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by Bill Degnan - 03/03/2010 13:46 |
![]() The Zenith minisPORT laptop computer c. 1990. This is the 2MB ZL-2 model. The ZL-1 came with 1MB. Click thumbnail for larger image.
The Zenith minisPORT is an otherwise standard 80c86 LCD display laptop which is best known because of its 2 inch disk drive. The Fuji 2 inch LT-1 diskette had a formatted capacity of approximately chkdsk displays 812K. Zenith sold an optional 720K external 3.5 drive. The internal 2 inch drive is not only smaller but it has more capacity (800+ Kb) than the 3.5 drive!
![]() The operating system is stored in ROM. The version is MS DOS 3.3 Plus.
This particular computer's internal battery started to smell after about an hour, so I powered off to avoid damaging it. The battery was holding a charge and could run without AC power. The carrying case had little 2 inch disk pockets, which I thought was a nice touch for the system. To copy files from this computer one had to use a program that came with the DOS to send files through the serial port. By 1990 the 3.5" disk was too entrenched in the market for the 2 in disk to establish itself, despite the smaller size and slightly higher capacity. More pictures Reply |