The Mac Portable was my first computer, which my dad brought back from work but never used. It was on this machine that I learned how to program, starting with Basic (I believe it was MS-Basic back then) and then moving on to Hypercard. Those were the days when knowledge was gained through magazines and the accompanying floppy disks, loaded with shareware. What a remarkable era it was, and how much progress we have made since then!
The whole system was designed for long battery life and standby time. That’s why it didn’t have the backlight LCD, had an enormous battery (reading https://support.apple.com/kb/sp140?locale=en_GB, it only delivered 5W, tops, though), and used static RAM.
I guess this expansion used dynamic RAM with on-board refresh logic, but the page isn’t clear (to me) on that.
Hey cool, my RAM card is being mentioned on hacker news!
You're right, the card uses PSRAM because non-synchronous SRAM chips basically aren't available new any more. I didn't want to have to troll the depths of (semi-questionable) new old stock parts sites and went with new chips.
This design was assisted by my good friend techknight, original designer of the 8 megabyte RAM card for the mac portable.
Yeah, I noticed that chip and didn't give it a second look. It's more than 3x the cost of the PSRAM solution, and that would have driven up the price of the RAM card higher than planned. So sure, it exists. And that's about all I have to say about it.
I just bought a dozen new PDIP Alliance AS6C4008 512k x 8 asych srams from Mouser from stock. If you go surface mount, I think there are even more options.
I believe there’s a place for a portable with high travel keys, built like a tank and with e-ink display.
There’s certainly a lot of nostalgia, hipsterism and fetishism in the appeal of such product (I'm guilty of all 3), but maybe it’s not all there’s to it. Maybe it could be truly useful as well.
Oh, yeah...EL displays are awesome on the eyes. The T3100, the Grid and the Compaq portable with an EL display were so nice back in the day. Unfortunately, EL displays are extremely power hungry, so it was not to last. I actually have an EL VT-220 terminal clone in my homelab.
Whatever the appeal is, I have it too. I've been playing with the idea of fitting a e-ink and someing RPi-ish into a Toshiba T1000 formfactor (I have a dead one). Another project on the pile. I think for cranking out writing, it could be a winner.
Technically, Apple did sell the iic as an optional portable/luggable as well[0], with an add-on LCD screen, case, and a built in handle. Granted, at this point we're just getting into the weeds.
The original Mac had a built-in handle for carrying it around (and Apple sold a bag with a shoulder wrap for doing that), too, but unlike this device, it wasn’t battery powered.
In the IBM compatable world, portable was definitely a category, and it didn't include batteries. From my one encouter with a compaq portable, I think it was a lot harder to carry than a Mac SE, but at least you could attach the keyboard to the front for transport, and no mouse needed. If you had the Mac shoulder bag, I guess it probably had room for a keyboard and mouse though.
