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| Release date | 1989 |
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| Operating system | DIP DOS 2.11 |
| CPU | 80C88 @ 4.9152 MHz |
| Memory | 128kB of RAM and 256kB of ROM |
The Atari Portfolio is the first PC-compatible palmtop computer, and was released by Atari Corporation in 1989.[1] The Portfolio was licenced from Distributed Information Processing (DIP) based in Guildford, Surrey, England. The original founding member of DIP was Ian Cullimore, fresh from his experiences at helping design the early Organiser products at Psion.
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History
DIP officially stood for "Distributed Information Processing", although secretly it actually stood for "David, Ian and Peter", the three founding members of the company, all ex-Psion. The original founder of the company (first called "Crushproof Software") was Ian Cullimore, and the other two David Frodsham and Peter Baldwin.[1]
Technology
It is built around an Intel 80C88 CPU running at 4.9152MHz and runs a variant of MS-DOS called DIP DOS 2.11. It has 128kB of RAM and 256kB of ROM which contains the OS and built-in applications. The on-board RAM had to be divided between system memory and local storage (the C: drive). The LCD is monochrome without backlight and has 240x64 pixels or 40 characters x 8 lines.
There is an expansion port on the right side of the computer for parallel, serial, modem or MIDI expansion modules. It uses a card expansion port for removable memory, which is not compatible with PC card as it predates that standard. Expansion cards were available in sizes of 32, 64, and 128 kB initially, and later were available in capacities up to 4 MB. The expansion cards are backed up by a replaceable battery which lasts approximately 2 years. Built-in applications include a text editor, spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3 compatible), phone book and time manager. Expansion cards contained programs such as a chess game, a file manager, and a finance manager. Most text-based MS-DOS applications could be run on the Portfolio as long as they did not directly access the hardware and could fit into the small memory.
Other expansion modules include a floppy drive, and a memory expansion unit. The memory expansion unit gives the Portfolio an additional 256 kB of RAM, which can be partitioned into several drives. It also features a pass through expansion connector, allowing the use of more than one expansion unit. In theory, multiple memory expanders can be attached, increasing the available storage to over 1 MB.
There is also a card reader available that connected to a desktop PC to read and write to the expansion cards. The kit contains an ISA card, a special cable, the card reader, and software distributed on floppy disk.
Also, using the parallel port expansion module, a standard parallel cable and the software supplied (DOS based), the Portfolio can be connected to a PC for transferring files to and from the unit.
Credits for the development of the product can be found in the "back door" on the Portfolio - go into Setup, then Help, then press Alt+[ ("Alt" plus "left square bracket").
Legacy
The Portfolio still enjoys some popularity today. Many people value them for their strict simplicity and lack of unnecessary features. In addition, several hacks have been made for the Portfolio, including an accessory that allows the use of an electroluminescent backlight on the unit.
Another interesting hack is the Portfolio card-to-CompactFlash converter. It allows the use of regular CF cards in the Portfolio's card slot. The adapter is a simple breadboard that connects to an internal connector. The CF card then can be inserted into the adapter when it is in the unit. In order to use the adapter, some pins on the Portfolio's motherboard must be shorted.
Atari Portfolio in pop culture
The Portfolio appears in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where it is used by the young John Connor to bypass security on an ATM with a ribbon cable connecting the Portfolio's parallel interface to a magstripe card. This setup also appears a second time in the movie, when John uses it in the Cyberdyne Systems lab to retrieve the key to the vault containing the arm and CPU of the first Terminator.[2]
References
External links
- Unofficial Atari Portfolio site
- Portfolio FAQ
- Scanned Atari Portfolio Technical Reference Guide
- Video demonstration of Atari Portfolio on Youtube
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