wrote that such errors were correctable and subsequent tests ran fine afterwards. Levinson found reservation with
244-465: A computer through retail channels rather than directly to customers. Because IBM did not have retail experience, they partnered with the retail chains ComputerLand and Sears , who provided important knowledge of the marketplace and became the main outlets for the PC. More than 190 ComputerLand stores already existed, while Sears was in the process of creating a handful of in-store computer centers for sale of
305-442: A dedicated power supply and included a hard drive. Although official hard drive support did not exist, the third party market did provide early hard drives that connected to the floppy disk controller , but required a patched version of PC DOS to support the larger disk sizes. The only option for human interface provided in the base PC was the built-in keyboard port, meant to connect to the included Model F keyboard. The Model F
366-445: A design could be delivered within a year and a prototype within 30 days. The prototype worked poorly but was presented with a detailed business plan which proposed that the new computer have an open architecture , use non-proprietary components and software, and be sold through retail stores, all contrary to IBM practice. It also estimated sales of 220,000 computers over three years, more than IBM's entire installed base . This swayed
427-573: A hard drive, the motherboard did not support BIOS expansion ROMs which was needed to support a hard drive controller, and both PC DOS and the BIOS had no support for hard disks. After the XT was released, IBM altered the design of the 5150 to add most of these capabilities, except for the upgraded power supply. At this point adding a hard drive was possible, but required the purchase of the IBM 5161 Expansion Unit, which contained
488-564: A library of common functions that all software can use for many purposes, such as video output, keyboard input, disk access, interrupt handling, testing memory, and other functions. IBM shipped three versions of the BIOS throughout the PC's lifespan. While most home computers had built-in video output hardware, IBM took the unusual approach of offering two different graphics options, the MDA and CGA cards. The former provided high-resolution monochrome text, but could not display anything except text, while
549-544: A little over 10 pounds (4.5 kg). The TurbosPort and 8088 SupersPort were released to the public in April 1988. The SupersPort 286 was released a month later, held back by FCC clearance. A kit version of the SupersPort 286 was offered by Zenith's Heath division in the beginning of 1989. The Heath SupersPort 286 sold for US$ 3,678, against the $ 4,999 retail price of the fully assembled Zenith SupersPort 286. Although Zenith refused to disclose sales figures of their computers,
610-401: A maximum of 64 KB onboard, and the more common 64 KB revision to a maximum of 256 KB on the motherboard. RAM cards could upgrade either variant further, for a total of 640 KB conventional memory , and possibly several megabytes of expanded memory beyond that, though on PC/XT-class machines, the latter was a very expensive third-party hardware option only available later in
671-635: A mouse.) Connectivity to other computers and peripherals was initially provided through serial and parallel ports. IBM provided a serial card based on an 8250 UART . The BIOS supports up to two serial ports. IBM provided two different options for connecting Centronics-compatible parallel printers. One was the IBM Printer Adapter, and the other was integrated into the MDA as the IBM Monochrome Display and Printer Adapter. The expansion capability of
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#1732863145678732-494: A policy of strict secrecy, with all other IBM divisions kept in the dark about the project. Several CPUs were considered, including the Texas Instruments TMS9900 , Motorola 68000 and Intel 8088 . The 68000 was considered the best choice, but was not production-ready like the others. The IBM 801 RISC processor was also considered, since it was considerably more powerful than the other options, but rejected due to
793-581: A separate monochrome monitor for text menus. Third parties went on to provide an enormous variety of aftermarket graphics adapters, such as the Hercules Graphics Card . The software and hardware of the PC, at release, was designed around a single 8-bit adaptation of the ASCII character set, now known as code page 437 . The two bays in the front of the machine could be populated with one or two 5.25″ floppy disk drives, storing 160 KB per disk side for
854-455: A total of 320 KB of storage on one disk. The floppy drives require a controller card inserted in an expansion slot, and connect with a single ribbon cable with two edge connectors. The IBM floppy controller card provides an external 37-pin D-sub connector for attachment of an external disk drive, although IBM did not offer one for purchase until 1986. As was common for home computers of the era,
