As a nerd of a certain age I’ve been deeply attracted to retro computing. Even going so far as to place bids on 30 year old Atari STs on eBay since that was a computer I had in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. But in recent days, through the use of modern emulators I’ve dabbled in these retro systems and I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re just bad. They are fine for the enjoyment of certain games and reliving or just getting a reminder of my younger years. Yet these home computers of that era lack so much. No MMU, no FPU, no IP networking. Very limited CPU cycles and memory.<p>Even switching from home computers of the era to workstation class system, it’s pure frustration at the limits on what can be done. Don’t get me wrong, for a lot of my computing needs I could probably get along just fine with a next cube or a late model Mac II. But on the other hand you’ll pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for these systems, while I can go on Amazon and spend ~$200 for a mouse, keyboard, cheap monitor, and a raspberry pi zero w and I’ll have a more capable system in every way. For just a little more money I can buy a tiny PC that is able to emulate near perfectly all the computers of my youth.<p>Thank you for attending my Ted talk.
A "real hardware" approach to retrocomputing like displayed here appeals to me because it much better captures parts of the experience lost to emulation. Things like insanely low latency thanks to there not being a fractal spiral of hardware and software abstractions sitting between everything. It's much more simple, and you can feel that.<p>That said I'd also like to see some modern advancements brought in… for example a reproduction of a mid-90s 68k or PPC Mac using components manufactured on a much smaller node would be incredible. It wouldn't even have to be anything cutting edge like 3/5nm — even the now-ancient 14nm or 30nm would be amazing compared to say the 350nm node that the PowerPC 603ev was manufactured on.
I really hate Liliputing. After browsing, I somehow have several tiny laptops that I don't need but truly love like the Magic Ben MAG1 and the Pomera DM30.<p>And Jetpens. I hate Jetpens too. I can't believe how many...
As the owner of an obscure floppy disk subsystem that requires an 8-bit ISA card and was originally spec'ed to run on XT-class hardware, this is tempting.<p>In particular, 640 kB really is enough, as the bundled software runs in real mode, doesn't support extended or expanded memory, and predates tricks like loading DOS in high memory by a number of years (not that they'd work on an XT in any case).<p>The disk read/write code and some of the simpler filesystem modules run on the ISA card itself, essentially an 8085-based SBC with a rather flexible (no pun intended) floppy controller. Here, 64 kB is necessarily enough for everything.<p>The fun part is that, assuming an Intel MDS 80/ISIS-compatible toolchain, the card can easily be coerced to run arbitrary code. And, while working Intel "blue" hardware is thin on the ground, I have personal experience with at least one working emulator (MAME) able to run ISIS.
The creator of this machine also made a palmtop 386 - <a href="https://youtu.be/JI71ELzd498" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/JI71ELzd498</a> .<p>They're both beautiful machines!<p>I found them a couple of days ago, and the 386 was already sold out. I was hoping to eventually pick up one of the 8088s; but it looks like they'll disappear now too.
I just checked, and you can buy a new Intel 8086 on digikey right now: <a href="https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/rochester-electronics-llc/MD8086/12125282" rel="nofollow">https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/rochester-electro...</a><p>The product is not even marked obsolete.
DOS emulation is not a very battery-efficient way to play '88-98 games on the go, so projects like these seem to cater to that specific need, letting people run DOS natively. The Toshiba Libretto was a nice, small machine, but finding one in good condition is super hard. Toshiba Portégé was another, but after Pentium-II models, they took away the OPL3 card in favor of something more Windows-friendly (AC97), which doesn't have good DOS drivers. Now there's SBEMU (<a href="https://github.com/crazii/SBEMU">https://github.com/crazii/SBEMU</a>), which can emulate SB/SBPRO/SB16 on top of newer PCI-based sound cards, including AC97 ones, solving that problem. Now it's possible to have sound on a Pentium-II, III, M and Atom machines running DOS, like a Sony Vaio P.
Just a heads up, it looks like these guys ripped off Serge Kiselev's 8088 BIOS [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://github.com/skiselev/8088_bios">https://github.com/skiselev/8088_bios</a>
> Unfortunately there’s no information on the battery capacity or battery life, but the little computer works with a 12V/1.5A power supply.<p>Let's be real for a moment; you wouldn't be getting a true vintage mobile computing experience if you weren't tethered to an electrical socket!
Boy, does this bring back some good memories of the Toshiba Libretto:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_Libretto" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_Libretto</a><p>I bought one on the gray market in 1996, and I think I managed to double my money in about 6 months by reselling it within the US. It was supremely handy to have around, but with only one PCMCIA slot you had to choose between wired networking and a CD-ROM drive.
