ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop computers and tablets, the early models of which were designed, developed and marketed by IBM, starting in 1992. In 2005 IBM sold its PC business, including laptops to Lenovo. The Chinese manufacturer further developed the line, and is still selling new models in 2023.
Tadpole Computer was a manufacturer of rugged, military specification, UNIX workstations, thin client laptops and lightweight servers.
Zenith Data Systems Corporation (ZDS), was an American computer systems manufacturing company active from 1979 to 1996. It was originally a division of the Zenith Radio Company, after they had purchased the Heath Company and, by extension, their Heathkit line of electronic kits and kit microcomputers, from Schlumberger in October 1979. ZDS originally operated from Heath's own headquarters in St. Joseph, Michigan. By the time Zenith acquired Heathkit, their H8 kit computer already had an installed fanbase of scientific engineers and computing enthusiasts. ZDS' first offerings were merely preassembled versions of existing Heathkit computers, but within a few years, the company began selling bespoke systems, including the Z-100, which was a hybrid Z80- and 8088-based computer capable of running both CP/M and MS-DOS.
The LTE was a line of notebook-sized laptops manufactured by Compaq, introduced in 1989 and discontinued in 1997. The first models, the LTE and LTE/286, were among the first computers to be close to the size of a paper notebook, spurring the use of the term "notebook" to describe a smaller laptop, and earned a notable place in laptop history. They were also among the first notebooks to include both a built-in hard disk drive and a floppy disk drive. Later models—including the LTE/386s, LTE Lite, LTE Elite, and LTE 5000 series—offered optional docking stations, providing performance comparable to then-current desktop machines.
Robert B. Palmer is an American businessman in the computer industry.
Subnotebook, also called ultraportable, superportable, or mini notebook, was a marketing term for laptop computers that are smaller and lighter than a typical notebook-sized laptop.
The Compaq Evo is a series of business PCs and thin clients made by Compaq and then Hewlett-Packard following the 2002 merger. The Evo brand was introduced by Compaq in May 2001 as a business-oriented brand. It replaced the Deskpro brand of desktops and the Armada brand of notebooks. Evo was rebranded as HP Compaq which was used until 2013. It is not to be confused with the later Intel Evo branding for performant laptops.
The history of laptops describes the efforts, begun in the 1970s, to build small, portable Personal Computers that combine the components, inputs, outputs and capabilities of a Desktop Computer in a small chassis.
Armada is a discontinued line of business laptops by Compaq. They started as a more affordable version of the Contura line, but after that, they replaced Contura as a mainstream laptop line, and then the high-end Compaq LTE line were merged with Armada as a premium 7300 and 7700 sub-lines.
The LTE Lite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1992 to 1994. The first entries in the series were Compaq's first computers after co-founder Rod Canion's ousting and Eckhard Pfeiffer's tenure as the new CEO. The notebooks were co-developed and manufactured by Compaq and Citizen Watch of Japan. They were a hot-seller for Compaq and spanned multiple models, with various processors and liquid-crystal display technologies.
The Versa was a line of laptop computers sold by the Japanese electronics conglomerate NEC Corporation from 1993 to 2009. It comprised many form factors of laptops, from conventional clamshell notebooks to pen-enabled convertibles featuring detachable displays, before the line was effectively discontinued in 2009 after NEC pulled out of the global market for personal computers.
The ActionNote was a series of laptop computers developed by Epson America in 1993. The series was Epson's answer to the small businesses and home office market for laptops and initially ran alongside their corporate-oriented NB series of laptops. The series was segmented into premium and low-cost offerings and included a subnotebook, the ActionNote 4000. The bulk of the laptops' manufacturing was performed by ASE Technologies of Taiwan, with the exception of the short-lived initial entries into the 700 series, which were produced by Jabil Circuit. The ActionNote received mixed, mostly positive, reception in its lifespan before Epson America silently left the personal computer market in 1996.
Canon Computer Systems, Inc. (CCSI), sometimes shortened to Canon Computer, was an American subsidiary of Canon Inc. formed in 1992 to develop and market the parent company's personal computers and workstations. The subsidiary also assumed the responsibility of marketing Canon's printers and photocopiers, which were formerly sold by other Canon divisions. It went defunct in January 2001.
The Compaq Professional Workstation was a family of workstations produced by Compaq. Introduced in late October 1996, the first entry in the family featured single or dual Pentium Pro processors. Later entries featured Pentium IIs and IIIs; the XP1000 was the only non-x86 based entry, featuring a DEC Alpha processor. Compaq aimed the Professional Workstation at computer-aided design users, software programmers, multimedia designers and financial workers. While workers of those fields primarily ran Unix-based operating systems on workstations at the time, the Compaq Professional Workstation came preinstalled with Windows NT 4.0 Workstation. The line was discontinued in 2002.
DTK Computer is the name for international branches of Datatech Enterprises, a Taiwanese computer manufacturer. Founded in 1981, the company was an early supplier of peripherals for IBM PCs as well as PC compatible motherboards. In the late 1980s, the company switched to developing complete systems under the DTK name as well as serving as an OEM for motherboards and cases, as bought by other small computer companies and systems integrators.
Monorail Inc., later the Monorail Computer Corporation, was an American computer company founded in 1995 in Marietta, Georgia, by former Compaq executive Doug Johns. The company's Monorail PC, which was an all-in-one computer with a flat-panel LCD, prefigured Apple's similarly designed iMac G4 by over five years. According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the company "helped spawn a revolution in personal computers ... [selling] machines for as little as $999 in an effort to woo new price-sensitive users", to which larger manufacturers like Compaq and Packard Bell NEC followed suit. Monorail ceased operations in July 2005.
DECpc was a wide-ranging family of desktop computers, laptops, servers, and workstations sold by Digital Equipment Corporation. The vast majority in the family are based on x86 processors, although the APX 150 uses DEC's own Alpha processor. The line was DEC's first big break into the IBM PC compatible market.
The LTE Elite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1994 to 1996. All laptops in the LTE Elite range sported Intel's i486 processors, from the 40 MHz DX2 to the 75 MHz DX4. The LTE Elite was the first notebook-sized laptop to house the AC adapter inside the case itself, eliminating the need to carry an external power brick. The LTE Elite line was replaced by the LTE 5000 series in 1995. Compaq ceased manufacturing the LTE Elite line in March 1996.
The LTE 5000 series was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1995 to 1997. The LTE 5000 series was Compaq's first laptop with Pentium processors from Intel. The line of computers were co-developed between Compaq and Inventec of Taiwan and were manufactured entirely by Inventec overseas. The LTE 5000 series marked the last generation in the LTE line, Compaq replacing it with the Armada line in 1997.
The LTE, LTE/286, and LTE/386s were a series of notebook-sized laptops manufactured by Compaq from 1989 to 1992. The three laptops comprise the first generation of the LTE line, which was Compaq's second attempt at a laptop following the SLT in 1988 and their first attempt at a truly lightweight portable computer. The LTE line proved highly popular—Compaq selling hundreds of thousands of units between the three—and gave way to successive generations of the line, including the LTE Lite, the LTE Elite, and the LTE 5000 series. With its use of industry-standard floppy and hard drive technologies, the LTE was the first commercially successful notebook computer and helped launch the fledgling notebook industry, which had seen earlier attempts fail due to the use of novel but nonstandard data storage.
