5 ms·
Mod. 5140 - IBM's First Laptop Computer
- michaelsmanley 1y agoWhen I was a co-op student employee at IBM in the late 80s, I was given a desk in what was otherwise a storage room piled with stuff that had been used and then set aside. One box contained a 5140 convertible laptop with one of each peripheral "slice" -- printer, modem, expansion ports -- and the full set of technical manuals. I was allowed to take that beast home with me. I learned so much tinkering with that machine. Eventually, I sold the whole set at a ham fest and I have regretted it often. Nice to see an appreciation of it, though I would never have looked at it as alligator-like.
- lemonlearnings 1y agoAny details to share re. specs, operating system?
- michaelsmanley 1y agoThat was almost 40 years ago, so little I recall other than it was an 8088 variant in there, the peripheral bus was unique to that machine and the only documentation was in the tech manuals (as opposed to the hardware reference book I had for everything else), and I got lucky and the lab had requisitioned a Model 2, so the screen was nice and they'd gotten the full 640Kb RAM. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Convertible https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Convertible has all the details on that machine you could want.
- reaperducer 1y agoI had one. Great little system. Built like a tank, and just as heavy. Incredibly forward-thinking modular architecture. Keyboard, memory, drives, serial port, parallel port, even the screen could be replaced just by the turn of a lever or a push of a button. Fantastic keyboard, even by today's laptops standards. Ate batteries like M&Ms. I almost always kept it plugged in. At the time, running it off the pair of 720k floppies was fine. I believe there was a hard drive option, but I never saw it. Its biggest weakness was the screen. There were backlit and CRT options, which were better and you could just pop off and in. The screen was grayscale CGA, but there was a TSR called SimCGA which would translate, so you could run EGA programs.
- michaelsmanley 1y agoYeah, when I say "nice" about the screen, it is all relative. Mine was nice compared to the original screen on the Model 1. There are very few pieces of laptop/notebook hardware that I really enjoyed. The 5140 was one of them. I doubt I'd enjoy it now, but 40 years ago I found it just lovely.
- uk001 1y ago[flagged]
- johnDD 1y agoI wonder if John Titor could have used this?
- mananaysiempre 1y agoNah, that would have been made by IBN, a completely different company.
- dirkt 1y agoUnlike the IBN 5100 [1] (which I guess actually was IBM's First Laptop Computer), the 5140 ran MS-DOS, and couldn't emulate the IBM/360 ISA like the IBN 5100 could, so it would be useless for John Titor because you couldn't hack SERN with it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_5100
- sroerick 1y agoAesthetically this beats about 75% of the current laptop market. Would love to see some genuine creativity / cyberdeck type builds from laptop makers
- iancmceachern 1y agoI'm down. I can design and build it, if there are folks out there who are keen to do the other aspects of a business please feel free to reach out.
- criddell 1y agoMaybe you can answer this then. Back in the early 80’s, Radio Shack made the TRS-80 Model 100 laptop. It ran for 20+ hours on 4 AA batteries. A few years later, Psion came out with a series of small devices that ran on 2 AA batteries and got 30+ hours of runtime. With modern electronics and displays, could something like a model 100 be made that could run for hundreds or even thousands of hours on 4 AA batteries?
- mananaysiempre 1y ago> With modern electronics and displays Wouldn’t the second part work against the first? There’s a lot of pixels you need to push to refresh a good modern display. I guess you could use a bad (as in low-res) modern display, but I wouldn’t expect those to be particularly concerned with energy efficiency either, just cheap.
- c-smile 1y agoI used to have NEC MobilePro 900 like here: https://live.staticflickr.com/213/481422006_92cdaeb6ee_b.jpg https://live.staticflickr.com/213/481422006_92cdaeb6ee_b.jpg I miss that form factor really. And BTW, I regret that WindowsCE is not the thing anymore. IMO it has the best development infrastructure out there backed with MSVC IDE. I classify OSes into two major groups: "writer OS" (all desktop OSes primarily) and "reader OS" (all mobiles). But there is a void in between for palmtop form factor devices. Sigh, probably its only me who needs this ...
- mananaysiempre 1y agoJudging by eBay prices for Psions, you’re not the only one who misses that form factor.
- davidgaleano 1y agoYou may like this: https://kingjim.us/products/pomera-full-suite-typewriter-for-focused-writing https://kingjim.us/products/pomera-full-suite-typewriter-for...
- rsolva 1y agoOr a reMarkable with the addon keyboard!
- Waterluvian 1y agoWere these truly meant to be “laptops” or just portable computers? I guess if they have a battery is a fairly clear discriminator.
