Читать книгу Laptops For Dummies - Dan Gookin - Страница 22

The search for light

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Just because the marketing department labeled the computer a laptop didn't mean that it was sleek and lightweight. For a while there, it seemed like anyone could get away with calling a portable PC a laptop, despite the computer’s weight of up to 20 pounds — which is enough to crush any lap, not to mention kneecaps.

In the fall of 1989, NEC showed that it could think outside the laptop box when it introduced the UltraLite laptop, shown in Figure 1-6.

The UltraLite featured a full-size screen and keyboard but no disk drives or other moving parts! It used battery-backed-up memory to serve as a silicon disk, similar to today’s solid-state drives (SSDs). The silicon disk stored 1 or 2MB of data — which was plenty back in those days.

As was required of all laptops, the UltraLite featured a modem, and it could talk with a desktop computer by using a special cable. Included with the UltraLite was software that would let it easily exchange files and programs with a desktop PC.

The weight? Yes, the UltraLite lived up to its name and weighed in at just under 5 pounds — a feather compared to the tumid laptops of the day. And the battery lasted a whopping 2 hours, thanks mostly to the UltraLite's lack of moving parts.

Laptops For Dummies

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