915-424: A well publicized quote from an industry analyst was, "IBM bringing out a personal computer would be like teaching an elephant to tap dance." IBM had previously produced microcomputers, such as 1975's IBM 5100 , but targeted them towards businesses; the 5100 had a price tag as high as $ 20,000. Their entry into the home computer market needed to be competitively priced. In 1980, IBM president John Opel, recognizing
976-403: A year. By 1984, IBM's revenue from the PC market was $ 4 billion, more than twice that of Apple. A 1983 study of corporate customers found that two thirds of large customers standardizing on one computer chose the PC, while only 9% chose Apple. A 1985 Fortune survey found that 56% of American companies with personal computers used PCs while 16% used Apple. Almost as soon as the PC reached
1037-411: Is housed in a wide, short steel chassis intended to support the weight of a CRT monitor. The front panel is made of plastic, with an opening where one or two disk drives can be installed. The back panel houses a power inlet and switch, a keyboard connector, a cassette connector and a series of tall vertical slots with blank metal panels which can be removed in order to install expansion cards. Internally,
1098-509: The IBM PC ) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard . Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of engineers and designers at International Business Machines (IBM), directed by William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida . Powered by an x86 -architecture Intel 8088 processor,
1159-615: The IBM System/23 Datamaster . The 62-pin expansion bus slots were also designed to be similar to the Datamaster slots, and its keyboard design and layout became the Model F keyboard shipped with the PC, but otherwise the PC design differed in many ways. The 8088 motherboard was designed in 40 days, with a working prototype created in four months, demonstrated in January 1981. The design
1220-600: The IBM System/370 , and Matsushita acknowledged publicly that it had discussed with IBM the possibility of manufacturing a personal computer in partnership, although this project was abandoned. The public responded to these rumors with skepticism, owing to IBM's tendency towards slow-moving, bureaucratic business practices tailored towards the production of large, sophisticated and expensive business systems. As with other large computer companies, its new products typically required about four to five years for development, and
1281-407: The 1980s opened, their market share in the growing minicomputer market failed to keep up with competitors, while other manufacturers were beginning to see impressive profits in the microcomputer space. The market for personal computers was dominated at the time by Tandy , Commodore , and Apple , whose machines sold for several hundred dollars each and had become very popular. The microcomputer market
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#17328631456781342-462: The 1980s was from Apple 's Macintosh product line, as well as consumer-grade platforms created by companies like Commodore and Atari . Most present-day personal computers share architectural features in common with the original IBM PC, including the Intel -based Mac computers manufactured from 2006 to 2022 . Prior to the 1980s, IBM had largely been known as a provider of business computer systems. As
1403-425: The 8088 SupersPort was beginning to fall behind in usability and speed, calling the hard disk speed unremarkable and the processing speed mediocre. He praised the laptop's backlit display and called the battery life reasonable, but found the design of the battery attachment mechanism flawed, as it prevented users from plugging in peripherals to the rear ports without first removing the rather bulky battery and unlatching
1464-479: The Corporate Management Committee, which converted the group into a business unit named "Project Chess", and provided the necessary funding and authority to do whatever was needed to develop the computer in the given timeframe. The team received permission to expand to 150 people by the end of 1980, and in one day more than 500 IBM employees called in asking to join. The design process was kept under
1525-551: The IBM 5150's lifecycle and only usable with dedicated software support (i.e. only accessible via a RAM window in the Upper Memory Area ); this was relatively rarely equipped and utilized on the original IBM PC, much less fully so, thus the machine's maximum RAM configuration as commonly understood was 640 KB. The BIOS is the firmware of the IBM PC, occupying one 8 KB chip on the motherboard. It provides bootstrap code and
1586-435: The IBM PC offered a port for connecting a cassette data recorder . Unlike the typical home computer however, this was never a major avenue for software distribution, probably because very few PCs were sold without floppy drives. The port was removed on the very next PC model, the XT. At release, IBM did not offer any hard disk drive option and adding one was difficult - the PC's stock power supply had inadequate power to run
1647-399: The IBM PC was very significant to its success in the market. Some publications highlighted IBM's uncharacteristic decision to publish complete, thorough specifications of the system bus and memory map immediately on release, with the intention of fostering a market of compatible third-party hardware and software. The motherboard includes five 62-pin card edge connectors which are connected to
