Retro: Compaq Contura 4 \ 25 laptop
Continuing the theme of laptops a decade (or more) ago, I want to talk a little about one of the leading companies Compaq Computer Corporation, and also bring to your attention a 1993 laptop Compaq Contura 4 \ 25.
Compaq Computer Corporation was founded in February 1982 by former employees of Texas Instruments - Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murtaugh. The search for investments was successful, and already in the first year of its existence, the company began to rapidly grow and unfold.
The first product was announced in 1982. It was a portable IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable personal computer; it can be called the ancestor of the laptops we are used to now. The computer was based on the Intel 8088 microprocessor and was a commercial success, in part due to its lower price than its competitors.
In the following years, the company began to manufacture desktop computers, and even a little later servers. As you know, the price war is one of the most effective on the market, so trying to keep prices down, Compaq was the first computer manufacturer to use processors from AMD and Cyrix.
After the territory of the American market of the company became fewer, Compaq entered the European market, and already in 1989 the corporation became the second European supplier of office personal computers, ahead of Apple and Olivetti.
The history of the company can be long and interesting, but it ends in 2001 with the merger with another powerful computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard.
Fast forward to 1993 and see what the company produced.
Compaq Contura 4 / 25C
In those days, a laptop cost from 2,000 to 2,338 thousand dollars, depending on the configuration.
The laptop is built on the basis of the 486 processor with a frequency of 25 MHz. Equipped with a 9.5 "color DSTN display with a resolution of 640x480, 8MB RAM, 120MB hard drive and a 3.5" floppy drive.
Right under the screen are two knobs for adjusting the brightness and contrast of the image displayed on the display.
There is nothing on the front panel except the button to open the display cover. By the way, the design of the latch is not very convenient, and you cannot open the laptop with one hand.
On the right side is a floppy drive.
On the left is just a closed window, in the place where the network card connectors and the modem could fit. This laptop is not equipped with a network module.
On the rear panel are all the main connectors of the laptop: a kensington system lock, power connector, com-port, lpt-port, ps \ 2 port for connecting a mouse or trackball, and a d-sub connector for connecting an external monitor. An image of 256 colors and a resolution of 640x480 is displayed on an external monitor, which is, of course, a minus, since many laptops of that time produced a better "picture" on an external monitor.
As you can see, the set of expansion slots is small enough, there is no pcmcia, which would allow the use of external sound cards, network cards, modems, etc.
Let's look inside this wonderful device.
Having unscrewed the five screws at the bottom, we remove the top panel and immediately notice a warning in several languages, which says that only Compaq employees can disassemble.
We unscrew a few more screws and removes the aluminum panel, which performs a more protective role than the cooling one.
We disconnect the two keyboard loops, and by unscrewing a couple of screws, we can remove the diskette drive, memory, hard drive, power board.
The memory is made in a non-standard form factor. In this configuration, a 4MB strip is installed (there are 2-4-8-16mb strips)
Another 4MB is wired to the motherboard.
To the left of the RAM slot, a brown connector is visible, which is intended for the network card and modem module.
You can also remove the power module
Let's take a closer look at the hard drive.
He is placed in an aluminum box, having removed which, we see a 2.5 "hdd with a thickness of 20 mm. The
hard drive is made by Conner, which was originally financed by Compaq and for several years manufactured products specifically for Compaq. In 1996, Conner Peripherals merged with Seagate.
A floppy drive was made by Canon
Complete laptop NiMH battery on 2,2AHr, which, according to the 1994 review, supported notebook work up to 3 hours at a sufficiently intense traffic.
at the moment, on a laptop installed windows 95 and quite tolerably works.
when you switch off you can watch such a familiar picture, after which you need to press the power button
another nice photo
This laptop got into the museum ( http://proofbook.ru/museum ) thanks to habrayuzer Ivan w0lf , for which we say thank you very much.
For the full picture, it remains to find the trackball that comes bundled with this laptop.
Compaq Computer Corporation was founded in February 1982 by former employees of Texas Instruments - Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murtaugh. The search for investments was successful, and already in the first year of its existence, the company began to rapidly grow and unfold.
The first product was announced in 1982. It was a portable IBM PC compatible Compaq Portable personal computer; it can be called the ancestor of the laptops we are used to now. The computer was based on the Intel 8088 microprocessor and was a commercial success, in part due to its lower price than its competitors.
In the following years, the company began to manufacture desktop computers, and even a little later servers. As you know, the price war is one of the most effective on the market, so trying to keep prices down, Compaq was the first computer manufacturer to use processors from AMD and Cyrix.
After the territory of the American market of the company became fewer, Compaq entered the European market, and already in 1989 the corporation became the second European supplier of office personal computers, ahead of Apple and Olivetti.
The history of the company can be long and interesting, but it ends in 2001 with the merger with another powerful computer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard.
Fast forward to 1993 and see what the company produced.
Compaq Contura 4 / 25C
In those days, a laptop cost from 2,000 to 2,338 thousand dollars, depending on the configuration.
The laptop is built on the basis of the 486 processor with a frequency of 25 MHz. Equipped with a 9.5 "color DSTN display with a resolution of 640x480, 8MB RAM, 120MB hard drive and a 3.5" floppy drive.
Right under the screen are two knobs for adjusting the brightness and contrast of the image displayed on the display.
There is nothing on the front panel except the button to open the display cover. By the way, the design of the latch is not very convenient, and you cannot open the laptop with one hand.
On the right side is a floppy drive.
On the left is just a closed window, in the place where the network card connectors and the modem could fit. This laptop is not equipped with a network module.
On the rear panel are all the main connectors of the laptop: a kensington system lock, power connector, com-port, lpt-port, ps \ 2 port for connecting a mouse or trackball, and a d-sub connector for connecting an external monitor. An image of 256 colors and a resolution of 640x480 is displayed on an external monitor, which is, of course, a minus, since many laptops of that time produced a better "picture" on an external monitor.
As you can see, the set of expansion slots is small enough, there is no pcmcia, which would allow the use of external sound cards, network cards, modems, etc.
Let's look inside this wonderful device.
Having unscrewed the five screws at the bottom, we remove the top panel and immediately notice a warning in several languages, which says that only Compaq employees can disassemble.
We unscrew a few more screws and removes the aluminum panel, which performs a more protective role than the cooling one.
We disconnect the two keyboard loops, and by unscrewing a couple of screws, we can remove the diskette drive, memory, hard drive, power board.
The memory is made in a non-standard form factor. In this configuration, a 4MB strip is installed (there are 2-4-8-16mb strips)
Another 4MB is wired to the motherboard.
To the left of the RAM slot, a brown connector is visible, which is intended for the network card and modem module.
You can also remove the power module
Let's take a closer look at the hard drive.
He is placed in an aluminum box, having removed which, we see a 2.5 "hdd with a thickness of 20 mm. The
hard drive is made by Conner, which was originally financed by Compaq and for several years manufactured products specifically for Compaq. In 1996, Conner Peripherals merged with Seagate.
A floppy drive was made by Canon
Complete laptop NiMH battery on 2,2AHr, which, according to the 1994 review, supported notebook work up to 3 hours at a sufficiently intense traffic.
at the moment, on a laptop installed windows 95 and quite tolerably works.
when you switch off you can watch such a familiar picture, after which you need to press the power button
another nice photo
This laptop got into the museum ( http://proofbook.ru/museum ) thanks to habrayuzer Ivan w0lf , for which we say thank you very much.
For the full picture, it remains to find the trackball that comes bundled with this laptop.