RISC Laptops of the 90s
Technical computing in the 1990s was mostly done on RISC workstations with Unix operating systems and specialized applications. For mobile use cases, some of the popular RISC vendors built RISC Laptops for mobile Unix use in the 1990s.
Often based on contemporary Unix workstations, these RISC laptops were often marketed for government and military uses such as command, technical analysis and surveillance.
The RISC Laptop Archive consolidates information on these rare and diverse laptops of the wild 1990s. There are many other great resources on these RISC laptops, to which we link from the individual articles.
Updates on RISC Laptop entries and content are integrated on OpenPA and RSS feed.
RISC for the Road
System | CPU | Platform | Year | Original OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
RDI PrecisionBook 132 | PA-7300LC 132 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
RDI PrecisionBook 160 | PA-7300LC 160 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
RDI PrecisionBook 180 | PA-7300LC 180 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
SAIC Galaxy 1100 | PA-7100LC 80 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HP-UX |
SAIC Talon | PA-7100LC 80 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HP-UX |
Hitachi 3050RX/100C | Hitachi PA/50L 33 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HI-UX/WE2 |
IBM RS/6000 N40 | PowerPC 601 50 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1993 | AIX |
IBM Thinkpad 800 | PowerPC 603e 66 MHz | POWER/PReP | 199? | AIX |
IBM Thinkpad 820 | PowerPC 603e 100 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1995 | AIX |
IBM Thinkpad 850 | PowerPC 603e 100 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1995 | AIX |
RDI Thinkpad 860 | PowerPC 603e 166 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1996 | AIX, Windows NT, Solaris |
RDI PowerLite 50 | microSPARC 50 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris, SunOS |
RDI PowerLite 85 | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
RDI PowerLite 110 | microSPARC-II 110 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
RDI PowerLite 170 | TurboSPARC-II 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1997 | Solaris |
Sun SPARCstation Voyager | microSPARC-II 60 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris |
Tadpole SPARCbook | CY7C600 SPARC 25 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1992 | Solaris, SunOS |
Tadpole SPARCbook 2 | MB86903 SPARC 40 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1993 | Solaris, SunOS |
Tadpole SPARCbook 3 | microSPARC 50 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris, SunOS |
Tadpole SPARCbook 3XP | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
Tadpole SPARCbook 3GX | microSPARC-II 110 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1996 | Solaris, SunOS |
Tadpole SPARCbook 3TX | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1997 | Solaris |
Tadpole SPARCbook 3000 | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1998 | Solaris |
Tadpole SPARCbook 6500 | UltraSPARC-IIi 650 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | Solaris | |
RDI UltraBook 170 | UltraSPARC 167 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 1997 | Solaris |
RDI UltraBook 200 | UltraSPARC 200 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 1997 | Solaris |
RDI UltraBook IIi | UltraSPARC-IIi 400 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2000 | Solaris |
Tadpole SPARCLE | UltraSPARC IIe 500 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2003 | Solaris |
Tadpole Viper | UltraSPARC IIIi 1.2 GHz | Sun SPARC64 | Solaris | |
Tadpole VoyagerIIi | UltraSPARC IIi 400 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | Solaris | |
Tadpole ALPHAbook | Alpha 21066A 233 MHz | DEC Alpha | 1995 | OpenVMS |
Architectures
RISC laptops in the late 90s and early 2000s were mainly based on Sun SPARC, HP PA-RISC and IBM/Motorola PowerPC with DEC Alpha as an outlier. Will be extended.
Reviews
There were a few reviews of Unix and RISC laptops in the 90s, mainly testing and evaluating them as transportable workstations.
Will be extended.
IBM RS/6000 N40 (PowerPC):
- PowerPC Hits the Road, BYTE Magazine, July 1994 archive.org
RDI PowerLite (SPARC):
- SPARC Workstations to Go, BYTE Magazine, August 1994, archive.org
SPARCbook 1 and 2:
- SPARCs on the Road, BYTE Magazine, May 1992, archive.org
- Unix on a Notebook, BYTE Magazine, October 1993archive.org
SPARCbook 3:
- SPARC Workstations to Go, BYTE Magazine, August 1994, archive.org
- SparcBook 3XP, BYTE Magazine, June 1995, archive.org
Benchmarks
Comparison to SPEC benchmark data from other contemporary Unix workstations:
System | CPU | SPEC92 int | SPEC92 fp | SPEC95 int | SPEC95 fp |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tadpole SPARCbook 1 | CY7C600 SPARC 25 MHz | ~18 MIPS | |||
Tadpole SPARCbook 2 | CY6111 SPARC 40 MHz | 21* | 21* | ~30 MIPS | |
Hitachi 3050RX/100C | PA/50L 33 MHz | ~42 MIPS | |||
RDI PowerLite 50 | microSPARC 50 MHz | 26 | 21 | ||
SPARCbook 3 | microSPARC 50 MHz | 26 | 21 | ~59 MIPS | |
RS/6000 N40 | PowerPC 601 50 MHz | 41 | 51 | ||
Sun SPARCstation Voyager | microSPARC-II 60 MHz | 46 | 36 | ||
RDI PowerLite 85 | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | 64 | 54 | ||
SPARCbook 3XP | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | 64 | 54 | ||
SAIC Talon* | HP PA-7100LC 60 MHz | 67 | 85 | 2.08 | 2.66 |
RDI PowerLite 110 | microSPARC-II 110MHz | 77 | 65 | ||
SPARCbook 3GX | microSPARC-II 110 MHz | 78 | 65 | ~134 MIPS | |
RDI PowerLite 170 | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | 3.08 | 2.74 | ||
Tadpole ALPHAbook* | DEC 21066A 233 MHz | 94 | 110 | ||
SAIC Galaxy 1100 | HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz | 99 | 122 | 3.12 | 3.55 |
IBM ThinkPad 850* | PowerPC 603e 100 MHz | 120 | 105 | ||
SPARCbook 3000 | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | 143 | 119 | 3.50 | 3.00 |
SPARCbook 3TX | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | 3.50 | 3.00 | ||
IBM RS/6000 860 | PowerPC 603e 166 MHz | 3.94 | 2.71 | ||
RDI UltraBook 170 | UltraSPARC 166 MHz | ?265.3 | ?354.6 | 5.56 | 8.06 |
RDI PrecisionBook 132 | PA-7300LC 132 MHz | 6.49 | 6.54 | ||
UltraBook 200 | Sun UltraSPARC 200 MHz | 322.0 | 462.0 | 7.44 | 10.40 |
RDI PrecisionBook 160 | PA-7300LC 160 MHz | 7.78 | 7.39 | ||
RDI PrecisionBook 180 | PA-7300LC 180 MHz | 9.22 | 9.43 | ||
RDI UltraBook IIi | UltraSPARC IIi 400 MHz | 17.90 | 20.60 | ||
Comparisons | |||||
Siemens SCENIC 1000 | Pentium II 333MHz | 13.0 | 9.43 | ||
SGI O2 | MIPS R10000 196MHz | 10.1 | 8.77 | ||
Intel Alder | Pentium Pro 200MHz | 8.09 | 6.75 | ||
Sun Ultra 2 1170 | UltraSPARC 167MHz | 6.34 | 9.33 | ||
DEC Alphastation 255 | DEC Alpha 21064A 233MHz | 4.27 | 5.09 | ||
Siemens PCE-5S | Pentium 100MHz | 96 | 81 | 4.04 | 2.35 |
Sun SPARCstation 20/71 | SuperSPARC II 75MHz | 125 | 121 | 3.11 | 3.10 |
Intel | i486DX2 66 MHz | 32 | 16 |