Osborne I

Osborne I - one of the first notebooks

History

For implementation of own idea of the compact personal computer Adam Osborne enclosed all the savings — 250 thousand USD. The Osborne Computer Corporation company which at the beginning of 1980 undertook development of a prototype of modern "notebook" was so created. The finished product which received the name Osborne I appeared in the market exactly in a year, having gone on retail sale at the price of 1795 dollars apiece.

Having hardly appeared in the market, Osborne I purchased inconceivable popularity on the truth: within a month Osborne Computer Corporation managed to implement the annual plan for sale of the products, having sold more than 10 thousand copies of Osborne I. Demand for portable computers considerably exceeded the offer and there were simply not enough production capacities of Osborne Computer for a full-fledged covering of the market.

Architecture

In a basis of architecture of Osborne I the universal Z80A processor with clock rate 3.5 MHz which did not bad prove in personal computers of the Sinclair Spectrum series was put. The computer was equipped with 64 KB of RAM, two disk drives 5.25" the monochrome CRT display with diagonal 5" which supported resolution 51x24 points in an alpha mode. As a part of the personal computer there was parallel and consecutive ports, port for connection of the modem and also a special connector intended for connection of the machine with the external monitor. This portable computer weighed a little more than 10 kilograms and the sizes resembled a small, but capacious suitcase; a set of spare accumulators and a cover for more comfortable transportation of this miracle of the equipment was included in the delivery. As a software platform Osborne I used similar to MS-DOS the console operating system with the command line which according to users worked quickly enough and very steadily. The disks delivered together with the computer included the WordStar text editor adapted for Osborne and the editor of tables.

See Also

• Notebooks (world market)