1708-462: The PC, covering such features as the bytecoding for color monitors, DMA access operation, and the keyboard interface. They were never enforced. Many of the designers were computer hobbyists who owned their own computers, including many Apple II owners, which influenced the decisions to design the computer with an open architecture and publish technical information so others could create compatible software and expansion slot peripherals. During
1769-424: The SupersPort 286 "clearly [o]ne of the best laptops going". He continued that, although "not the lightest in its class, nor by any means the least costly", "it deserves serious consideration. Its advantages far outweigh what I regard are very few shortcomings". Bill Howard of PC Magazine , writing a year after the SupersPort 286's release, wrote that the machine was "still competent" as a business laptop and praised
1830-534: The SupersPort and TurbosPort. The lowest-cost initial entries in the SupersPort line, running an Intel 8088 microprocessor, are the successors to the company's Z-180 line of laptops. Both the 8088 SupersPort and the SupersPort 286 feature an improved design of the EL -backlit STN LCDs introduced with the Z-180 line, doubling the vertical resolution (for a total resolution of 640 by 400 pixels, CGA double-scan) and possessing
1891-584: The SupersPort's design. Both were initially assembled in the company's manufacturing plant in St. Joseph, Michigan , a union shop represented by United Steelworkers ; according to Czernek, Zenith was the only union-manufactured personal computer in the world at the time. In keeping with the Road Warrior theme, the unveiling was held at an event center in Chicago , Illinois , with helmeted performers and motorcyclists showcasing
Zenith SupersPort - Misplaced Pages Continue
1952-563: The chassis is dominated by a motherboard which houses the CPU, built-in RAM, expansion RAM sockets, and slots for expansion cards. The IBM PC was highly expandable and upgradeable, but the base factory configuration included: The PC is built around a single large circuit board called a motherboard which carries the processor, built-in RAM, expansion slots, keyboard and cassette ports, and the various peripheral integrated circuits that connected and controlled
2013-589: The company admitted to the press that Zenith's product was more feature-packed and offered higher performance. The SupersPort-based HP laptop was released as the Vectra LS/12 in January 1989, by which point the SupersPort 286 was among the top-selling laptops on the market. Sherwin Levinson of InfoWorld wrote that "the Zenith SupersPort 286 may well be the harbinger of a new era of laptop computing", "embod[ying]
2074-665: The company reportedly sold roughly 173,910 SupersPorts by the end of 1988, or 25.5 percent of all 682,000 laptops sold that year. In May 1988, as part of a multi-million dollar agreement, Zenith became the official supplier of laptops for the Master's program of Harvard Business School . As part of this agreement, Harvard recommended incoming post-graduates acquire the SupersPort 286 for use with coursework. Harvard Business School's Master's program in fall 1988 had 800 students registered to enter; Zenith expected to sell roughly 640 units to them. The School had prescribed IBM PCs to students in
2135-567: The components of the machine. The peripheral chips included an Intel 8259 PIC , an Intel 8237 DMA controller, and an Intel 8253 PIT . The PIT provides 18.2 Hz clock "ticks" and dynamic memory refresh timing. The CPU is an Intel 8088 , a cost-reduced form of the Intel 8086 which largely retains the 8086's internal 16-bit logic, but exposes only an 8-bit bus. The CPU is clocked at 4.77 MHz, which would eventually become an issue when clones and later PC models offered higher CPU speeds that broke compatibility with software developed for
2196-509: The convenient size and weight of a laptop". The magazine approved of the "easy to read" screen (except "the common problem of poor cursor legibility"), keyboard, and performance. While reporting that the battery pack and power supply made the computer very heavy, and that it was too long to fit on an airline coach class tray-table , BYTE said that "it was a pleasure to have such a powerful computer literally at my fingertips while traveling". Allan S. Papkin of United Press International called
2257-465: The design constraint to use off-the-shelf parts . The TMS9900 was rejected as it was inferior to the Intel 8088. IBM chose the 8088 over the similar but superior 8086 because Intel offered a better price for the former and could provide more units, and the 8088's 8-bit bus reduced the cost of the rest of the computer. The 8088 had the advantage that IBM already had familiarity with the 8085 from designing
2318-529: The design process IBM avoided vertical integration as much as possible, for example choosing to license Microsoft BASIC rather than utilizing the in-house version of BASIC used for mainframes due to the better existing public familiarity with the Microsoft version. The IBM PC debuted on August 12, 1981, after a twelve-month development. Pricing started at $ 1,565 for a configuration with 16 KB RAM, Color Graphics Adapter , keyboard, and no disk drives. The price
