Retro: Compaq Contura 4 \ 25 laptop
Continuing the ten-year (and more) prescription laptops, I want to tell a little about one of the leading companies Compaq Computer Corporation, as well as present the Compaq Contura 4 \ 25 notebook produced in 1993.
Compaq Computer Corporation was founded in February 1982 by former employees of Texas Instruments - Rod Canyon, Jim Harris and Bill Merto. The search for investments was successful, and in the first year of its existence, the company began to grow and unfold rapidly.
The first product was announced in 1982. It was a portable IBM PC compatible personal computer Compaq Portable, 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 because of lower prices than its competitors.
In the following years, the company engaged in the production of desktop computers, and a little later servers. As you know, the price war is one of the most effective on the market, so trying to keep prices, Compaq became the first computer manufacturer to use processors from AMD and Cyrix.
After the territory of the American market became small, Compaq entered the European market, and in 1989 the corporation became the second largest supplier of office personal computers in Europe, ahead of Apple and Olivetti.
The history of the company can be long and interesting to tell, but it ends in 2001 with a merger with another powerful computer manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard.
Fast forward to 1993 and see what the company produced.
Compaq Contura 4 / 25C
')
At that time, the cost of a laptop was from 2,000 to 2,338 thousand dollars, depending on the configuration.
The laptop is based on a 486 processor with a frequency of 25 MHz. Equipped with a color DSTN 9.5 "display with a resolution of 640x480, 8 MB of RAM, a 120 MB hard disk and a 3.5" floppy drive.
Right under the screen there are two knobs for adjusting the brightness and contrast of the displayed image.
There is nothing on the front panel except the button for opening the display cover. By the way, the latch design is not very convenient, and one cannot open the laptop with one hand.
On the right side is a floppy disk drive.
On the left - only a closed window, on the spot where the network card and modem connectors could fit. This laptop is not equipped with a network module.
The back panel contains all the main laptop connectors: a kensington system lock, a power connector, a com port, an lpt port, a 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 are output to an external monitor, which is, of course, a minus, since many laptops of that time gave a better “picture” to an external monitor.
As you can see, the set of expansion slots is small enough; there is no pcmcia, which would allow using external sound cards, network cards, modems, etc.
Let's look inside this wonderful machine.
Removing the five screws on the bottom, remove the top panel and immediately notice the warning in several languages, which says that only employees of Compaq have the right to disassemble.
We unscrew a few more screws and remove the aluminum panel, which performs a more protective role than the cooling one.
We disconnect the two keyboard cables, and by unscrewing a couple of screws, we can remove the floppy disk drive, memory, hard disk, power board.
Memory is made in a non-standard form factor. In this configuration, a 4MB bar is installed (there are strips 2-4-8-16mb)
Another 4 MB soldered to the motherboard
To the left of the RAM slot, there is a brown connector, which is intended for the network card module and modem.
You can also remove the power module
Consider closer the hard drive.
It is placed in an aluminum box, removing which, we see a 2.5 "hdd with a thickness of 20mm
The hard drive is manufactured by Conner, which was originally funded by Compaq and has been manufacturing products specifically for Compaq for several years. In 1996, Conner Peripherals merged with Seagate.
Floppy disk drive manufactured by Canon
The laptop is equipped with a NiMH battery for 2.2AHr, which, judging by the 1994 reviews, supported the laptop for up to 3 hours with a fairly heavy load.
At the moment, windows 95 is installed on the laptop and works reasonably well.
When you turn off, you can observe such a familiar picture, after which you have to press the power button
another nice photo
This laptop got to the museum ( http://proofbook.ru/museum ) thanks to habrayuzer Ivan w0lf , for which we thank him.
For the full picture it remains to find the trackball that comes with this laptop.
Compaq Computer Corporation was founded in February 1982 by former employees of Texas Instruments - Rod Canyon, Jim Harris and Bill Merto. The search for investments was successful, and in the first year of its existence, the company began to grow and unfold rapidly.
The first product was announced in 1982. It was a portable IBM PC compatible personal computer Compaq Portable, 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 because of lower prices than its competitors.
In the following years, the company engaged in the production of desktop computers, and a little later servers. As you know, the price war is one of the most effective on the market, so trying to keep prices, Compaq became the first computer manufacturer to use processors from AMD and Cyrix.
After the territory of the American market became small, Compaq entered the European market, and in 1989 the corporation became the second largest supplier of office personal computers in Europe, ahead of Apple and Olivetti.
The history of the company can be long and interesting to tell, but it ends in 2001 with a merger with another powerful computer manufacturer, Hewlett-Packard.
Fast forward to 1993 and see what the company produced.
Compaq Contura 4 / 25C
')
At that time, the cost of a laptop was from 2,000 to 2,338 thousand dollars, depending on the configuration.
The laptop is based on a 486 processor with a frequency of 25 MHz. Equipped with a color DSTN 9.5 "display with a resolution of 640x480, 8 MB of RAM, a 120 MB hard disk and a 3.5" floppy drive.
Right under the screen there are two knobs for adjusting the brightness and contrast of the displayed image.
There is nothing on the front panel except the button for opening the display cover. By the way, the latch design is not very convenient, and one cannot open the laptop with one hand.
On the right side is a floppy disk drive.
On the left - only a closed window, on the spot where the network card and modem connectors could fit. This laptop is not equipped with a network module.
The back panel contains all the main laptop connectors: a kensington system lock, a power connector, a com port, an lpt port, a 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 are output to an external monitor, which is, of course, a minus, since many laptops of that time gave a better “picture” to an external monitor.
As you can see, the set of expansion slots is small enough; there is no pcmcia, which would allow using external sound cards, network cards, modems, etc.
Let's look inside this wonderful machine.
Removing the five screws on the bottom, remove the top panel and immediately notice the warning in several languages, which says that only employees of Compaq have the right to disassemble.
We unscrew a few more screws and remove the aluminum panel, which performs a more protective role than the cooling one.
We disconnect the two keyboard cables, and by unscrewing a couple of screws, we can remove the floppy disk drive, memory, hard disk, power board.
Memory is made in a non-standard form factor. In this configuration, a 4MB bar is installed (there are strips 2-4-8-16mb)
Another 4 MB soldered to the motherboard
To the left of the RAM slot, there is a brown connector, which is intended for the network card module and modem.
You can also remove the power module
Consider closer the hard drive.
It is placed in an aluminum box, removing which, we see a 2.5 "hdd with a thickness of 20mm
The hard drive is manufactured by Conner, which was originally funded by Compaq and has been manufacturing products specifically for Compaq for several years. In 1996, Conner Peripherals merged with Seagate.
Floppy disk drive manufactured by Canon
The laptop is equipped with a NiMH battery for 2.2AHr, which, judging by the 1994 reviews, supported the laptop for up to 3 hours with a fairly heavy load.
At the moment, windows 95 is installed on the laptop and works reasonably well.
When you turn off, you can observe such a familiar picture, after which you have to press the power button
another nice photo
This laptop got to the museum ( http://proofbook.ru/museum ) thanks to habrayuzer Ivan w0lf , for which we thank him.
For the full picture it remains to find the trackball that comes with this laptop.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/69338/
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