Data General-One Portable Computer
- Description
- Data General was primarily a mini-computer company. But in 1984, it introduced the Data General-One (DG-1), a breakthrough personal computer laptop. The Data General One weighed nine pounds, ran MS-DOS, had dual 3 ½" diskettes, 79-key full stroke keyboard, 128 KB to 512 KB of RAM, and a monochrome LCD screen. It ran on a CMOS 80C88 processor. Unlike other "luggable" computers of the era, the DG-1 was light enough to carry on travel, but also powerful enough to emulate a desktop.
- The DG-1 enjoyed only mediocre success. Its 3 ½" diskettes were slightly ahead of their time, and much popular software was not available in 3 ½" format. Adding to the problem, software copyright protection made copying into the 3 ½" format difficult. In addition, the DG-1 base price was relatively high at $2,895, and the real cost tended to be even higher, because users generally needed both more RAM and an external 5 ¼" drive to run disks from their desktop machines.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- microcomputer
- Date made
- 1984
- maker
- Data General Corporation
- Physical Description
- plastic (overall material)
- glass (overall material)
- metal (overall material)
- rubber (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 7.5 cm x 30 cm x 34.5 cm; 2 15/16 in x 11 13/16 in x 13 9/16 in
- ID Number
- 1995.0069.01
- accession number
- 1995.0069
- catalog number
- 1995.0069.01
- subject
- Work
- Computers & Business Machines
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Computers
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Credit Line
- June E. Mallory
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