Toshiba T1100 Plus is one among the first generation of PC-compatible battery-powered notebook computers. There were only about five competitors (each with just one product) and IBM was the biggest one. T1100 Plus was clearly superior to IBM’s PC Convertible in almost every parameter - the only nice feature of IBM PC Convertible was “resume from RAM” (stand-by).
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The first generation of laptop computers is really interesting. There were some really strange concepts that didn’t catch. One of them was made by IBM. 5140 Convertible was the first laptop from IBM and its engineers wanted to add an easy way for upgrades without disassembling the device. The result was a wide bus connector on the back of the device instead of usual ports.
The laptop ($1,995) could be expanded by several modules like a thermal printer ($295) or a modem ($450). However, you had to buy separately even basic functions like serial/parallel ports ($195) or video ports ($325) for hooking up an external screen. In addition to the high price there was a problem even with physical dimensions. The system with connected modules was so tall that it was sometimes difficult to put it on an office table.
No surprise that this was a failure for IBM.
IBM PS/2 Model P70 (1989) on the left side and Toshiba T2200SX (1991) on the right side. The IBM machine is equipped with a gas-plasma display and Toshiba has a typical side-lit passive-matrix LCD. The photo can hardly show how superior the plasma screen is. Its black is so deep that it cannot be beaten with any modern LCD. It is as fast as CRT monitors (unlike passive-matrix LCDs with 300ms response time) and as sharp as active-matrix LCDs (that were introduced a year after this machine).
There are no plasma screens in laptops today so where was the catch? It was in power consumption which was significantly higher. Typical machine with a gas-plasma display was either AC-only or with battery life usually up to one hour. Active matrix displays started to be affordable in 1992-1993 and with their color capability and lower power consumption they pushed plasma screens out of the market. Until then gas-plasma displays were the hi-end choice for many portables.
My P70 in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaaIg8mrBkE
Toshiba T2200SX was one of the lightest 386SX-based machines in 1991. It could pack 20-MHz CPU, normal hard drive, all interfaces and about three hours of battery life in a computer that weighted only 2.5kg. That was one kilogram less than an average notebook computer on the market.
XT-class Toshiba laptops started to use “double-scan CGA” displays with a resolution of 640x400 in the late 80s. This allowed for better graphics and much sharper text in comparison with ordinary CGA solutions. However, the LCDs which Toshiba used worked only in 1-bit mode so there were no shades of grey (blue). Lower resolutions in graphics emulated (four) colors using 2x2 patterns. The text mode, on the other side, emulated the intensity bit (bright text) using bolt characters.
Toshiba experimented a lot with hi-res fonts in ROM and I’m not pleased with the results. Standard (thin) font is hard to read and not visually appealing. Fortunately, it is possible at least to swap the bold and standard fonts using a keyboard shortcut. It is strange that the highlighted characters are in fact less readable then but overall experience is still better than with the default setup.
Toshiba T1000LE had 10-MHz 80C86 CPU, 1 MB of RAM (expandable to 9 MB), 20-MB HDD and “double-CGA” graphics (640x400@1-bit) in a sleek 3.0-kg package. Weight and thickness reductions were possible thanks to then-new 2.5-inch hard drives. This beast was not slower than older 286 machines.
Toshiba Portégé T3600CT is a fantastic little computer. It was introduced in 1994 and features 50-Mhz Intel 486DX2 and a nice 8.4-inch active-matrix TFT display. There is only one thing that prevents it from being a perfect DOS gaming machine – no sound card.
There were a lot of sub-notebooks on the market. However they were usually underpowered and with crappy screens. Guys in Toshiba chose a different approach. They built a compact machine with the same processing and graphics power you would have expected from a standard notebook computer. You would miss only a floppy drive and some interfaces. Both could be solved with external accessories and a docking station.
Unfortunately mine Portégé is dead. I forgot to remove old backup battery before it leaked (actually there are two – one for clock/BIOS settings and one to hold data in RAM when a main battery is replaced during the stand-by mode). We cleaned the logic board and it looks like we did it before the battery damaged anything but the laptop doesn’t start. Something is probably wrong with a power circuit and this will need further examination…
Don’t forget to remove old backup batteries from your computers.
… prepared to do some serious business with Microsoft Multiplan spreadsheet software :)
Btw this is probably the best DOS gamming laptop. Toshiba Satellite Pro 440CDT (1996) is equipped with 133-Mhz Pentium MMX, 32MB of RAM, a 2GB hard-drive, good loudspeakers (powered by Yamaha OPL3 sound chip) and a nice active-matrix TFT screen.
I’ve been pretty amazed that kids attending my computer class are aware of many historic moments in microcomputer history. At first they were scared when I told them that the lesson will be dedicated to history because they are used to the wrong style of teaching history through bullet points and dates. We talked about minis and micros and I’ve brought a lot of hardware from different eras of micro-computing.
It was nice to see that they were interested in historic hardware. They even play on 80s video game consoles at least using emulator software. This photo is from the end of a lesson about history of PC gaming (from beginning to 1996). Some kids were very interested how it is to play the first game from Need for Speed series.
My class is not about retro hardware but I’ve realized that using old computers is an effective and entertaining way to explain computer basics.
I just wrapped up an article on the Toshiba T3200SX, a desktop-replacement laptop from 1989. This beauty boasts a 386(SX) CPU and a stunning VGA gas-plasma display.
You can check it out here: https://retro.swarm.cz/toshiba-t3200sx-1989/
For
those of you who are new to the world of vintage computers, this
article can provide some valuable context and perspective. I delved into
why the 386 was such a crucial milestone for PCs and a few lesser-known
details.
I absolutely adore this machine. I don’t think I own
any other portable computer from the 80s that brings me as much joy
while working on it. If only it were just a tad lighter..
I have ~5500 followers here on tumblr after years of activity, but I never liked the lack of interaction here. When I started the “blog” here, one of the goals was to get feedback and interesting insights from others when I was working on something retrocomputing related. This never worked. Tumblr was never really good for text interaction.
This, along with a lack of time, caused me to reduce my activity here. Things got worse when many of the people I followed here moved elsewhere. Some of them are on Twitter/X, so I decided to try that platform as well. This time it will work a bit differently - I will share the retrocomputing things I do as soon as I do them.
The tumblr blog (and the copy on my web) will stay, and I plan to use it for the medium sized posts.
My Twitter/X retrocomputing profile can be found here: https://twitter.com/retro_swarm
My current activities focus a lot on the mid-90s Macs and other non-x86 machines.
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