Atari brings with the portfolio a precursor to the Eee PC – that happened on April 11th. Every day, PC Games Hardware takes a look back at the young but eventful history of the computer.
…1989: Laptops these days are mostly bulky computers that can only be described as portable with a lot of good will. The device that will be presented at the Comdex on April 11th is completely different: the Portfolio, which, with the size of a VHS video cassette and a weight of 500 grams, is more like a later PDA than a “real” computer. But it contains a real 16-bit PC with a full keyboard that runs with MS-DOS 2.11 and is therefore largely compatible with the IBM PC – a novelty in this size class. Above all, such a device was hardly expected from the manufacturer that is actually known for game consoles and home computers: Atari.
The portfolio uses a monochrome LC display and an Intel 80C88 CPU running at 4.92 MHz as well as 128 KiByte RAM, the hard drive is a full 256 KiByte in size – if you need more space, you have to use memory cards because there is no floppy disk drive. On the other hand, the device only costs 400 US dollars, and thanks to the economical hardware, the portfolio lasts for several weeks with one set of AA batteries (not with continuous use, of course). In this respect, it is superior to its more modern descendants – including the very small computer that made the idea of the cheap mini notebook a success almost 20 years later: the Eee PC from Asus.
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