Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
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
 | This article needs more citations. (April 2023) |
 | |
| Manufacturer | Compaq Computer Corporation, United States |
|---|---|
| Type | Portable computer |
| Released | October 1987[1] |
Introductory price | US$7,999 (equivalent to $22,700 in 2025) |
| MS-DOS 3.3, upgradable to 6.1. Also supports Windows 3.1. | |
| CPU | Intel 80386 @ 20 MHz, Intel 80387 (FPU) option |
| Memory | 1–10 MB RAM[1] |
| Storage | 1.2 MB 5¼-inch floppy 40 or 100 MB hard disk drive |
| Display | 10" amber gas-plasma display |
| Graphics | 640 × 400 resolution CGA, 80/40 × 25 text |
| Sound | PIT using a mini speaker |
| Connectivity | CGA, serial, parallel, PCMCIA, ISA expansion bus[1] |
| Dimensions | 41 (width) × 19.2 (depth) × 24.8 (height) cm (16.1 × 7.5 × 9.7 inches) |
| Weight | 11 kg (24 lb) |
| Predecessor | Compaq Portable III |
| Successor | Compaq Portable 486 |
The Compaq Portable 386 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987.[1] It was equipped with a 20 MHz Intel 80386 CPU, 1 MB RAM, 16 KB ROM, 1.2 MB 5¼-inch floppy, 40 or 100 MB hard disk drive, priced at US$7,999 or 9,999 respectively,[1][2] and a 10" amber gas-plasma display.[1]
Early versions of the Compaq Portable 386 were sold with the Compaq Portable III case and badges. A differing screen bezel stating "386/20" was the only externally visible change.
Network General resold a customized version of the Compaq Portable 386 as the "Sniffer" Network Analyzer.[3]
The Portable 386 got its name due to the socketed Intel 386DX CPU with 20 MHz. There is also an additional socket for a 20 MHz 387 FPU option, which was not included in the basic configuration of the Portable. Since the whole system bus runs with CPU frequency, there is no way to improve the CPU performance by installing a 386DX CPU with more than 20 MHz other than the rare Cyrix 486DRx2 20/40 which has a multiplicator of 2 for the frequency while being still pinout compatible with the 386 socket.
The mainboard can take up to four proprietary 512KB SIMMs which were called SC-RAM in the Portable manual. Additionally, there was an expansion slot inside the Portable which allowed to expand the memory by another 8MB alongside the 2MB on the mainboard by:
Installing the so-called 32bit Memory-/Modem board expansion offers a socket for another expansion card which has 4MB (8×512 KB 80 ns) of memory and another expansion socket installed on which the user can install a 3rd expansion card with another 4MB (again 8×512 KB 80 ns) of RAM. These RAM expansion cards were available through Compaq or third-party manufacturers, such as Kingston Technology.[4]
The graphics card can be configured between CGA and MDA emulation mode whereas the CGA mode is mandatory for using Microsoft Windows' Compaq Plasma Driver and graphic capabilities in general. The internal CGA graphics card is able to display a resolution up to 640x400 pixels with a color depth of 2 bits (monochrome), which was first seen in the AT&T 6300 built by Olivetti, surpassing the original IBM standard by 200 pixels in height while remaining fully CGA compatible elsewhere.
The internal gas plasma display is able to display 640x400 pixels with up to 16 shades of gray and is connected to the graphics card via a proprietary connector. Users can install a better graphics card via the Compaq Expansion Unit (See below), but the factory-installed monitor was unable to take advantage of it.
The Portable offers two drive bays for 5.25" half-height drives where one is reserved for the hard disk and the other one for the internal floppy disk drive. Compaq originally offered a 40MB and 100MB hard disk option. Quite common back in the days, the BIOS of the Compaq only offers to select preconfigured hard disk configurations like Type 17 for 40MB or 42 for 504MB. There is no detailed information about the underlying CHS configuration of these types, but some basic information on the drive numbers and their specs is available (See table). The device suffers from the widespread CHS barrier, not allowing hard disk drives greater than 504MB.
COMPAQ PORTABLE 386 HARD DRIVE TYPES
Type Cyl. Head Sect. Write Land
p-comp Zone
------------------------------------------
1 306 4 17 128 305
2 615 4 17 128 638
3 615 6 17 128 615
4 1024 8 17 512 1023
5 940 6 17 512 939
6 697 5 17 128 696
7 462 8 17 256 511
8 925 5 17 128 924
9 900 15 17 -1 899
10 980 5 17 -1 980
11 925 7 17 128 924
12 925 9 17 128 924
13 612 8 17 256 611
14 980 4 17 128 980
15—reserved—16 612 4 17 0 612
17 980 5 17 128 980
18 966 6 17 128 966
19 1023 8 17 -1 1023
20 733 5 17 256 732
21 733 7 17 256 732
22 805 6 17 -1 805
23 924 8 17 -1 924
24 966 14 17 -1 966
25 966 16 17 -1 966
26 1023 14 17 -1 1023
27 966 10 17 -1 966
28 748 16 17 -1 748
29 805 6 26 -1 805
30 615 4 25 128 615
31 615 8 25 128 615
32 905 9 25 128 905
33 748 8 34 -1 748
34 966 7 34 -1 966
35 966 8 34 -1 966
36 966 9 34 -1 966
37 966 5 34 -1 966
38 611 16 63 -1 611
39 1023 11 33 -1 1023
40 1023 15 34 -1 1023
41 1023 15 33 -1 1023
42 1023 16 63 -1 1023
43 805 4 26 -1 805
44 805 2 26 -1 805
45 748 8 33 -1 748
46 748 6 33 -1 748
47 966 5 25 128 966
In its basic configuration, Compaq offered only a single 5.25" 1.2MB floppy disk drive aside of the 40MB hard disk drive, but there was also a cheaper option for a secondary 5.25" 360KB floppy disk drive instead of the hard disk. Giving the fact that the Portable uses a standard floppy drive connector and has built-in support in the BIOS, one can easily replace the 5.25" with a 3.5" 1.44MB drive.[5]
In order to better position the Portable as a professional office computer, Compaq also offered multiple external expansion which can be installed on the back of the Portable while the device is turned off.
