The Athena 1 was an early

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 ...

computer released in 1983 by Athena Computer & Electronic Systems, an American computer company active from 1982 to 1987 and based in

San Juan Capistrano, California San Juan Capistrano (also known colloquially as San Juan or SJC) is a city in southern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 35,253 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 Census. Named for Saint John of Capistrano, San Ju ...

. The Athena 1 was one of the first laptops to make use of solid-state technology as its primary storage medium.

Specifications

The Athena1 contains an internal

RAM drive A RAM drive (also called a RAM disk) is a block of random-access memory (primary storage or volatile memory) that a computer's software is treating as if the memory were a disk drive (secondary storage). RAM drives provide high-performance tempo ...

of between 128 KB and 1 MB, depending on the configuration ordered, made up of 16 KB dynamic

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 ...

chips. The Athena 1 features dual NCS-800 microprocessors; the NCS-800 was a second-source

CMOS Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS, pronounced "sea-moss ", , ) is a type of MOSFET, metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) semiconductor device fabrication, fabrication process that uses complementary an ...

variant of the

Zilog Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early personal computing. Launched in 1976, it was designed to be Backward compatibility, software-compatible with the ...

processor manufactured by

National Semiconductor National Semiconductor Corporation was an United States of America, American Semiconductor manufacturing, semiconductor manufacturer, which specialized in analogue electronics, analog devices and subsystems, formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, ...

designed for minimal power draw. As these chips were somewhat more expensive, Athena resorted to using RAM chips fabricated using the more power-hungry NMOS process. One of the NCS-800s handles

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, i/o, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, such as another computer system, peripherals, or a human operator. Inputs a ...

, while the other serves as the laptop's

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...

. Besides the RAM drive, the Athena 1 also contains 512 KB of RAM, originally 64 KB. The unit contains spare room internally for expansion circuit boards that would have connected to the existing motherboard via an expansion bus socket. The designer, David Mitchell, had eyed a 16-bit processor upgrade as one such circuit board in the early days of the laptop's development. Mitchell designed the Athena 1 with no internal floppy drive, as was common for portables at the time, to keep the laptop relatively lightweight at . His company offered an external 5.25-inch floppy drive as an optional peripheral. Some of the laptop's weight comes from the internal

lead–acid battery The lead–acid battery is a type of rechargeable battery first invented in 1859 by French physicist Gaston Planté. It was the first type of rechargeable battery to be invented. Compared to modern rechargeable batteries, lead–acid batteries ha ...

, which has a maximum rated capacity of two hours. The laptop measures and sports an off-white plastic outer shell. Mitchell commissioned the

Key Tronic Key Tronic Corporation (branded Keytronic) is a technology company founded in 1969 by Lewis G. Zirkle. Its core products initially included Computer keyboard, keyboards, Computer mouse, mice and other input devices. KeyTronic currently specialize ...

corporation of

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

, to design and manufacture the laptop's grey and black keyboard. He meanwhile purchased the laptop's display panels from

Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, commonly known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, Japan, t ...

LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...

s capable of displaying 80 columns and 4 fours. Athena was beaten to market by

NEC Home Electronics is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificia ...

' NEC PC-8201 which featured an 8-line LCD panel. Mitchell expressed wanting to upgrade the Athena 1's LCD panel to that of the PC-8201 before it released to market. The Athena 1 was ultimately released with the 4-line display in 1983, although Mitchell hinted at a retrofit upgrade kit featuring a 16-line LCD for release in November 1983. This never came to pass, however, and instead Mitchell promised an upgraded version of the Athena 1 with a 16-line display, as well as the kit, for 1984. The

CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...

2.2 operating system, a

JRT Pascal JRT Pascal (Jim Russell Tyson) is an implementation of the Pascal programming language. It was available in the early 1980s on the CP/M operating system. History At the end of the 1970s, the most popular Pascal implementation for microcomputers ...

interpreter, Chang Labs' Profit Plan spreadsheet application, and the MiniVEDIT text editor are all included on the laptop's internal 12 KB

ROM Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

chip. Mitchell eschewed from shipping the Athena 1 with the

BASIC Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...

programming language, instead opting for JRT Pascal, as he felt the latter was so ubiquitous that most purchasers of his laptop would already have it. The Athena 1's

BIOS In computing, BIOS (, ; Basic Input/Output System, also known as the System BIOS, ROM BIOS, BIOS ROM or PC BIOS) is a type of firmware used to provide runtime services for operating systems and programs and to perform hardware initialization d ...

supports connecting up to 15 other machines together using the laptop's built-in dual-

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 ports; the laptops also house one parallel printer port. In the first quarter of 1984, Athena released an upgrade kit for the laptop which housed a Harris 80C86, the CMOS version of

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allo ...

microprocessor. This kit gave the laptop the ability to run application software programmed for

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 ...

. As well, the kit came packaged with a copy of MS-DOS itself. The kit in practice made the computer a tri-processor machine based on two platforms, CP/M and MS-DOS. According to computer journalist Michael Nadeau, this kit was the first use of a CMOS version of the 8086 in a laptop.

Development and release

David Mitchell of

, founded Athena Computer & Electronic Systems in June 1982. Mitchell set out the company to design a high-end

portable computer A portable computer is a computer designed to be easily moved from one place to another, as opposed to those designed to remain stationary at a single location such as desktops and workstations. These computers usually include a display a ...

"for the discriminating ser, delivering a prototype of his computer to the press just eight months after incorporating his company, in February 1983. Named the Athena 1 (or Athena I), the laptop was one of the first to incorporate

solid-state storage Solid-state storage (SSS) is non-volatile computer storage that has no moving parts; it uses only electronic circuits. This solid-state design dramatically differs from the commonly-used competing technology of electromechanical magnetic storage ...

as its primary means of operation and data storage. Athena Computer & Electronic Systems dissolved in 1987, having only released the Athena 1.

Citations

References

* * * * * * * * * * *

Specifications

Development and release

See also

Citations

References

Further reading