2379-614: The display and keyboard. While calling the industrial design of the laptop "trendsetting", he called the battery enclosure "less than elegant" on account of its heft and dumbbell shape. Reviewing the 8088 SupersPort in PC Magazine , Nora Georgas wrote that while the laptop was more expensive than Toshiba 's Toshiba T1000 , she preferred the SupersPort's screen and keyboard and called it a "good low-end laptop" overall. A year after its release, in October 1989, Alfred Poor wrote in PC Magazine that
2440-487: The fastest 286 portable at the time of its release. Both the 8088 SupersPort (actually featuring a 80C88 switchable between 8 and 4.77 MHz and simply called the SupersPort) and the SupersPort 286 came in two variants each. The SupersPort Model 2 was the lowest-cost affair and features dual 720 KB, 3.5-inch floppy disk drives; both are equipped with 640 KB of memory standard. The SupersPort Model 20 swaps one of
2501-457: The keyboard layout which he deemed slightly cramped and recommended purchasers get the optional numeric keypad . Jerry Pournelle wrote in Byte that "I love it when I get it to my hotel room", but the SupersPort 286 was "just darned too heavy" to carry to meetings. A full review of the SupersPort 286 in the same issue said that it offered "the computing power of a desktop or transportable machine and
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2562-450: The keyboard was extremely positive, with some sources describing it as a major selling point of the PC and even as "the best keyboard available on any microcomputer." At release, IBM provided a Game Control Adapter which offered a 15-pin port intended for the connection of up to two joysticks, each having two analog axes and two buttons. (The early PCs predated the advent of the " Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer" concept and so did not have
2623-411: The latter provided medium- and low-resolution color graphics and text. CGA used the same scan rate as NTSC television , allowing it to provide a composite video output which could be used with any compatible television or composite monitor , as well as a direct-drive TTL output suitable for use with any RGBI monitor using an NTSC scan rate. IBM also sold the 5153 color monitor for this purpose, but it
2684-407: The machine was based on open architecture and third-party peripherals. Over time, expansion cards and software technology increased to support it. The PC had a substantial influence on the personal computer market ; the specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most popular computer design standards in the world. The only significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform throughout
2745-547: The market, rumors of clones began, and the first legal PC-compatible clone—the MPC 1600 by Columbia Data Products —was released in June 1982, less than a year after the PC's debut. Eventually, IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2004 . For low cost and a quick design turnaround time, the hardware design of the IBM PC used entirely "off-the-shelf" parts from third party manufacturers, rather than unique hardware designed by IBM. The PC
2806-510: The market, sold only 69,000. Software support from the industry grew rapidly, with the IBM nearly instantly becoming the primary target for most microcomputer software development. One publication counted 753 software packages available a year after the PC's release, four times as many as were available for the Macintosh a year after its launch. Hardware support also grew rapidly, with 30–40 companies competing to sell memory expansion cards within
2867-567: The most obvious use was the addition of an Intel 8087 math coprocessor, which improved floating-point math performance. PC mainboards were manufactured with the first memory bank of initially Mostek 4116-compatible, or later 4164-compatible DIP DRAMs soldered to the board, for a minimum configuration of first just 16 KB, or later 64 KB of RAM. Memory upgrades were provided by IBM and third parties both for socketed installation in three further onboard banks, and as ISA expansion cards. The early 16 KB mainboards could be upgraded to
2928-415: The new product. Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with analysts estimating sales volume in the billions of dollars in the first few years after release. After release, IBM's PC immediately became the talk of the entire computing industry. Dealers were overwhelmed with orders, including customers offering pre-payment for machines with no guaranteed delivery date. By the time the machine began shipping,
2989-499: The original PC. The single base clock frequency for the system was 14.31818 MHz, which when divided by 3, yielded the 4.77 MHz for the CPU (which was considered close enough to the then 5 MHz limit of the 8088), and when divided by 4, yielded the required 3.579545 MHz for the NTSC color carrier frequency. The PC motherboard included a second, empty socket, described by IBM simply as an "auxiliary processor socket", although
