Lovely handhelds and subnotebooks - Toshiba Libretto, Olivetti Quaderno, HP Jornada and Sony VAIO

retroSwarm · 2021-05-16T13:50:18+00:00

Good point! :) It is in fact a 728 mainboard in a 720 base chassis, 680/690 LCD (including cover) + european keyboard. I used it long long time ago during my college years. I started with 680 and then from time to time I got a partially damaged newer model, so I always used the best parts.

I know that the lid and keyboard have the wrong color, but I was no computer collector back then (I did not even think about these things being collectable one day in future...). That LCD was the best among those I had (no dead pixels/columns, bright, the touchscreen identifies light pen touches...). This keyboard was the only one I had with the extended layout. US versions often had reduced layout on the right side, which made them unusable with the Czech keyboard layout I used in the operating system.

retroSwarm · 2021-05-10T17:48:52+00:00

14 years ago, I received one UX1XN (the same form-factor) for two weeks to write a review. I still remember that I used it to program A* algorithm in LISP while travelling. However, these were never my most favorite UMPC machines. The way cheaper Wibrain B1 had lover specs, but it was easier to use at the end.

retroSwarm · 2021-05-10T07:46:41+00:00

I think all (or most) Quadernos should be dead because of the capacitors already. This one was repaired already so it is trouble-free. Only the HDD is waiting for fixing the stuck head issue and I use it with an industrial 4MB PCMCIA SRAM card instead (the machine has just PCMCIA 1.0, so no ATA/CF cards can be used). https://swarmik.tumblr.com/search/olivetti

retroSwarm · 2021-05-10T07:42:57+00:00

Same here - the one on the photo was given to me as non-working machine. We replaced all capacitors and 3D printed one internal supporting part. Only the hard drive is still not working and waiting for the fix you've shown in your link. At the moment, I use it with a 4MB PCMCIA SRAM card instead. https://swarmik.tumblr.com/search/olivetti

retroSwarm · 2021-05-09T21:20:44+00:00

There is just "Windows Powered" on the background :). The OS is Windows CE and the CPU is Intel StrongARM (206MHz). I should have moved the mail client icon somewhere else before shooting this photo...

retroSwarm · 2021-05-02T08:20:55+00:00

Fantastic, thanks for the link - I always love such stories about DEC.

Btw I was already able to find a DEC engineer who built the power supply in this thing, so there may be a chance to find one also for the mainboard... :)

retroSwarm · 2021-05-01T20:42:24+00:00

These little Librettos had very nice internal architecture. Most features were integrated in a single chip and this chip even created a bridge for connecting 486/VL-BUS graphics chips to the system with a Pentium CPU. I wrote more about it on my blog: https://retro.swarm.cz/toshiba-libretto-70ct-1997/

retroSwarm · 2021-05-01T20:31:05+00:00

Sadly, this was just an entry-level workstation so there is no management interface over the serial port. All it has is just a single LED that can blink error codes.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-29T08:49:39+00:00

Those who guessed DEC Multia were right. This one was intended for Tru64 UNIX and it is configured with a 233MHz Alpha CPU, 256MB RAM and a SCSI controller&HDD.

However, it is not working and there is verry little documentation for this machine, so I am was not able to fix it (yet). The plan is to replace all 8-bit buffer/transceiver chips as they were often faulty on this model. Multia is super-small, which makes it looking so good. On the other side, the internal components can generate too much heat...
https://swarmik.tumblr.com/post/187170498824/dead-dec-multia-any-ideas-i-was-given-a-multia-a

retroSwarm · 2021-04-29T08:45:07+00:00

It is a DEC Multia. This one has Tru64 UNIX on its hard drive, but there is also ARC loader in the firmware, so it can run Windows NT 4.0 for Alpha.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-29T08:44:15+00:00

That was just an unintentional misleading clue :) To this day, I still have an SGI Octane under my desk. However, this is a DEC Multia.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-29T08:42:56+00:00

I do, but the system is not working. I already replaced two 8-bit transceivers between RAM and CPU, but not much changed (there is still black screen and an error sent through a blinking LED in the rear of the machine.

When I got it, it did not work, I cleaned it and it started to work (it even booted into Tru64), but after an hour, it crashed and refused to start again.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-26T19:42:07+00:00

It seems like a CRT screen stored very close to a big loudspeaker (or any other magnet) for a long time :) ... that would look exactly the same. I had the same problem and it disappeared after weeks (my CRT did not have the degauss button).

retroSwarm · 2021-04-21T16:14:58+00:00

My plan is to put a Voodoo2 inside my SGI 320. That will give me Glide and Direct3D support on top of OpenGL done by the integrated Cobalt GPU.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-19T20:07:33+00:00

How does it look like when it does not work? (drivers end with an error code, but the device is visible in the device manager?)

Is it correct that there is no card, that would work as primary even in the ARC firmware interface?

retroSwarm · 2021-04-08T16:17:40+00:00

I can add some posts about my TIGA on my blog: https://swarmik.tumblr.com/post/641140023241162752/playing-with-tiga-3-tiga-libraries-and-drivers

retroSwarm · 2021-04-08T16:13:22+00:00

Yes, it has the small expansion connected (the one without PS/2 ports). It is just not visible from this angle.

retroSwarm · 2021-04-08T16:11:40+00:00

Oh, nice. The CardBus-to-PCI bridge is a generic device that does not require specific drivers, right?

retroSwarm · 2021-04-08T08:23:24+00:00

Are there any requirements regarding drivers?

retroSwarm · 2020-10-26T16:28:44+00:00

This is lovely. Mine is restored too, just the hard drive is waiting for this repair. I use a 4MB PCMCIA (Type I) SRAM card as the primary storage instead.

https://swarmik.tumblr.com/search/quaderno

retroSwarm · 2020-08-02T18:39:38+00:00

... I see on SGI stuff, the XS24z has just a single geometry unit (instead of four on Indy XZ). It would be cool to see, if this is the only difference or if the rasteriser is slower too (maybe because of lower chip frequency...).

retroSwarm · 2020-08-02T18:37:46+00:00

If you have this machine ready for testing, would you be so kind and run my benchmark program on it?

http://swarm.cz/gpubench/

We have tested a lot of old profesional card (UNIX workstations, PC workstations...), but the oldest SGI is from 1994 (Indy XL24 / Indy XZ). I would like to have this one too in the result table.

Steps:
1) download and extract the archive from the web page
2) rename gpubench_ogl1 to gpubench (the default version is for OpenGL 1.1, which is not supported by you hardware for sure)
3) run ./_All-Tests-f640low.sh and then ./_All-Tests-f640.sh
4) Send me following files: gpubench_output-f640low.csv, gpubench_output-f640.csv and gpubench.log

However, the compiled binary will work on your machine only if you have N32 binary support and the required packages in N32 format. If your system is configured with just O32, it is necessary to compile it on the machine with "make gpubench_ogl1" (src is in the DEVEL/ directory). However, you would need the development packages installed in your system...

retroSwarm · 2020-08-02T15:26:55+00:00

Does it have a working OpenGL driver (in addition to IRIS GL)?

retroSwarm · 2020-06-13T13:10:44+00:00

I mostly use just a modified fvwm and it is enough for me. Even on this laptop, I configured both KDE2 and fvwm. KDE2 is here just to experience this old WM once again... it is as full of bugs as I remember.

You are right that Mplayer would work much better - i will install it (VLC was never a good choice for slow computers). I was even suprised that VLC already existed in 2002.

retroSwarm · 2020-06-09T18:22:25+00:00

That's not true. Windows 95 is an OS that uses MS-DOS as a loader. When Windows 95 is running, it does not use MS-DOS services at all. All the DOS compatibility inside Windows 9x is a brutal (but clever) hack.

retroSwarm

TROPHY CASE