I’m convinced that just like how humans are attracted to little kittens and puppies, some technophiles easily feel the same attraction to small, harmless looking little computers running tiny software on tiny processors. I feel like buying this even though I have zero need for it.
I had a similar device in my hands 15 years ago in Thailand, with the company making it trying to find a market when OLPC was getting all the press. It was a netbook with a low power 386 compatible CPU and just enough circuitry and support to drive the keyboard, screen, some RAM and the SD card serving as the hard drive, and USB. It booted DOS, and in theory could have run Linux. It was powered by 6 AA batteries. They might have been able to produce them in bulk for $100 USD at the time, but I suspect it would have been more like $200. Didn't go anywhere as far as I know.
I had an HP 200LX that was way cooler than this thing back in the late 90s and ran DOS, Lotus 123, etc.<p>Still some vintage used ones around:<a href="https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=200LX&_sacat=0" rel="nofollow">https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m...</a>
So close. But as others mentioned why not something like vga or at least ega and 286? You could still run 80s still but you could then also do a space quest v and some of later Lucas arts games... Which embarrassingly would make it a must have for me even though I own 27 copies of them on GoG and steam and bundle and cd and wherever :)
Curious. Why do we need an actual 8088? Aren't all x86 processors backwards compatible with 8088/8086? Also last time I checked VGA cards supported legacy modes such as CGA, and EGA (this may not be the case anymore).<p>Any modern Intel laptop should be able to run the same software, without emulation.
Funny to see planet x3 on the store images, a game made by youtuber 8-bit guy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szhv6fwx7GY">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szhv6fwx7GY</a>
The fact that it appears to use an actual 8088 (and 8087) is somewhat surprising, considering that the whole PC/XT that this model claims to be compatible with could probably be implemented on a single COB like what happened to the NES.<p>Also amusing is that the keyboard has a Windows key.
What they originally looked like: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Portable</a>
Does it run 8088 MPH?<p><a href="https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=65371" rel="nofollow">https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=65371</a><p>Since it is presumably real hardware, it should, but it isn't a CRT, so the NTSC color bleeding trick to get extra colors may not work.
This is really cool but I would have targeted a 286 or 386 with EGA or VGA, not 8088 with CGA. The display used can do a lot more than that anyway and the 386 actually came in a smaller package.
I had an Ambra 486sx (IBM line) laptop that was so small and great. Seemed so ahead of its time, a netbook before it became a category. Google "Ambra laptop" shows a picture of an SN8660C which looks like what I had. Played Doom just fine on it. Even had the external dock that took PC/XT/AT expansion cards.<p>Just now I thought 8MB is still enough to be useful, then I checked myself MB not GB.
Man, I would kill for an out-of-the-box machine that's a tiny bit faster, with a bit more RAM, and has full Voodoo 2 support.<p>I know pcem can do a pretty decent job with voodoo these days, bit would be nice to have something that Just Works so I could play Messiah and Sinistar Unleashed in their full glory again.
Imo its a nice laptop for writers that can run a basic but capable text editor with very little other things to distract you from writing.<p>Just look how expensive the fancy alternatives are:<p><a href="https://getfreewrite.com/products/freewrite-traveler" rel="nofollow">https://getfreewrite.com/products/freewrite-traveler</a>
For me, this is the new Raspberry.<p>This machine could be useful especially for testing. While emulators have their merits, usually competitions use real hardware.<p>I am into the C64 and Amiga demo scene, and did some stuff on PC DOS during the 90th. Testing becomes more and more important.
I need similar but with at least 386, VGA and a soundcard. For to use this gem: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastTracker_2" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FastTracker_2</a>
Why so small? 24cm width wtf? Why not a full sized laptop? Screen will be basically invisible, size of a typical smartphone screen.
Also 16:9 screen ratio will definitely work poorly with almost all nontrivial DOS apps.
I asked yesterday: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35993044#35993847" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35993044#35993847</a><p>And this arrives today. Going to buy one.
Why can't they make the same thing but as a phone?<p>I'm desperate to have a cheap, open, frugal device that I can program easily that fit into my pocket.<p>I'm not willing to use Android studio just to make a simple app, or godot, or JavaScript or nodejs.<p>It's 2023 and Carmack is still right, there are way too many layers of crap, we just cannot use our phone like we want. It's awful.<p>It's such a paradox, smartphones are amazingly fast... But it's impossible to find something open and slow. Capitalism makes this impossible.
That would be interesting but MS-DOS? Absolutely not.<p>I'm having much more fun tinkering in Linux on a 150 EUR Chinese laptop with a fairly anemic CPU.<p>If there's an itch for retro computing I'll just use an emulator.<p>The only thing I'd probably enjoy using old tech for would be stochastic super-optimization of programs i.e. to find the very best combination of machine code that executes a certain algorithm maximally fast or with minimum memory.