Creating newfangled devices always has an interesting history. Someone came up with, then created a prototype, then faced with the first failures. Sometimes, by pure chance, they manage to get out, and in some incredible way, a new technical miracle appears before humanity.
The first laptop in the world also went a lot to become the one that is located on the desktops of many of us. We will deal with the history of the formation of this device further.
What is it?
Now hardly anyone knows what a laptop is and what it is for. Unless some ethnic groups in Africa will be able to deal with this miracle of technology. Most modern people know that this is a personal computer, which is primarily popular due to the ease of transportation. Inside it are all the traditional components that are inherent in the PC.
Before us is the same display, keyboard, analogue of the mouse, sometimes the mouse itself. It is also possible to use disks, flash drives and more. Inside, the system runs on a processor, which is slightly modified, since the dimensions do not allow the installation of large chips. The video card also looks slightly different. RAM memory models are built into the motherboard, and the hard drive has a different format, which differs in the size of the device.
The first laptop in the world had similar features, on the one hand, but was completely different from modern devices.
Idea
You can argue for a long time about which device was the first. But all thoughts lead us to Alan Curtis Kay. This American scientist has long been studying computer systems. Since 1970, the researcher begins working at Xerox. He immediately becomes one of the developers of the prototype network workstations. Interestingly, these developments were not left without attention, and in the future they were used by specialists from Apple Computer.
So the scientist came close to creating the first laptop. Kay proposed the concept of Dynabook. This option already described a device that is now very similar to a laptop. But this option was designed for mobile training and did not fully embody all the available capabilities of the device.
In general, the idea of Alan Kay appeared in 1968. Then he proposed creating a mobile personal device that would simulate a notebook. But its capabilities and functions should not be inferior to full-fledged cars.
Real attempts
In 1976, the world's first NoteTaker laptop was released. Alan Kay, Larry Tesler, Adelee Goldberg, Douglas Fairbairn worked on it. The prototype was shown to everyone, but was not released into production. About ten models were assembled in order to continue further work on the development of this device.
Nevertheless, even then NoteTaker had a monochrome screen, a hinged lid, a keyboard, a drive and a mouse. RAM was only 128 KB, and the clock frequency of the chip did not exceed 1 MHz. The operating system was a previously developed version of Smalltalk.
Despite the seemingly conceptual idea, the first laptop in the world was not very mobile. Its weight was 22 kilograms. And although the device worked autonomously and was even used by some employees on the plane, it was still far from the modern model. The fact that Kay did not seize the moment and did not translate his ideas into production turned out to be deplorable for him, since he could earn a lot of money.
Successful attempt
And instead, Bill Mogridge did it. He began to work with this device by order of NASA. Serial production was started in 1982. But he was not in demand for the reason that the power supply was absent in this model.
Such a first laptop already weighed up to 3 kilograms, which compared to 22 is a huge breakthrough. His thickness was 5 centimeters. In addition, there was a removable battery, a bright monochrome display and a built-in modem.
The processor inside from Intel 8086 was operating at a frequency of 8 MHz, which was already a breakthrough. RAM - 256 Kb. There was a serial port RS-232. The modem worked at a speed of 1200 bits per second. Thanks to him, you could use the online software repository and data from the company for free.
Interestingly, since 1979, when this laptop was developed, he still could not use MS-DOS, since by that time it had not yet been created. But the laptop got it right after 1988, when the new Intel 80386 processor worked inside.
After that, the device became multifunctional and worked immediately with several tasks. So, inside one could use proprietary technologies, among which was a prototype of a modern control panel, print manager, text editor, spreadsheet, file manager and much more.
Successful were not only the insides of this machine, but also its shell. The magnesia hull had stable dynamic loads, respectively, immediately attracted the attention of the military and NASA. Therefore, first of all, this machine went into circulation to these departments. As a result, the Grid Compass was used as a coordinator and manager of combat units, and it was also sent to space more than once.
For people
Photos of the first laptop in the world point us to another contender for the title of firstborn. He became Osborne 1. Despite the fact that he became known later than all previously indicated, he is considered the first laptop that received commercial success. It was this model that went to the masses in 1981. Behind her stood the American company Osborne Computer Corporation.
The peculiarity of this model was that on one side of the device there was a handle for transportation, and on the other there was a keyboard that was made on a hinged lid. Inside was a monochrome screen with a five-inch display. Also, the design is equipped with two drives and the ability to connect a monitor or modem.
The operating system has become CP / M. Inside there was a text editor, a table processor and several language interpreters. The main drawback of such a device was its mass - 11 kilograms, while the first laptop received a price tag of $ 1,795. Therefore, despite the spread of the machine to the masses, not everyone could afford this miracle of technology.
Inside was a Z80 processor with a frequency of 4 MHz. RAM was only 64 KB. The fate of this company was tragic. Due to the huge number of competitors who were in a hurry to make the devices better, the manufacturer decided to inform the world about the start of sales of the next model before the devices went on sale. This step was unsuccessful, hit Osborne 1 on sales, and then completely bankrupted the company.
Soviet alternative
Interestingly, photos of the very first laptop in the world lead us to the domestic prototype. It received the name "Electronics" and was released in 1991. Outwardly, it resembled laptop brands that were already promoted then. Interestingly, its technical specifications were slightly better than the first American versions. For example, the RAM was already 640 Kb.
The problem with this model was that its cost exceeded the average salary in the country, but even if the user had the opportunity to purchase such a machine, he still could not do it because of its inaccessibility. Therefore, almost nothing is known about the technical characteristics, and information about this prototype remained only on paper, since this laptop did not reach the wide masses.