3050-508: The peripheral port door. IBM PC compatible Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 457605808 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 06:52:25 GMT IBM Personal Computer The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as
3111-469: The prior four years; Zenith beat out IBM and four other competitors for the 1988 contract. Later that May, Zenith signed an agreement with Hewlett-Packard to act as an OEM for HP, rebadging the SupersPort 286 as a laptop under Hewlett-Packard's Vectra line of IBM PC compatibles . While Hewlett-Packard had sold two models of laptops of its own design under the Vectra line, it only achieved limited success, and
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#17328631456783172-447: The reason for the decision to use third-party components. Atari proposed to IBM in 1980 that it act as original equipment manufacturer for an IBM microcomputer, a potential solution to IBM's known inability to move quickly to meet a rapidly changing market. The idea of acquiring Atari was considered but rejected in favor of a proposal by Lowe that by forming an independent internal working group and abandoning all traditional IBM methods,
3233-407: The term "PC" was becoming a household name. Sales exceeded IBM's expectations by as much as 800% (9x), with the company at one point shipping as many as 40,000 PCs per month. IBM estimated that home users made up 50 to 70% of purchases from retail stores. In 1983, IBM sold more than 750,000 machines, while Digital Equipment Corporation , one of the companies whose success had spurred IBM to enter
3294-464: The two floppy drives for a 20 MB hard drive. The SupersPort 286 Model 20 features a high-density 1.44 MB, 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and same 20 MB hard drive as the aforementioned model, while the SupersPort Model 40 features a 40 MB drive; both come with 1 MB RAM stock. The 80C88 SupersPort Model 20 weighs 13.4 pounds (6.1 kg), while the SupersPort 286 Model 20 weighs
3355-561: The value of entering this growing market, assigned William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge as heads of the new Entry Level Systems unit in Boca Raton, Florida. Market research found that computer dealers were very interested in selling an IBM product, but they insisted the company use a design based on standard parts, not IBM-designed ones so that stores could perform their own repairs rather than requiring customers to send machines back to IBM for service. Another source cites time pressure as
3416-402: Was designed to compete with comparable machines in the market. For comparison, the Datamaster, announced two weeks earlier as IBM's least expensive computer, cost $ 10,000. IBM's marketing campaign licensed the likeness of Charlie Chaplin 's character " The Little Tramp " for a series of advertisements based on Chaplin's movies, played by Billy Scudder. The PC was IBM's first attempt to sell
3477-406: Was essentially complete by April 1981, when it was handed off to the manufacturing team. PCs were assembled in an IBM plant in Boca Raton, with components made at various IBM and third party factories. The monitor was an existing design from IBM Japan ; the printer was manufactured by Epson . Because none of the functional components were designed by IBM, they obtained only a handful of patents on
3538-533: Was initially developed for the IBM Datamaster , and was substantially better than the keyboards provided with virtually all home computers on the market at that time in many regards - number of keys, reliability and ergonomics. While some home computers of the time utilized chiclet keyboards or inexpensive mechanical designs, the IBM keyboard provided good ergonomics, reliable and positive tactile key mechanisms and flip-up feet to adjust its angle. Public reception of
3599-423: Was large enough for IBM's attention, with $ 15 billion in sales by 1979 and projected annual growth of more than 40% during the early 1980s. Other large technology companies had entered it, such as Hewlett-Packard , Texas Instruments and Data General , and some large IBM customers were buying Apples. As early as 1980 there were rumors of IBM developing a personal computer, possibly a miniaturized version of
3660-450: Was not available at release and was not released until March 1983. MDA scanned at a higher frequency and required a proprietary monitor, the IBM 5151 . The card also included a built-in printer port. Both cards could also be installed simultaneously for mixed graphics and text applications. For instance, AutoCAD , Lotus 1-2-3 and other software allowed use of a CGA Monitor for graphics and
3721-560: Was one of the top-selling laptops of the late 1980s, although Zenith's position in this segment faltered by the early 1990s. Zenith Data Systems unveiled the SupersPort line alongside Zenith's TurbosPort 386 luggable computer on April 19, 1988. Both the SupersPort and TurbosPort were marketed under the company's new Road Warrior umbrella of battery-powered portable computers, a project helmed by Andy Czernek and John Frank, VP of marketing and president of Zenith respectively. Meanwhile, Howard Fullmer and Russ Niedzielski were responsible for
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