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MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
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 LTE Lite 4/33C | |
| Developer | Compaq |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer |
|
Product family | LTE |
| Type | Laptop (notebook) |
| Generation | Second |
| Released | January 27, 1992[1] |
| Lifespan | 1992–1994 |
| CPU | |
| Predecessor | |
| Successor | LTE Elite |
The LTE Lite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1992 to 1994. The first entries in the series were Compaq's first computers after co-founder Rod Canion's ousting and Eckhard Pfeiffer's tenure as the new CEO. The notebooks were co-developed and manufactured by Compaq and Citizen Watch of Japan. They were a hot-seller for Compaq and spanned multiple models, with various processors and liquid-crystal display technologies.
The LTE Lite series was the second generation of LTE, a notebook family introduced three years earlier in 1989. The first two entries in the LTE Lite series, the LTE Lite/20 and the LTE Lite/25, were the first computers released under Eckhard Pfeiffer's tenure as CEO. Pfeiffer assumed the position on October 24, 1991; he replaced Compaq co-founder Rod Canion, who was ousted from the company a day after the company posted its first quarterly loss—$70.3 million—leading to Compaq's first ever round of layoffs.[1]
The LTE Lites improved the battery life and quality of its liquid-crystal display panels while reducing weight. The LTE Lite/20 and LTE Lite/25 introduced suspend and hibernation modes, as well as a BIOS password and a Kensington slot for added security.[1] Starting with the LTE Lite/25C and LTE Lite/25E, a trackball was built into the display housing on the right side, with the left- and right-click buttons on the reverse side of the housing.[2] An internal modem, 9600-baud, was optional.[1]
Manufacturing of the LTE Lites was initially performed at Compaq's plant in Houston, Texas. Compaq used Citizen Watch of Japan as manufacturer for its monochrome passive-matrix LCDs and as a second source for manufacturing of the entire systems.[2][3] Citizen later became its sole manufacturer.[4] Production of the LTE Lite was again moved from Citizen in Japan to Compaq's overseas plant in Singapore in 1994—Compaq citing wanting to fill vacant production lines in that plant, which also manufactured its Contura line of budget notebooks.[4] The hard disk drives meanwhile were manufactured by Conner Peripherals.[2]
The monochrome passive-matrix LCDs used in the LTE Lites were a co-development between Compaq and Citizen, who developed ways to reduce motion persistence ("ghosting") and crosstalk interference patterns ("bleeding") common in their super-twisted nematic displays.[3] The monochrome active-matrix LCDs used in the Lite/25E and Lite 4/25E were manufactured by Hosiden. These were the same LCDs used by Apple in some entries of their PowerBook 100 series.[5] Compaq were the only notebook manufacturer besides Apple to make use of active-matrix monochrome LCDs.[6][7]
The LTE Lite/20 and LTE Lite/25 (including all submodels) used Intel's low-powered, portable-specific 80386SL processor.[8][9][7][10] Compaq became the first laptop to feature Intel's later portable-specific 80486SL with the announcement of the LTE Lite 4/25 in November 1992.[11]
Reviewing the LTE Lite/25 and LTE Lite/20, Rick Ayre of PC Magazine called the two laptops "state-of-the-art" and high-priced, with a good display and keyboard but with compromised battery life compared to their predecessor, the LTE 386s/20.[8] The LTE Lites were the top-performing 386 laptops in terms of graphics performance and among the top five of 386 laptops in terms of rendering graphics within Windows.[12] The magazine also rated it among the fastest in its processor class in terms of memory speed and data processing but found its hard disk performance mediocre.[8] Mitt Jones, also of PC Magazine, called the battery life "somewhat lackluster" but praised the versatility of the user-definable power consumption modes and found the display bright and sharp with minimal ghosting.[3]
Michael Caton of PC Week, reviewing the LTE Lite/25, praised its battery life, case design, ease of use, and keyboard layout. PC Week's test lab compared it to Zenith Data Systems' MastersPort 386Le and found that the LTE Lite won out over the MastersPort under a stress test load: 3 hours compared to 2 hours and 11 minutes. Caton wrote that the power consumption modes were easy to configure. Similarly, the keyboard's hotkey functions allowed him to perform functions like disabling the external monitor or setting the speaker volume more easily compared to contemporaneous laptops, which required the user exit out to DOS and run a function utility. Caton called the case design "sturdy ... typical of Compaq notebooks" and the keyboard "well laid out".[13] Caton found reservation with the keyboard's switches, which he deemed soft, and, the passive-matrix display, which exhibited ghosting most noticeably under Windows.[13]
Andreas Uiterwuk and Siobhan Nash of InfoWorld, reviewing the LTE Lite/25C, rated the active-matrix color LCD well, with brilliant colors and a wide viewing angle, that exhibited no crosstalk interference patterns. The reviewers found the US$4,999 selling price "hefty" and found that it performed 9 percent slower than its monochrome counterpart but on par with its competitor in the active-matrix color notebook arena, NEC's UltraLite SL/25C.[9] Nash and Earl Angus of the same publication, reviewing the LTE Lite/25E, called the laptop's $2,917 selling price "a pretty good deal" with its active-matrix monochrome display and equivalent processor to the LTE Lite/25C. Like Caton the reviewers found the keyboard too soft, the key travel too shallow, but they were impressed with its display, which exhibited "little bleeding".[7]
Larry Blasko of the St. Petersburg Times, reviewing the LTE Lite 4/25E, found its relatively high price justified by its processing power, display, and keyboard and called the laptop overall a "first-rate job".[10] In particular, Blasko found that the monochrome, active-matrix panel rendered "nice, crisp text and graphics" and that the keyboard had a "crisp touch" that held up under his heavy typing style.[10] Blasko's unit scored 53.4 on the Norton index, meaning that it was over 50 times faster than a PC XT and 1.5 times faster than a 33-MHz Compaq Deskpro 386, which had a rating of 34.7. Blasko wrote that the LTE Lite was snappy running Windows 3.1.[10]
