The first battery-powered Sparc-based notebook computer is currently in the works and should be available in volume by October, brought to market by Cambridge, UK-based Tadpole Technology Plc, which has joined the ranks of Sun Microsystems-compatible builders. The product, which will vie with RDI Computer Corp’s heavier, more expensive Sparc+MS-DOS+Mac laptop and its co-marketing arrangement with Sun, is the British Unix pioneer’s first foray into Sparc systems. Tadpole’s S1 design, which was developed at its Cambridge headquarters, uses a 25MHz LSI Logic Corp Sparc chip encased in a 8.6 by 11.8 form factor and weighs 5.5 lbs including a standard built-in 2,400bps modem – though only on the models for the US market. Tadpole claims the thing, priced at $6,000, will deliver 18 MIPS. A standard configuration will include 8Mb to 32Mb RAM, a 120Mb hard drive – 200Mb by early next year – a 1.44Mb 3.5 floppy, a backlit mono VGA screen putting up 640 by 480 pixels and notebook-style keyboard complete with built-in tracker ball, and Ethernet interface. Battery life is typically four hours in one stint and the thing automatically saves everything in a power-down situation – you also don’t have to reboot the operating system to recover. SunOS is bundled and preloaded – unless you ask for Unix System V.4 and optional MS-DOS emulation is provided by Insignia Solutions’ SoftPC technology. The company’s US arm plans to sell it direct through its offices in Austin, Texas and Silicon Valley. It could start appearing in July and will come from England, but if the product proves viable Tadpole could start manufacturing in Texas. The initial model is dubbed the S1 – SparcBook, subject to approval. Volumes projected for the SparcBook in 1992 total 45,000 units – 15,000 each in the US, Europe and Japan. There are at least two other family members planned above this one which will use more powerful Sparc chips. The company says the machine will run X Window and Sun 1,152 by 900 pixel applications without modification – it will have a connector for an external video monitor. It has been some time since Tadpole, which is doing board design using Motorola’s 88000 and Intel’s 80860 and 80960 RISCs, has come out with a complete system, and it has never done a portable.