- mananaysiempre 1y agoThis one has a lead acid battery in it (I’m guessing a sealed one), which I don’t expect to enhance its lap-friendliness. What somewhat puzzles me about these early portables (also including e.g. the Macintosh Portable, sold 1989–1991, in a similar form factor) is the manufacturers’ insistence on putting a (heavy) mains transformer inside the chassis. That could not have helped the weight, so I have to guess they didn’t see it as a problem?..
- WillAdams 1y agoThere was a concern about folks losing the separate transformer, and a perception that a single device was better. One interesting solution to this space was GRiD making their battery and power supply the same size and form-factor --- when one was working at a desk, to save space the battery could be removed and placed in a separate charger, while the cord from the power supply to the computer was removed, and it was then placed in the battery compartment and connected to the wall, powering the device.
- reaperducer 1y agoWhat somewhat puzzles me about these early portables (also including e.g. the Macintosh Portable, sold 1989–1991, in a similar form factor) is the manufacturers’ insistence on putting a (heavy) mains transformer inside the chassis. The transformer was outboard on this machine, like a modern computer. It had its own Velcro compartment in the carrying bag.
- sprior 1y agoIt came slightly after the IBM Portable PC (5155) which was released in 1984. That was a real luggable very similar to the Compaq. So I'd say the 5140 (which I've seen but never owned, I did think I was getting one once from a contest) was thought of as a luggable, but an improvement over what came before it.
- mananaysiempre 1y agoSee also: “IBM Made the Longest Laptop Ever” by Cathode Ray Dude, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htl_JbZIcUU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htl_JbZIcUU. There is, per the title, some discussion of its (somehow simultaneously inspired and silly) expansion system, but also of its other features as well, such as (spoiler alert) the fact that it may be the first personal computer to have suspend to RAM. (So I guess—expanding on a sibling comment[1]—aesthetics is not the only axis on which “this beats about 75% of the current laptop market.”) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45478692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45478692
- dariosalvi78 1y agoI still have it at home, it was my first PC, my father bought it and never used. I learned using DOS on it
- prmoustache 1y agoI'd argue that given the max angle of the screen it cannot be used on your lap comfortably unless your eyes are on your navel. Hence it would be a battery powered portable pc and not a laptop.
- shakna 1y agoThe TRS 80 Model 100 is regularly called "the first laptop". You'd disagree with that. Where's the line? Is a CHIP or M5 Cardputer portable or laptop? Is it the hinge needed? In which case is a folding phone, a phone, laptop, or tablet? (Not meaning to be aggressive. Curious about the fuzzy definition. Wanting to be convinced.)
- reaperducer 1y agoI'd argue that given the max angle of the screen it cannot be used on your lap I'd argue that the two years I spent using it as a laptop, largely on my lap, says it works fine. I also used it balanced on my knees, curled up in a window nook.
- queenss90 1y ago[flagged]
- WillAdams 1y agoFor the rest of the story, see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483933.ThinkPad https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/483933.ThinkPad
- atombender 1y agoI taught myself Turbo Pascal on a friend's IBM PS/2 P75 [1] around 1990, also a briefcase-style luggable that came out a couple of years after this one. The P75 had a delightful orange plasma screen, and the keyboard was wired and could be unhooked from the case, and since it was a 486 chip, it could all of DOS, OS/2, and Windows (and apparently it was able to run Windows 95 when that came out). My main machine at the time was the Amiga 500, and the PS/2 felt like a step down in terms of graphics and so on, but Turbo Pascal was just too magical for me to care. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PS/2_portable_computers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PS/2_portable_computers
- theodric 1y agoHey, I just brought mine home! Got funny looks at TSA and on the plane, but nobody stopped me :) Piccy: https://cdn.social.linux.pizza/system/media_attachments/files/115/256/646/635/360/903/original/e8035f8f65c6f0be.jpg https://cdn.social.linux.pizza/system/media_attachments/file... (Link to post in case that doesn't work: https://social.linux.pizza/@theodric/115256647992228538 https://social.linux.pizza/@theodric/115256647992228538 )
- SilentM68 1y agoIt's interesting but I remember seeing Radio Shack TRS80 Model 100 Laptop at the RadioShack store and wanting it, but mom said no. I had to settle for the Color Computer, since it was somewhat cheaper. People usually remember IBM PC but don't realize that there were many other brands out there. In my high school days, we had access to Apple I & IIs as well as TRS80 Model III machines. TRS80 machines came with DOS, BASIC & Editor Assembler, which were taught at our high school digital class. TRS80 100 https://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html https://www.oldcomputers.net/trs100.html TRS80 Model III https://www.oldcomputers.net/trs80iii.html https://www.oldcomputers.net/trs80iii.html COCO https://www.oldcomputers.net/coco.html https://www.oldcomputers.net/coco.html