Atari Portfolio: Terminator 2 laptop

The first IBM PC compatible Atari Portfolio handheld computer was released in 1989 by Atari Inc. and made a lot of noise. In addition to the fact that the Atari Portfolio had impressive characteristics for those times, it weighed a little more than 450 g and fit in the palm of your hand.

It is also familiar to film fans: it was Atari Portfolio used by John Connor in the movie Terminator 2. Judgment Day (1991).

(Total 11 photos)

1. With his help, a smart teenager cracked the ATM PIN code and the access code to the laboratory.

2. It is difficult to say whether this was a cinematic exaggeration or the PIN code protection system was so unreliable almost a quarter of a century ago, but the hack looked impressive.

3. What was the Atari Portfolio?

Its dimensions were extremely small: only 20 by 10 centimeters and only 2.8 centimeters thick. The technological miracle of 25 years ago weighed 454 g.

4. Today, the Atari Portfolio's 240×64 pixel monochrome screen looks frivolous, but at that time it was quite enough.

5. One of the key features of the Atari Portfolio is the full-size QWERTY keyboard.

6. What could the Atari Portfolio do? Adjusted for age, a lot. This is what the text editor looked like. For those who first got acquainted with personal computers already in the days of Microsoft Word, it will be hard to believe that it was also convenient to type texts in this way.

7. The prototype of Microsoft Excel - spreadsheets.

8. The memory size of the Atari Portfolio was extremely small: only 256 KB. It could be expanded with memory cards.

9. And here is the card reader.

10. A printer could be connected to the Atari Portfolio via an expansion slot.

11. For those who forgot or did not know: this is how the 5.25-inch floppy disks with software and documentation looked like.

Atari Portfolio Specifications:

Processor: Intel 80C88 4.9152 MHz RAM: 128 KB ROM: 256 KB

Operating system: DIP DOS 2.11. Screen: Monochrome liquid crystal with a resolution of 240 × 64 pixels.

Expansion slot: Additional modules LPT, COM, MIDI. Power supply: 3 AA batteries or power supply. Dimensions and weight: 200 × 100 × 28 mm, 454 g. Year of manufacture: 1989.