The LTE Lite series proved very successful for Compaq, accounting for half of their entire notebook sales in 1993 alone.[14] By the end of the year, it had become Compaq's flagship mobile computer, overtaking sales of their earlier luggable portables.[15] Between 1992 and 1993, Citizen had manufactured between 20,000 and 25,000 LTE Lite units each month.[4] The LTE Lite series was replaced by the LTE Elite series in March 1994. The LTE Elite series increased the memory, processors, and networking capabilities and moved the AC adapter to within the notebooks' chassis, eliminating the need for external bricks.[14]
| Model | Release date | Processor | Clock speed (MHz) |
LCD technology | LCD size (in.) |
LCD resolution |
Stock memory (max., in MB) |
External cache (KB) |
HDD (MB) |
Internal trackball |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LTE Lite/20 Model 40 | January 1992 | Intel 386SL | 20 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 2 (18) | 16 | 40 | No[16] |
| LTE Lite/20 Model 60 | January 1992 | Intel 386SL | 20 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 2 (18) | 16 | 60 | No[16] |
| LTE Lite/25 Model 60 | January 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 2 (18) | 16 | 60 | No[16] |
| LTE Lite/25 Model 84 | January 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 2 (18) | 16 | 84 | No[16] |
| LTE Lite/25 Model 120 | January 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 2 (18) | 16 | 120 | No[16] |
| LTE Lite/25C Model 84 | June 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 64 | 84 | Yes[17] |
| LTE Lite/25C Model 120 | June 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 64 | 120 | Yes[17] |
| LTE Lite/25E Model 84 | November 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Active-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 64 | 84 | Yes[18] |
| LTE Lite/25E Model 120 | November 1992 | Intel 386SL | 25 | Active-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 64 | 120 | Yes[18] |
| LTE Lite 4/25C Model 120 | November 1992 | Intel 486SL | 25 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 120 | Yes[18] |
| LTE Lite 4/25C Model 209 | November 1992 | Intel 486SL | 25 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 209 | Yes[18] |
| LTE Lite 4/25 Model 120 | May 1993 | Intel 486SL | 25 | Passive-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 120 | Yes[19] |
| LTE Lite 4/25E Model 120 | May 1993 | Intel 486SL | 25 | Active-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 120 | Yes[19] |
| LTE Lite 4/25E Model 209 | May 1993 | Intel 486SL | 25 | Active-matrix monochrome | 9.5 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 209 | Yes[19] |
| LTE Lite 4/33C Model 120 | May 1993 | Intel 486SL | 33 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 120 | Yes[19] |
| LTE Lite 4/33C Model 209 | May 1993 | Intel 486SL | 33 | Active-matrix color | 8.4 | 640×480 | 4 (20) | 8 | 209 | Yes[19] |
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Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The LTE is a line of notebook-sized laptops manufactured by Compaq Computer Corporation, introduced in 1989 and discontinued in 1997. It was the first notebook computer sold by Compaq and the first commercially successful notebook that was compatible with the IBM PC. Development of the LTE line began in 1986; the company conceived it as their first attempt at a truly lightweight portable computer, aiming to replace their Portable and SLT lines. The first two models in the LTE line—the LTE and LTE/286—competed with other notebook computers such as NEC's UltraLite and Zenith's MinisPort. Whereas the UltraLite and MinisPort failed to gain much uptake due to their novel but nonstandard data storage technologies, the LTE succeeded on account of its use of the conventional 3.5-inch floppy drive and spinning hard drive, allowing users to transfer data to and from their desktop computers without any hassle. As well, Compaq began offering docking stations with the release of the LTE/386s in 1990, providing performance comparable to then-current desktop machines. The first LTEs received glowing praise among technology reviewers, who saw it as a revolution in mobile computing. It was a direct influence on both Apple and IBM for the development of their own notebook computers. The first generation of LTE gave way to succeeding lines, including the LTE Lite in 1992, the LTE Elite in 1994, and the LTE 5000 series in 1995, all of which received mostly positive reviews. Compaq sold over two million units across the LTE's lifespan. They succeeded it with the Armada line in 1997.
The LTE Lite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1992 to 1994. The first entries in the series were Compaq's first computers after co-founder Rod Canion's ousting and Eckhard Pfeiffer's tenure as the new CEO. The notebooks were co-developed and manufactured by Compaq and Citizen Watch of Japan. They were a hot-seller for Compaq and spanned multiple models, with various processors and liquid-crystal display technologies.
The LTE Elite was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1994 to 1996. All laptops in the LTE Elite range sported Intel's i486 processors, from the 40 MHz DX2 to the 75 MHz DX4. The LTE Elite was the first notebook-sized laptop to house the AC adapter inside the case itself, eliminating the need to carry an external power brick. The LTE Elite line was replaced by the LTE 5000 series in 1995. Compaq ceased manufacturing the LTE Elite line in March 1996. Due to several recalls and a delayed rollout of the machines, the LTE Elite was overall a sales disappointment for Compaq, with rival Toshiba overtaking them as the top laptop maker in the United States in 1994 and 1995.
The LTE 5000 series was a series of notebook-sized laptops under the LTE line manufactured by Compaq from 1995 to 1997. The LTE 5000 series was Compaq's first laptop with Pentium processors from Intel. The line of computers were co-developed between Compaq and Inventec of Taiwan and were manufactured entirely by Inventec overseas. The LTE 5000 series was the last generation in the LTE line, Compaq replacing it with the Armada line in 1997.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →Mae Jemison, aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1992.
