Zenith Data Systems duly unveiled its notebook-size battery operated MinisPort portable computer, and in so doing became the first US company to bring out a machine incorporating a floppy drive to the emerging 2 standard. Zenith did not say where it was getting the drive, but it is most likely the PD150 announced by Sony Corp last August (CI No 1,002), which stores an unformatted 1Mb – Zenith’s drive stores a formatted 720Kb. The 2 floppy drives were originally developed for floppy disk still picture cameras, but are seen as ideal for the new generation of pocket computers. Other companies working on 2 floppy drives include Canon Inc, Alps Electric Co and Toshiba Corp working with Fuji Photo Film Co. Built around an 80C88, the MinisPort weighs 5 lbs 14 oz, has a full 80-character by 25 line screen, and runs for three hours on removable Nickel Cadmium batteries that take four to six hours to recharge. Chips & Technologies Inc is supplying the integrated systems logic, graphics, and communications chips for the MinisPort – the 82C100 single chip system logic controller, 82C425 single chip Colour Graphics Adaptor Liquid Crystal Display controller, and 82C606 integrated input-output peripheral controller chip. The Model 1 has 1Mb of main memory, up to 360Kb of which can be used as battery-backed secondary storage, and this can be expanded to 1.36Mb using a 1Mb upgrade module, which is standard on the Model 2. It has MS-DOS 3.3 Plus and data transfer program in 832Kb of read-only memory. The MinisPort mea sures 12.4 by 9.8 deep by 1.3 high; the Model 1 is $2,000, the Model 2 costs $2,800. The machines are due to ship in the US next month and to arrive in Eur ope in September; the Model 1 is expected to sell for from UKP1,400 here in the UK.
