wcs) (02/06/90)
In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes:
]My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers
]for one of our clients.
]Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer
]their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd
]like to see in future laptop designs?
]Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose?
Advertising belongs in biz.hardware.*, but an occasional request for
information or an occasional "we're thinking of doing a laptop like
this - what else should we add?" seem ok to me. comp.newprod will
basically take one product announcement per product.
If you're going to do the survey here, you should be willing to post
the results; your client may not be thrilled about that.
Now, as to what I'd like to see in a laptop:
small, light, cheap, powerful all at once (of course!)
MODULARITY!!
In particular, design should be modular, with reasonably
priced modules - the Tandy and Toshiba-1200 strategy of a
floppy-only model and a $1000-extra hard disk model
strikes me as gouging. Unless you're going to compete in
the ultra-light market, you probably should be offering a
model with some hard disk, with a range of sizes available.
The interfaces should be standard!! I don't want to be
limited to a FOONLY-37 modem and FOONLY-38-40 disks -
I want standard (small) slots so I can plug in whatever
industry-standard peripherals are available. I don't want
to wait around for your manufacturer to develop an Ethernet
card or 9600-baud modem or ISDN-card or XXX graphics adapter,
and gouge me $500 extra for using your special card size.
I'd really appreciate if the disk-drive port on the back spoke
either SCSI or at least ST-506; I'm tired of having to buy
custom drives like my Toshiba requires.
You don't think I plan to only run DOS on it, do you? Thank you.
Maybe I'll run UNIX, maybe some bean counter will want OS/2,
maybe GNU-Mach-386 or Dynabeast will come out. Don't lock me in.
In particular, DON'T do anything that limits me to 640K.
Make sure the memory is user-replaceable. I realize this is tougher
with laptops, but it's important. If you won't put sockets
on the motherboard because chips shake around, give me some
kind of expansion board for memory. And don't charge me
$1000/megabyte for the stuff when SIMMs cost $125/MB.
Screen - who know what screen technology is doing these days.
MAKE SURE IT CAN DO 25x80 CHARACTERS, and follow some
standard for graphics so I can use whatever it is.
I'd guess that VGA is the minimum acceptable resolution for
anything weighing more than 5 pounds.
Gee-Whiz Stuff - the new GRiDPaD looks cute. Maybe touchscreens are
the way to go. One of those little capacitance-pads is a
partial substitute for mice, sometimes, or maybe a trackball.
Don't limit me to the equivalent of a 1-or-2-button mouse.
Sun's NeWS or other display form of Postscript would be fun.
Users will always use your machine for things you never dreamed of.
Expect it, and leave them room to do it.
If you give them a user-friendly interface, make sure they
can shut it off! They may want to use their own.
As Hugh says, maybe I'll use this to build my next DynaBook with,
so don't wire in 640K of stuff I don't want.
Or maybe the user will want something like a GrIdPaD with a
bar-code gun and a touchscreen for factory applications.
Have you checked in an Avis car at LAX airport recently?
Their little hand-held beast also has a radio connection to
the main computer, so they blip the bar code and your bill
prints out right then and there. People will build stuff like this!
--
# Bill Stewart AT&T Bell Labs 4M312 Holmdel NJ 201-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs
# ho95c has gone the way of all VAX/785s, so I'm now on erebus.att.comjob@sequoia.UUCP (Mark Job) (02/09/90)
In article <7924@cbnewsh.ATT.COM> wcs@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (Bill Stewart 201-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs) writes: >In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes: >]My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers >]for one of our clients. >]Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer >]their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd >]like to see in future laptop designs? >]Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose? > Seems OK, especially if you publish a summary. Hope your client approves this. > >Now, as to what I'd like to see in a laptop: > >small, light, cheap, powerful all at once (of course!) My summary wishes: minimum of 386SX processor (387/Weitek socket) 2M memory expandable to 12+M w/SIMMS (at non-ripoff price) color display (a la NEC Prospeed CSX) only if cost-effective else page-white VGA display SIMULTANEOUS display on laptop screen and out VGA port 2 serial ports (one modem, one other) and 1 parallel Laplink3 in ROM FAST 40M (or larger) hard disk under 12 pounds battery powered, minimum 3 hour life batteries that can be changed on the fly (w/o power down) whatever shielding is necessary to get FAA approval for in-flight use, and make it OK to pass thru airport security check 8 or 16-bit ISA slot(s) would be nice universal auto-sensing 100-240V 50/60 cycle power supply in charger Oh, yes, the price should be under $3750... > >MODULARITY!! > In particular, design should be modular, with reasonably > priced modules - the Tandy and Toshiba-1200 strategy of a > floppy-only model and a $1000-extra hard disk model > strikes me as gouging. Unless you're going to compete in [Bill goes on to make several good points, all of which I second, except for the GrIdPaD - no smudgescreens for me please] Another thing: don't waste any time designing yet another outrageously priced proprietary modem card. Touchbase and others have that licked with their 9Volt battery powered family of modems. I got a WorldPort 2496 which does 2400 baud comms, 9600 baud GrpIII Fax for under $500. Ditto for Ethernet - I haven't tried Xircom's pocket Ethernet adapter, but the reviews look good. External is the way to go for comms adapters, so you don't pay again for the proprietary card each time you change to another vendor. Give me 2 serial ports instead! Lastly, a laptop this powerful can best most desktops. Put on an external key board adapter socket so I can walk into my office, plug into keyboard, VGA mon, and LAN and go... > -- --- Above is IMHO, not ESC's --*:*:*:*:*:*:*--------------------------------- UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!execu!job * "As far as we know, our computer has Internet: execu!job@cs.utexas.edu * never had an undetected error." job%execu.uucp@cs.utexas.edu * - C.H. Weisert, Union Carbide Corp.
barr@frog.UUCP (Chris Barr) (02/10/90)
In article <8085@sequoia.UUCP>, job@sequoia.UUCP (Mark Job) writes: > My summary wishes: minimum of 386SX processor (387/Weitek socket) I've read that Intel has not licensed '386 to others, e.g. Harris, who fabricated the 80c286, which uses less power due to CMOS technology. I've also read that Harris is *cloning* the '386, planning to deliver chips this year (Q4?), presumably CMOS versions, which I would imagine will result in a new wave of powerful, lightweight, low-power laptops some months later...
davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman) (02/11/90)
In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes:
]My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers
]for one of our clients.
]Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer
]their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd
]like to see in future laptop designs?
]Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose?
My next laptop will have a hard disk (40 MB minimum) and high-res graphics
(at least 640 by 480). Less than 10 pounds is a must. I have a Z-88 that
weighs 2 pounds. I've been spoiled by it; it's so light that I don't think
twice about taking it along.
The Compaq LTE/286 (whatever; the 6-pound one) is nice but CGA isn't
enough. It's pricey, too, but for 6 pounds or less (preferably less)
I can live with the price (sell all my stock :-).
Oh, yeah - at least a 12 MHz 80286, though I'll tolerate more MIPS for
the same money.
Never underestimate the appeal of light weight - the stores here (Silicon
Valley) can't keep the LTE in stock. I may have to wait a year to get a
5 or 6 pound laptop with VGA and 40 MB, but I'm sure it will happen.
--
David Chapman
{known world}!decwrl!vlsisj!fndry!davidc
vlsisj!fndry!davidc@decwrl.dec.comatk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Alan T. Krantz) (02/14/90)
In article <15483@vlsisj.VLSI.COM> davidc@vlsisj.UUCP (David Chapman) writes: >In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes: >]My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers >]for one of our clients. >]Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer >]their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd >]like to see in future laptop designs? >]Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose? I would like to see somthing on the low end. Fairly similar to the Toshiba 1000SE but less expensive. I guess the following would be close: 8086 (NEC V20) at 8mhz (minimum processing speed) single 1.4 hard disk (this is enough disk space for wordprocessing) one serial one parallel port one ttl port (maybe herc graphics - lots cheaper and better on the eyes than vga/ega monitor) 640K (but a resume feature so software doesn't have to be reloaded) Nice lcd screen - WITH control to turn off the backlight - this simple option will greatly prolong battery life. (nice means similar to Toshiba 1000se or Compaqu ltd - but not nec grey tones or vga graphics - again herc would be fine if it significantly lowers the price). Oh - and weight should be 6-10 lbs. I think this machine would be good for lawyers, non-tech college students and so forth. It should only cost around $600-$700. The 640K could probably be 1meg and cost less using 1 meg chips. The 8086/NEC v20 comes in cmos version and are fairly cheap. ttl support/ monochrome graphics are a lot cheaper than vga. 1.4 meg hard disk is very important because many newer packages won't fit on .7 megs (wordperfect, ...) Anyways - I spent about 6 months looking for such a machine and couldn't find it. Note that the ttl port is very big plus because than you can hook up the machine to an external monitor for pennies... ------------------------------------------------------------------ | Mail: 1830 22nd street Email: atk@boulder.colorado.edu| | Apt 16 Vmail: Home: (303) 939-8256 | | Boulder, Co 80302 Office: (303) 492-8115 |
SLSW2@cc.usu.edu (Roger Ivie) (02/17/90)
>In article <1777@apt.UUCP> brian@apt.UUCP (Brian Litzinger) writes: >My company is about to commence a market study of laptop computers >for one of our clients. >Do the readers of this group wish to have an opportunity to offer >their opinions on laptops, their designs, and the features they'd >like to see in future laptop designs? >Or is it improper to use this forum for such a purpose? I'd like something just like my Epson Geneva CP/M machine except: - 4MHz Z80 instead of 2.5MHz - Uses the nifty little RAM cards like the Atari Portfolio - Electric typewriter keyboard instead of the Geneva's manual keyboard - Modern supertwist display (backlight would be nice, but not essential) But then I'm wierd. =============================================================================== Roger Ivie 35 S 300 W Logan, Ut. 84321 (801) 752-8633 ===============================================================================
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (02/20/90)
The discussion so far seems really focused on PC-Clones. I've ordered a machine that I expect to be delivered in about two weeks. It weighs 15 pounds, so it's not gonna be the most comfortable on a lap, but it packs a lot of punch. 4 meg of memory, 40 meg hard drive, 640x400 LCD display with external video connector. The machine will drive both the LCD and an external monochrome monitor simultaneously; the LCD cuts out if you plug in a color monitor. The keyboard is full-sized, with separate smaller pads for 10 function keys and the cursor pad, and a small 2-button trackball. The thing has a port for 128K ROM cartridges, a bidirectional centronics-style parallel port, rs232 port, midi ports, external floppy drive port, and SCSI/DMA port. (A 720K 3-1/2" floppy drive is also present.) The standard processor is an 8 MHz 68000. (I'll be upgrading mine to 16MHz.) The system I just described lists for $2895, an Atari STACY-4. Folks have been going crazy for it as a portable Mac, since the Mac emulator is only $250, but it also can run one of several PC/MSDOS emulators as well. I intend to use this mainly as an ST, though, one that I can easily take to my various offices without having to worry about lugging other peripherals for. There aren't any high-speed networking interfaces onboard, but you can get ethernet and localtalk cards that hang off the DMA port. You can also get a PC-on-a-card that hangs off the DMA port, and get to ethernet from there. Data transfer between ST and PC modes is painless, since the ST uses the MSDOS filesystem structure. -- -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan