Toshiba Corp has been dithering on when or whether to launch the T5100 80386-based portable computer in the US – it was launched here three weeks ago (CI No 759), but the intelligence that Compaq would almost certainly announce a 386 portable tomorrow was enough to make its mind up, and it announced the box in the US on Friday. It will assemble the machine at its new $35m plant in Irvine, California, but US ships will not start until Janu-ary 1988. The machine comes with 16MHz 80386 with 2Mb, 80387 slot, 40Mb hard disk, PS/2-compatible 1.44Mb 3.5 floppy, built-in EGA display system with a high-resolution gas plasma screen and EGA monitor port. The screen supports four grey scales and features 640 by 400 bit-mapped graphics. It weighs 15 lbs, and is 12.2 by 14.2 by 3.5 with an 82-key board; MS-DOS 3.2 and Lo-tus Metro are in the $6,500 price.