Compaq offered multiple expansion cards for the Portable 386, which can be installed inside the main housing. Similar to the external expansions, these internal expansion cards cannot be exchanged while the device is turned on.
The BIOS setup utility is not preinstalled in an EPROM chip, but comes on a single floppy disk. If needed, an archived disk image can found at archive.org/details/CompaqPortableDiagnosticDisk
Compaq bundled Compaq DOS in version 3.31 with the Portable 386, a variant of MS-DOS 3.2 which already offered support for FAT16 and hard disk partitions with more than 32 MB. A Windows 2.01 OEM version was also available which makes use of the 386 memory management. There was also a User Programs disk bundled with the Portable which offers tools for memory management and adapting the CPU speed (between 6, 8 and 20 MHz):
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Corporate aspects |
|  | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Hardware |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Software | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The Compaq Portable 386 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. It was equipped with a 20 MHz Intel 80386 CPU, 1 MB RAM, 16 KB ROM, 1.2 MB 5¼-inch floppy, 40 or 100 MB hard disk drive, priced at US$7,999 or 9,999 respectively, and a 10" amber gas-plasma display. Early versions of the Compaq Portable 386 were sold with the Compaq Portable III case and badges. A differing screen bezel stating "386/20" was the only externally visible change. Network General resold a customized version of the Compaq Portable 386 as the "Sniffer" Network Analyzer.
The Compaq Portable III (Model 2660) is a PC/AT-compatible computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1987. It was advertised as being much smaller and lighter than the previous portable x86-PCs; however it was still quite large by today's standards. Three models were announced at release. The Model 1 had a list price of $3999 USD and was equipped with a 12 MHz Intel 80286, 640 KB of RAM, 1.2 MB 5.25" floppy drive, and a 10" amber colored gas-plasma display. Other models included the Model 20 at $4999 USD which added a 20 MB hard disk, or $5799 for the Model 40 with the upgraded 40 MB hard disk. When Compaq launched its Portable III, the launch was timed to occur simultaneously in twelve countries around the world, in keeping with Compaq's showmanship style. The Portable III was designed to be the smallest, lightest and fastest 386 machine, since Compaq was under the pressure from Toshiba with its T1100 and T3100 and Zenith Data Systems with its Z-181. Compaq only had 286 motherboards ready for mass production, so the 386 version, the Compaq Portable 386, would follow about one year later. The design of the Portable III had been deeply modified over the earlier Compaq portable series of machines. It was half the size and its footprint occupied half the space of the first Compaq Portable. The most remarkable feature was its gas plasma display which lifted up and swiveled so that it could be placed in a good position for reading. It also has a proprietary graphics mode that allows it to run at true 640 x 400 mode. Windows 2.11 had a Compaq Portable display driver for 640 x 400 mode. The optional 80287 coprocessor ran at 8 MHz regardless of the speed of the 80286, and the 640 KB of RAM were made up of 100-ns 256K-bit chips. The Portable III lacked the internal expansion ports of previous Portables and desktop PCs of the time, but Compaq offered an optional external expansion unit (model 2662A), that provided two full length, 16-bit ISA add-in cards for $199. The external expansion unit was electrically connected to the computer by a 96-pin port. This unit was a more flexible option than the completely detached expansion units made for other portables. Because it gets its power from the computer via this port, it could be securely attached it to the Portable III, and carried as if it were part of the machine. More than one expansion unit could be configured for different needs, allowing it considerable versatility for its time. Power is supplied using a mains electricity outlet, it was not designed to run on batteries.
The Compaq Portable series was a series of portable computers that comprised Compaq Computer Corporation's first products. Initial entries in the series sported the "luggable" form factor; late entries were smaller and were termed "lunchbox computers". These computers measured approximately 16 inches (410 mm) deep, 8 inches (200 mm) tall, and approximately 20 inches (510 mm) wide. As the products evolved, laptops and notebooks were created offering a new level of portability that caused the market to explode. Some of the portables, such as the original Portable and the Portable II, had CRT monitors, while later the Portable III and the Portable 386) had flat, monochrome, usually amber, plasma displays. The portables came/could come with internal hard disk drives on 0.5" shock mount springs; diskette drives, usually 5-1⁄4" double- or quadruple-density drives; batteries; and/or a dual-ISA expansion chassis, about one full-drive-height wide. Note this was before the term "ISA" became a standard. The Compaq Portable 486 included mono and color LCD screens and were battery powered.
The Compaq Portable is an early portable computer which was one of the first IBM PC–compatible systems. It was Compaq Computer Corporation's first product, to be followed by others in the Compaq Portable series and later Deskpro series. It is not simply an 8088-CPU computer that runs a Microsoft DOS as a PC "work-alike", but contains a reverse-engineered BIOS and Compaq DOS compatible with IBM's PC DOS. The computer is also an early variation on the idea of an "all-in-one". The Compaq Portable was announced in November 1982 and first shipped in March 1983. It became available two years after the similar, but CP/M-based, Osborne 1 and Kaypro II. Columbia Data Products' MPC 1600 "Multi Personal Computer", the first IBM PC compatible system, had come out in June 1982.
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 →Madam C.J. Walker
