Retro Computing Corner: The World’s First Laptop? (c. 1982)
Author: Rees | Date: May 7, 2008
Last time we had the world’s first digital camera on Retro Computing Corner, and so I thought I’d cover another computing first which may have changed the world – another ubiquitous device we take for granted today that absolutely blew people’s minds when it was first released. I’m talking about what is widely regarded to be the first laptop – at least as we know them today.
Unlike the Kodak digital camera prototype we had last time, however, the world’s first laptop, known as the GRiD Compass, was actually put into production and was generally available. It was designed in 1979 and made available in 1982. As each unit sold for over $8,000 however (taking inflation into account, that’s the equivalent of $18,000 today), they weren’t generally bought by the public, but were very popular with the US government.
This means that the Compass was the first laptop in space, travelling in the space shuttle in 1985, as well as reportedly seeing service on many submarines and being deployed behind enemy lines by paratroopers.
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On to the technical details. The Compass used the then hugely popular Intel 8086 processor, 384K of magnetic bubble memory, a 320×200 monochrome ELD screen, and a 1200bps modem. External storage in the form of hard and floppy drives could be connected via IEEE 488 connection, which allowed up to 15 devices to be daisy chained to the computer (probably quite dangerous in zero gravity conditions!), the most common forms being 360KB floppy or 10MB HDD. The built-in operating system was GRiD OS, otherwise known as CCOS, and was renowned for its stability.
GRiD Systems Corporation actually held the patent on the clamshell design that laptops use even today, although it was never enforced until the company was taken over by Tandy in 1988.
(More information here and here)
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Nice, I didn’t know this one! Anyone know if the operating system is still available for download somewhere. Seeing as it runs on Intel hardware, maybe it can be made to run in a virtual machine?
Grtz, Elmer
I had one, it was a lovely machine, I still set up my terminals to emulate the lovely amber glow of its ELD .. I must have written a hundred thousand pages of code on that thing .. in some ways I kind of miss its shear rugged staying power .. though compared to my current MacBook .. mmm .. yeah .. no comparison.
But I’m not so sure it was the ‘first’ laptop, I seem to recall there being some firsts from Tandy (Model 100?) before GRiD really hit the scene .. maybe this was the first ‘serious’ laptop, but definitely there were others before it that might qualify ..
Oh yes, there certainly were a fair few “portable” and “lap top” computers about, but this one was the first to use the clamshell case design that we associate with a laptop computer today. In hindsight, perhaps “notebook” would’ve been a more accurate word to use.
Also, agreed on the old hardware staying power thing – I love this chunky old stuff.
Computer history is so fascinating.
I just got my ASUS eee 7″ laptop yesterday. It’s just a bit larger than a DVD case. I think it would make it to the computer museum of 2027, titled as “Ultraportable laptop of 2007″.
By then however people would be walking around virtual computers in their field of vision. They would interact with their computers through their thoughts while maintaining a conversation or watching a movie in real life. They would be able to store all their sensory inputs digital for future retrieval.
I suppose they would have found a way to use human neurons as computing nodes thereby taking soft computing to the next level.
Actually, this was the first laptop:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_1
I did a project on this in high school many years ago.
Depends how you define “laptop” …!
Looks like a knee-crusher to me.
And how ridiculous is it that a folding laptop configuration (or clamshell cell phone) is an enforceable patent and isn’t “patently” obvious. The prior art is a bloody book!
Ive got one of the first laptops ever, my grandad use to love computers and got one when they came out. There really heavy, also it has a power supplie which I don’t get if it has to be portiable. Also the screen is only 5-6″, I found it the other day when clearing out the house because he died like last year. But I found it and was like WTF? It still works and is in awsome condidtion!
The Osbourne 1 was the very first laptop. Maybe this website should research before posting something. People are going to believe that this is the first laptop, but its not
I certainly did research the subject before I wrote this post – and I agree that the Osbourne 1 was the world’s first portable computer, but “laptop” ? It didn’t even have a battery! And I certainly wouldn’t want to use that beast on my lap for any period of time.
So, when writing this I made the assumption that most people consider a laptop to use the “flip” (or “clamshell”) form factor, of which the GRiD was the first. Finding a formal definition of the term isn’t very easy, but I don’t agree that the Osbourne 1 is a “laptop” by anyone’s definition of the word.
I think I’ll write a “Retro Computing Corner” about the Osbourne 1 at some point in the future, however, because it certainly is a very important machine in the history of portable computing (and computing as a whole).
Well, you’re BOTH wrong, ’cause the first laptop computer was the Epson HX-20.
Get it straight.
Internal rechargeable battery – check
Bult-in screen and keyboard – check
Portability and “lap top” factor – check!
This machine is indeed much more worthy than the Osborne, however, I’m still sticking to my guns. It wouldn’t be recognised by most people these days as a modern “laptop”, so the clamshell form factor is (in my opinion) a must.
It certainly is a very interesting machine. But has it ever been into space?