From uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!olivea!hal.com!decwrl!morrow.stanford.edu!jumpjibe.stanford.edu!beale Tue Aug 24 20:22:07 CDT 1993 Article: 8850 of comp.sys.palmtops Path: uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!olivea!hal.com!decwrl!morrow.stanford.edu!jumpjibe.stanford.edu!beale From: beale@jumpjibe.stanford.edu (John Beale) Newsgroups: comp.sys.palmtops Subject: Atari Portfolio information Date: 24 Aug 1993 22:08:22 GMT Organization: Stanford University Lines: 76 Distribution: world Message-ID: <25e3gm$g7u@morrow.stanford.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: jumpjibe.stanford.edu Summary: useful info and phone #s for Portfolio palmtop Keywords: Atari Portfolio FAQ I have noticed a few questions about the Atari Portfolio handheld in this newsgroup recently. Is there a FAQ on this machine? I'd like to see it if so... in the meantime I'll mention what I know. Note I only got my Portfolio at a swap meet two weeks ago, and I'm hardly an expert! If you know that any of this is wrong (quite possible), perhaps you could post a corrected version? Atari Portfolio (the original DOS palmtop (?)): ----------------------------------------------- Runs DOS, uses 3 AA batteries, fits in a pocket (barely, and not all of it), has QWERTY keyboard, 8x40 supertwist LCD, probably the cheapest DOS portable available today. Comes with 128k RAM onboard, older models had 64k I think? Plug-in cards (proprietary interface, before PCMCIA standard) available at 64 and 128k of battery-backed SRAM, also a 540k FLASH card available. Serial and parallel interfaces are optional plug-ins. You can even get a range of hard disks although if you need mass storage, maybe you want a notebook. Text editor, diary, calculator, and spreadsheet are built into the 256k ROM, no programming languages though. Representative prices are, I think, $250 retail new, and $100 swapmeet used. I got mine the latter way but had to pay the $79.95+tax retail for the serial interface, which is to my mind much bigger & heavier than it should be (about 1/4 the volume of the entire computer!) Main FTP archive for Portfolio programs is: "atari.archive.umich.edu" but you probably won't be able to access. Better to use the mirror site: "wuarchive.wustl.edu" in "mirrors/archive.umich.edu/atari/Portfolio" which contains the subdirectories (as of 8/24/93): May 28 08:01 0index You will of course note that none of this will Mar 24 06:18 Applications do you any good unless you have the serial Jul 22 14:39 Archivers interface because you need to download them. Mar 24 06:15 Bootstrap Mar 24 06:13 Demos Well, actually there are other options: you Mar 24 06:12 Games could use a modem connected directly to the Mar 24 06:09 Graphics Portfolio, transfer over a bidirectional Mar 24 06:05 Languages parallel port, or get a PC Card Drive board Aug 23 22:04 New for your PC that interfaces with the Portfolio's Mar 24 06:04 Sound memory cards directly. Jul 22 14:39 Support Jul 22 14:39 Telecomm Jul 22 14:39 Text Jul 22 14:39 Utilities ------------------------------------------- Atari Corp. runs a BBS with progs. for all their machines: 408-745-2196 To find dealers, you can call Atari Customer Relations (408) 744-0880 To get more technical info Atari Technical Support (408) 745-2004 or write to: ------------------------ Atari Computer Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1302 mark envelope "Portfolio Technical Assistance" (or whatever) (from "Accessories * Peripherals Bulletin for Portfolio" v2 n1 (c) 1992 Atari) ------------------------------------------------------- The dealers I know of are B+C Computer Vision Santa Clara, CA (408) 986-9960 (vendor, Portfolio + accessories) ATY Computer Oakland, CA (510) 482-3775 (vendor, portfolio stuff (?)) ------------------------------------------------------ No endorsement of anybody or anything is made by anybody.... I don't have any connection to Atari or the vendors listed. I did get a serial interface from B+C Computer Vision, and it works. (True, the instructions were all in German, but they promised to send me the English version of the manual RSN.) John Beale (beale@jumpjibe.stanford.edu)