randy@uw-june (William Randy Day) (04/08/84)
4/8/84
The following information comes from an article entitled "IBM Portable
PC Not All That Compatible" on p. 5 of the March 20th, 1984 issue of PC Week.
The major thrust of incompatibility is that the IBM Portable PC uses the
slower Qume drives, which requires DOS 2.1, which slows down disk accesses.
Therefore software that won't run under DOS 2.1 will not run on the
Portable. This includes "BPI Accounting", Peachtree's "General Ledger",
Sierra Online's "Homeword", SofTech's "UCSD p-system", and "Turtle Power."
It appears that version IV.1 of UCSD p-system will run under DOS 2.1.
Another area of incompatibility is the screen. Programs that try to take
advantage of the monochrome screen's higher resolution (720X350) will not
work in the Portable. One example: "101 monochrome mazes."
It appears that the Portable only has one full-size expansion slot.
A few other small expansion slots are provided. Does this machine live up to
the Compaq?
Randy. UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4}!uw-beaver!uw-june!randy
ARPA: randy@washington