taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (11/28/90)
Tamer Ozsu asks: > 2. Has anyone heard anything more about delivery of Airis? The last I > heard was that they would start shipping in the second half of > November. I talked with the head of marketing at Airis a week or two ago and they've revised their shipping schedule to the point where they're not expecting to receive any units from their Pacific Rim plant before Jan 1. At best. They should have units by mid January, but they've evidentally already been promised to some customers that have already *paid* (sight unseen) for the machines quite a bit in advance...so it sounds like a hot laptop, that's for sure! Quoting the VH-286 Product Fact Sheet from Airis: CPU 80c286 12.5Mhz 80c287 numeric coprocessor socket full 16-bit architecture OS MS-DOS on hard disk [not ROM] Display VGA (640x480) supertwist thin-film backlit LCD 11-inch diagonal screen 16-shade gray scale black on white (film compensated) video out (VGA/mono/other) RAM 2 MB standard expandable to 4MB true zero wait state performance supports LIM-EMS 4.0 and extended memory ShadowRAM copies system BIOS from slower ROM to faster RAM [whatever that means] Hard Disk 20 MB 2.6 inch 23-millisecond av. seek time. 256K hardware disk cache Flash ROM system BIOS included in Flash ROM BIOS upgrades through Airis' proprietary TeleROM technology Power Management all major components are automatically "powered down" when not active Modem 2,400-bps Hayes compatible modem standard. [YEAH! But what about 9600 V.32? :-) ] Built-In Software LapLink on hard disk Power Interchangable battery technology: standard, size C alkaline cells or optional, rechargable battery pack. Battery life estimates under normal operating conditions for alkaline cells: more than 12 hours; for the rechargable pack: six-eight hours External 120VAC power adapter Standard Ports Serial Parallel RJ-11 (telephone line) mouse external floppy drive Warranty 2 year, parts and labor Size 10.25" (D) x 11.90" (W) x 1.8" (average H - cabinet tabers from back to front) Weight approximately 6.5 pounds with batteries. Distribution direct to end-users from Airis Computer Corporation Price $1,899, including 10 C cell batteries lots more stuff that I'm too lazy to type in, including auto-resume, the screen saver, external keyboard, password protection, remote diagnostics, battery-backup clock, etc. It looks incredibly cool for the price too; I've some slides of the unit that were included in the information they sent me. I Want One! :-) To contact them: Airis Computer Corporation 1824 N. Besly Court Chicago, IL 60622 (312) 384-5608 Note: ShadowROM, TeleROM and FlashROM are trademarks of AIRIS and LapLink is a trademark of whatever company makes the software. :-) -- Dave Taylor Intuitive Systems Mountain View, California taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylor