IBM PowerPC Laptops

RDI PowerLite 110
RS/6000 N40 © IBM 1994

IBM built a range of PowerPC-based RISC laptops in the mid-1990s for technical computing with its own AIX Unix. Designed as mobile workstations for early video conferencing, they were meant to augment powerful PowerPC desktops and RS/6000 Unix workstations.

These laptops had the body of a ThinkPad and the soul of a PowerPC for collaborative computing wherever you go. There were a few models – the early N40 (with Tadpole), the developer 800 and later, more popular 820, 850 and the last 860. Besides AIX Unix, these laptops ran Windows NT 3.5 and planned to support (1990s!) OS/2 Warp and Sun Solaris.

RS/6000 N40 PowerSeries 800 ThinkPad 820 ThinkPad 850 RS/6000 860
Model 7007 6020 6040, 7247 6042, 7249 7249
Introduced 1994 199? 1995 1995 1996
CPU PowerPC 601
50 MHz		 PowerPC 603
66 MHz		 PowerPC 603e
100 MHz		 PowerPC 603e
100 MHz		 PowerPC 603e
166 MHz
Cache 32 KB L1 32 KB L1
128? L2		 32 KB L1
256 KB L1		 32 KB L1
256 KB L1		 32 KB L1
256 KB L1
Design 32-bit RISC PowerPC PReP
RAM 16-64 MB 16-48 MB 16-48 MB 16-96 MB
Video G10 G10 GT20
Screen 10.4″ TFT 12.1″ TFT
Drives One SCSI drive, CD-ROM, external floppy
Expansion PCMCIA, ISA
I/O SCSI, PS/2, ISA, audio, VGA, video (some), serial, parallel
OS AIX AIX IBM AIX, Windows NT
Price $11,995 not sold $5,699-8,399 $6,699-9,399 $12,000

There were a few more sub-models released in 1996 with better standard configuration and screens: ThinkPad 821/822/823 (7247) and ThinkPad 851 (7249).

N40 was marketed as part of RS/6000 Unix workstations, 800 as part of the PowerPC Power Series, 820 and 850 as part of the ThinkPad line up and 860 again as part of RS/6000. IBM withdrew all of these PowerPC laptops pretty soon between 1997 and 1998, sometimes less than two years after entry.

IBM RS/6000 N40 IBM RS/6000 860 IBM RS/6000 850 IBM RS/6000 850
IBM RS/6000 N40 and 860 © IBM 1994-96; ThinkPad 850 ad from reddit and MCmicrocomputer

The competition to PowerPC ThinkPads for mobile Unix computing were other RISC Laptops of the 1990s: RDI PowerLite (SPARC) and others.

Technical details

IBM Power Series and ThinkPad 800s were IBM/Motorola PReP (PowerPC Reference Platform) computers, built by IBM into ThinkPad laptops. They were technically similar to desktop Power Series Unix computers. Chipset and devices used were:

Usage Device Type External Bus
Chipset IBM PowerPC Reference Platform
Chipset Motorola MPC105 Idaho memory controller
Chipset Intel 82378ZB PCI/ISA bridge
Storage NCR 53C810 8-bit single-ended SCSI-2 50-pin single-ended PCI
Media Native I/O Floppy controller propietary port ISA
Video G10 820, 850
GT20 860 		WD90C24A 1 MB VRAM
S3 Aurora 64V+		 VGA
VGA, video		 VLB
PCI?
Video V7310 820, 850 Motion Video Adapter video PCI
Camera 850 optional CCD camera
Cards RF5C366L PCMCIA controller two slots ISA
I/O Native I/O Serial and parallel I/O RS-232C DB9, Centronics
N40 8-pin mini-DIN, HDI-30		 ISA
I/O 80CC51SL PS/2 for keyboard/mouse one port
N40 two ports		 ISA
Audio CS4232 16-bit business audio microphone, headphone
N40, 850 + line in/out		 ISA
Network N40 LocalTalk
Ethernet
ISDN
Modem		 8-pin mini-DIN
AUI
RJ45
RJ11		 ISA

Expansion and I/O

There were few possibilities to expand IBM PowerPC laptops with devices:

Device Type Details
Memory Parity N40 two SIMM modules, FPM 70ns for up to 64 MB RAM
820 16 MB onboard and two DIMM modules for up to 48 MB RAM
850 16 MB onboard and two IC DRAM, 72-pin modules for up to 96 MB RAM
860 32 MB onboard and two IC DRAM modules for up to 96 MB RAM
Storage SCSI on 2.5″ SCSI-2 drive
Storage CD-ROM built-in SCSI-2, 2X
Media Floppy external 3.5″ Floppy for 1.44MB
Cards PCMCIA two type-I/II or one type-III
Cards ISA external ISA bus connector
Input PS/2 84, 85 or 89-key IBM keyboard with Trackpoint III
Output Screen 820, 850 10.4″ TFT 800×600 or 640×480, 8-bit
851 10.4″ TFT 800×600
860 12.1″ TFT 1024×768

IBM offered no docking or extension stations for these laptop but some had a external ISA port (unsure on that).

Battery was one NiMH with 50W AC adapter.

With the optional product Personal Conferencing for AIX, these PowerPC laptops were used for early video conferencing (mid-1990s!) – requirements were 14.4k or 28.8k modem, optional motion video adapter and optional video camera.

Operating systems

IBM PowerPC laptops were portable Unix workstations, shipped with mostly IBM AIX but planned with more support. They were supported in AIX until 4.2.1, and a planned Sun Solaris Unix (2.5.1).

Besides Unix operating systems, IBM PowerPC laptops supported Windows NT 3.51 (and up) and planned to support IBM OS/2 Warp when available.

RS/6000 N40 was supported in special AIX for N40 from version 3.2.5 with tailored N40-specific devices – X11 and support for special N40 devices (modem, SCSI, PCMCIA, TR).

Benchmarks

SPEC benchmark data and comparisons to contemporary laptops and workstations:

Based on old SPEC95 archives
Model CPU SPEC92 int SPEC92 fp SPEC95 int SPEC95 fp
IBM RS/6000 N40 PowerPC 601 50MHz 41.7 51
Reference (850) PowerPC 603e 100MHz 120 105
IBM RS/6000 860 PowerPC 603e 166MHz 3.94 2.71
Comparisons
Galaxy 1100 HP PA-7100LC 80 MHz 99.0 122.0 3.12 3.55
RDI PowerLite 110 Sun microSPARC-II 110 MHz 77.0 65.3

References

Specifications

Websites

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