Grid Compass

The Grid Compass 1100 (written "GRiD" by its manufacturer) was arguably the first laptop computer, introduced in April 1982.

The computer was designed by British industrial designer Bill Moggridge in 1979, and first sold three years later. The design used a clamshell case (where the screen folds flat to the rest of the computer when closed), which was made from a magnesium alloy. The computer featured an Intel 8086 processor, a 320x200-pixel (CGA) electroluminescent display, 340-kilobyte magnetic bubble memory, and a 1200 bit/s modem. Devices like hard drives and floppy drives could be connected via the 488 I/O (also known as the GPIB or General Purpose Instrumentation Bus). This port made it possible to connect multiple devices in a daisy-chain. It weighed 5 kg (11 lb).

As a groundbreaking design, the Compass ran Grid-OS, its very own operating system. Its specialized software and high price (US$ 8-10,000) meant that it was limited to specialized applications. The main buyer was the U.S. government. NASA used it on the Space Shuttle during the early 1980s, as it was both powerful and lightweight. The military Special Forces also purchased the machine, as it could be used by paratroopers in combat.

Along with the Gavilan SC and Sharp PC-5000 released the following year, the Grid Compass established much of the basic design of subsequent laptop computers, although the laptop concept itself owed much to the Dynabook project developed at Xerox PARC from the late 1960s. The Compass company subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace. The first popular portable computer was the Osborne 1, sold at around the same time as the GRiD; it lacked the Compass's refinement and small size, but it was much more affordable and ran the popular CP/M operating system.

The Compass's manufacturer, Grid Systems Corp., was acquired by Tandy Corporation (RadioShack) in 1988.

External links

* [http://www.griduk.com/ GRiD UK]
* [http://oldcomputers.net/grid1101.html GRiD Compass 1101 at oldcomputers.net]
* [http://www.ari-service.com/ftp/grid/ GRiD ftp] - See [http://www.ari-service.com/ftp/GRID/grid.txt grid.txt]
* [http://www.netmagic.net/~clare/gis.html GRiDs in Space]
* [http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=900 GRiD at old-computers.com]
* [http://pages.total.net/~hrothgar/museum/Compass/ GRiD at Hrothgar's Cool Old Junk Page]
* [http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=grid+compass+laptop "Engineering the GRiD Compass"] at Google Video