I love it. I mean laptops are billed as the tool for "productivity on the go", but this thing just screams "sod all that, I want to play some JetPac on the go".
I was going to ask how we got three quarters of the way through SPECtober without me noticing, but I guess you just invented it?
I love (‘love’?…), though, that when I searched for it, Google confidently told me all about it, and suggested some ways to celebrate and games to play, despite the fact that your comment was the only actual search result! It’s like it agrees it should be a thing.
Yeah, it's something I just made up, following on from the YouTube trend of SepTandy and later DOScember and Marchintosh. I just figure other platforms should get their own month as well: Mayframe, Amigust, Spectober (alternatively: DECtober), Februatari ST?
I get that this is a hack rather than an actual product but I'd have expected something more in line with 6 days of continuous gameplay with 4 AAA batteries.
The Gameboy lasted 30h. With all the improved processes and powering off the modern modules when not in use I think the computer part should draw very little current. The screen may require some compromises.
I keep hoping somebody makes a product similar to the TRS-80 Model 100 - a slab laptop that ran for 20 hours on 4 AA batteries. With 40 years of technology improvements, I'd hope that a similar machine could run for months or even years on those same batteries.
> I'd hope that a similar machine could run for months or even years on those same batteries.
Reducing power draw becomes increasingly harder as you go down the scale. And in use, it's either "sleep/idle" (not doing work) or "draw power" (however modest).
More likely / practical use for those 40y tech advances: similar runtime & power draw, but waaay more compute power (and RAM). Like 32-bit 100 MHz+ vs few-MHz 8-bitter. Oh and more beefy battery ofc.
A $1 microcontroller + a character LCD could get you there. Leaving software + physical construction.
> Reducing power draw becomes increasingly harder as you go down the scale.
Surely the state of the art is orders of magnitude better than in 1983? Or rather late 1970's because much of the computer was using tech that was already aging.
If it could run for a year off a pair of AA batteries that you can buy in literally any country in the world, who needs more battery power or weight? Or are you saying a cheap modern low-power CPU + ePaper display gets you there?
More compute and RAM comes for free, but it certainly isn't necessary. That exact machine with a USB-C port for network or external storage would still be useful today.
Sinclair had, it seems, a design tradition that oddly mirrors Apple's. Lots of brilliant prototypes, and I hope the Delete book, which is where I first saw this, hasn't exhausted the treasure trove.
Most clones I've seen don't look that great, but this one's nice. I noticed that the PCB has no ULA. I'm reading that it was impossible to procure in the USSR because of embargos so the designer, Sergey Zonov, reverse-engineered it and used 74xx ICs. That ..is an impressive feat. It has been replicated by Chris Smith, but by actually opening up a ULA and looking at the circuit. Doing this blindly is just awesome.
It really does look great. Unfortunately for me, grandpa’s one has a broken bottom part and died battery. I tried to repair it but I did not have enough tools not to burn the plate.
It would make sense with those Soviet homebrew OSs, like iS-DOS, that rendered 64 characters per line on the Speccy's 256x192 screen, and featured a file commander and a full software package.
29 comments
[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 63.8 ms ] threadHappy SPECtober everybody!
I was going to ask how we got three quarters of the way through SPECtober without me noticing, but I guess you just invented it?
I love (‘love’?…), though, that when I searched for it, Google confidently told me all about it, and suggested some ways to celebrate and games to play, despite the fact that your comment was the only actual search result! It’s like it agrees it should be a thing.
https://postimg.cc/VSRMCLPF
I get that this is a hack rather than an actual product but I'd have expected something more in line with 6 days of continuous gameplay with 4 AAA batteries.
2. The Gameboy screen was LCD not LED, with no backlight, and had a 2.5 inch diagonal compared to this laptop's 14 inch diagonal.
3. Also if you read the article you will see a technical limitation was that the screen had to be run at full brightness
Reducing power draw becomes increasingly harder as you go down the scale. And in use, it's either "sleep/idle" (not doing work) or "draw power" (however modest).
More likely / practical use for those 40y tech advances: similar runtime & power draw, but waaay more compute power (and RAM). Like 32-bit 100 MHz+ vs few-MHz 8-bitter. Oh and more beefy battery ofc.
A $1 microcontroller + a character LCD could get you there. Leaving software + physical construction.
Surely the state of the art is orders of magnitude better than in 1983? Or rather late 1970's because much of the computer was using tech that was already aging.
If it could run for a year off a pair of AA batteries that you can buy in literally any country in the world, who needs more battery power or weight? Or are you saying a cheap modern low-power CPU + ePaper display gets you there?
More compute and RAM comes for free, but it certainly isn't necessary. That exact machine with a USB-C port for network or external storage would still be useful today.
https://www.reddit.com/r/cassettefuturism/comments/1tnsb2u/s...
https://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=zesarux
.. incidentally, the Open Pandora runs a ton of great stuff:
https://repo.openpandora.org
https://www.flickr.com/photos/9574086@N02/albums
https://zxbyte.org/leningrad.htm (it's in Russian but I hope you have an auto translator in a browser)
Great post overall!
Looking at that chassis I'd like to retrofit a touchpad with 3 buttons on new standard laptops.