The Tandy 1400 LT is the first

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few op ...

compatible

laptop A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

sold by Tandy Corporation. Introduced in November 1987, it had two 3.5 inch floppy drives and a flip-up monochrome LCD screen, powered by an internal battery.

Features

The 1400LT (catalog number 25-3500) had two 3.5 inch

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

ettes with a capacity of each. The processor was the

Intel 8088 The Intel 8088 ("''eighty-eighty-eight''", also called iAPX 88) microprocessor is a variant of the Intel 8086. Introduced on June 1, 1979, the 8088 has an eight-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers ...

–compatible

NEC V20 The NEC V20 is a microprocessor that was designed and produced by NEC. It is both pin compatible and object-code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture (ISA) similar to that of the Intel 80188 with some extensio ...

, with a

clock speed Clock rate or clock speed in computing typically refers to the frequency at which the clock generator of a processor can generate pulses used to synchronize the operations of its components. It is used as an indicator of the processor's ...

of 7.16 MHz or 4.77 MHZ for compatibility with

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the List of IBM Personal Computer models, IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible ''de facto'' standard. Released on ...

programs. The system came with of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

. A socket was provided for an optional 8087 numeric coprocessor. The 9" back-lit monochrome LCD screen had a resolution of pixels and was IBM CGA compatible, mapping colors to grayscale. Text modes supported included and . The computer came with a

parallel printer port In computing, a parallel port is a type of interface found on early computers (personal and otherwise) for connecting peripherals. The name refers to the way the data is sent; parallel ports send multiple bits of data at once (parallel c ...

, 9-pin

RS-232 In telecommunications, RS-232 or Recommended Standard 232 is a standard introduced in 1960 for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines signals connecting between a ''DTE'' (''data terminal equipment'') such as a compu ...

serial port, and a socket for an external color monitor and a

composite video Composite video, also known as CVBS (composite video baseband signal or color, video, blanking and sync), is an analog video format that combines image information—such as brightness (luminance), color (chrominance), and synchronization, int ...

output. The system also had a

DIN DIN or Din or din may refer to: People and language * Din (name), people with the name * Dīn, an Arabic word with three general senses: judgment, custom, and religion from which the name originates * Dinka language (ISO 639 code: din), spoken ...

socket to accept a

PC XT The IBM Personal Computer XT (model 5160, often shortened to PC/XT) is the second computer in the IBM Personal Computer line, released on March 8, 1983. Except for the addition of a built-in hard drive and extra expansion slots, it is very simi ...

-style external keyboard. Two internal slots allowed for installation of an optional internal 1200-

baud In telecommunications and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel. It is the unit for symbol rate or modulat ...

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or other devices. The system had an internal battery-backed

real-time clock A real-time clock (RTC) is an electronic device (most often in the form of an integrated circuit) that measures the passage of time. Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, server (computing), servers and embedded ...

. The system could operate from AC power with an external adapter, which also charged the internal battery. The system could operate for about four hours on the battery, which was replaceable by the user. The unit weighed about 13.5 lbs (5 kg) and was approximately when closed. At introduction, the computer list price was

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

1599. For interchange of data with desktop systems, Tandy later made available an external 5.25-inch diskette drive. Later revised designs were the 1400 FD, which was lighter, omitted the composite video port, and had an external floppy drive connector. The 1400 HD was similar to the FD but replaced one internal floppy drive with a 20 megabyte

hard drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating hard disk drive platter, pla ...

. All members of the 1400 family were dropped from Radio Shack catalogs after 1991.

Similar systems

The

clamshell design Clamshell design is a form factor commonly used in the design of electronic devices and other manufactured objects. It is inspired by the morphology of the clam. The form factor has been applied to handheld game consoles, mobile phones (wh ...

of the Tandy 1400 was similar to that of the earlier

Data General/One The Data General/One (DG-1) was a laptop introduced in September 1984 by Data General. It was the first battery-powered laptop on the market that was fully compatible with the IBM PC, featuring a full-sized LCD capable of displaying 80×25 text ...

and

IBM PC Convertible The IBM PC Convertible (model 5140) is a laptop computer made by IBM, first sold in April 1986. The Convertible was IBM's first laptop-style computer, following the luggable IBM Portable, and introduced the 3½-inch floppy disk format to the IB ...

. Although the battery life of the 1400 LT was less than that of the IBM Convertible, the system came with more standard peripheral connections and was priced significantly lower.

References

{{TRS-80 and Tandy computers IBM PC compatibles 1400LT Computer-related introductions in 1988 Early laptops