Tadpole Technology Plc’s plans for a Sparc-based notebook are progressing, and Microbytes Daily hears that the Cambridge, UK company is planning to launch the thing at the Comdex show in Las Vegas next month – alongside a prototype version of a colour model. Some of the specs have changed since April, and the Sparcbook 1 now weighs 6 lbs 14 oz including batteries and peripherals. It will come with the new SunSoft SunOS 5.0 operating system and include MS-DOS emulation, as well as a modem and Ethernet interface and will measure 11.8 by 8.5 by 1.9. Tadpole reckons that the Sparcbook will deliver 18 MIPS sustained performance at 25MHz using the Cypress Semiconductor Inc CY7C 601A-25UC Sparc integer unit and the CY7C-604A-25UC memory manager. The core system is designed on two conventional boards with surface-mounted components on both sides and comes with 8Mb or 32Mb, 85Mb or 120Mb disk and 1.44Mb floppy. It has a 640 by 480 64 greyscale LCD display, and for a mouse, uses an ingenious Force Sensitive Resistor key which responds to pressure and direction of the finger – press harder and the cursor moves faster. Tadpole interfaced the M-bus to AT-bus peripheral controllers, and stops the clock when it is not in use; pricing from $6,000 is likely.
