The Osborne 1 is one of the first portable computers but needs external power source. Its name comes from Adam Osborne, the man who made this computer a reality (not quite true, see end of the text).
It has a very small built-in screen (8.75 x 6.6 cm, which can display 128 columns!!) and weighs more than 10 Kg.
The first models couldn't display more than 52 columns by line, so to access to the 76 other columns, the user had to scroll among the screen thanks to the cursor keys.
It works under CP/M and was sold with Digital Research CBASIC (compiled BASIC), SuperCalc (spreadsheet), WordStar (word processor), MailMerge (mailing) and Microsoft's MBasic (MBasic source code was 100% upwards compatible with IBM PC's BASICA, source code only).
This machine would be succeeded in 1983 by the Osborne Executive, which featured a larger screen (YAHOO!) and lower-profile disk drives.
Despite its interesting characteristics, Osborne Computer Corporation suffered the competition of the first IBM PC compatibles and went bankrupt in 1983. One casualty was a planned portable computer called the Osborne PC (which, interestingly, was an MS-DOS clone). It was never released (even though prototypes exist).
My name is Michael Osborne { no relationship } and I am a graphic designer. I designed the Osborne Computer logo in 1980 at my first job out of school. Of course, we didn''t even have computers at the time. I have had my own design firm now for 30 years: www.modsf.com So amazing to see this after all this time!
I 1st worked on and used them in 1982 at a Computerland in our local area. Heavy yes, but portable. I had all kinds of customers that where on the move using them. I still have 2 of them not sure if they still work the wire wound connections would tarnish and cause problems.
Thursday 14th March 2013
David Signorelli (West Virginia/ USA)
I was ad agency for Osborne$ my partners then Jaciow Kelley Miller $ Orr, who did the design, and amusingly, the designer from the firm was indeed Michael Osborne. Loved the work.
Am now, for a variety of reasons, on a bit of a history voyage around this and would love to hear from those who were on the journey then.
There was a great deal of passion around giving people computing power. I still think that we were among the first advertisers to show men at a keyboard or with a computer.
And, to Lee Felsenstein''s point about the hand ''bulging with veins'' holding the computer at the photo shoot, it was my hand, and on successive shoots we got an empty case.
That said, on any given night of the dozen Osbornes at our agency in 1981, half went home with people, despite being 24-pound ''sewing machines,'' predicting the current life we live of computing and communications weaving through our lives and permeating the borders of 9-5 forever.
Monday 11th February 2013
David Carlick
NAME
OSBORNE 1
MANUFACTURER
Osborne Corp.
TYPE
Transportable
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1981
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
Full-stroke keyboard with separated numeric keypad
CPU
Zilog Z80 A
SPEED
4 MHz
RAM
64 KB
ROM
4 KB
TEXT MODES
52 / 80 / 104 char. x 24 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
Only graphic characters
COLOrsc
Monochrome
SOUND
Beeper
SIZE / WEIGHT
51(W) x 32,5 (D) x 22,5(H) cm. Weight : 10,2 Kg.
I/O PORTS
RS232, IEEE 488, Modem port, Composite Video
BUILT IN MEDIA
2 x 5.25'' FDD
OS
CP/M
POWER SUPPLY
Built-in power supply unit
PERIPHERALS
Supplied with : CBasic, WordStar, SuperCalc, MailMerge, DBase II
ShareThis
