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Compaq Portable

Compaq · 1983

The machine that created the clone industry. Compaq reverse-engineered IBM's BIOS cleanly, put the result in a sewing-machine-sized case with a handle, and sold $111 million of them in the first year — the fastest start in American business history at the time. Everything that followed in the PC market follows from this. Heavy, superbly made, and historically about as important as a PC gets.

As catalogued

Maker
Compaq
CPU
Intel 8088-4.77
Memory
128K, 256K, 640K
Styles
one drive, two drives
Regions
US, UK, Europe
Chassis
sewing-machine luggable with a 9-inch amber CRT
OS
Compaq MS-DOS 1.13

Chips

2
CPU
Intel 8088
FPU
Intel 8087

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