Bondwell Industrial Co. Inc. was a US and Hong Kong manufacturer of

personal computers A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

during the 1980s (1981–1993).

History

In the early 1980s, Bondwell sold a line of

Z80 The Zilog Z80 is an 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 software-compatible with the Intel 8080, offering a compelling altern ...

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 ...

-80 based Osborne-like

luggable 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 desktop computer, desktops and workstations. These computers usually in ...

s such as the models Bondwell-12, Bondwell-14 and Bondwell-16. An exceptional feature in these was a built-in

speech synthesizer Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

. Their prices were exceptionally affordable for the time, although significant trade-offs were made in regard to durability, for instance the chassis was rather flimsy plastic, falling far short of the ruggedness usually expected of luggables. The fanless

power supply A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, electric current, current, and frequency to power ...

unit, located under the

motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

, often caused trouble. The choice of

peripheral A peripheral device, or simply peripheral, is an auxiliary hardware device that a computer uses to transfer information externally. A peripheral is a hardware component that is accessible to and controlled by a computer but is not a core compo ...

I/O devices made the use of

interrupt In digital computers, an interrupt (sometimes referred to as a trap) is a request for the processor to ''interrupt'' currently executing code (when permitted), so that the event can be processed in a timely manner. If the request is accepted ...

s virtually impossible. The Bondwell-12, introduced in 1984, was a "luggable" portable computer with a built-in 9 inch (23 cm)

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

CRT CRT or Crt most commonly refers to: * Cathode-ray tube, a display * Critical race theory, an academic framework of analysis CRT may also refer to: Law * Charitable remainder trust, United States * Civil Resolution Tribunal, Canada * Columbia ...

display, equipped with 64 KB of internal memory, CP/M 2.2 and two single-sided, double density, 5.25 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 ...

drives (180 KB). The Bondwell-14, introduced in 1984, had 128 KB of memory, CP/M 3.0 and two double-sided drives (360 KB). The Bondwell-16, introduced in 1985, had CP/M 3.0, one double-sided drive and a

hard disk 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 ...

with a capacity of a bit less than 10 MB. The Bondwell-2, introduced in 1985, was a

portable Portable may refer to: General * Portable building, a manufactured structure that is built off site and moved in upon completion of site and utility work * Portable classroom, a temporary building installed on the grounds of a school to provide a ...

computer with 64 KB of memory, CP/M 2.2 and one single-sided, double density 3.5 inch floppy disk (360 KB). 256 and 512 KB memory extensions were available. It was one of the earliest portables, as well as one of the few battery-powered CP/M computers. The more advanced Bondwell-18 model featured

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 ...

and the

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

architecture. Bondwell Model 8, introduced in 1986, was a 5.5 kg, 284 x 78 x 310 mm, lap-top portable computer. It featured an Intel 80C88 processor running at 4.77 MHz, a back-lit LCD display with 80 x 25 characters or 640 x 200 graphic a built in battery and a 3.5" 720 KB floppy drive.It had a 76 keys keyboard and the US version had a built-in 300 baud modem. Bondwell also produced a range of 286-based

computers such as the B310 Plus. Later models were 386 based machines. Circa 1988, Bondwell also got involved in creating one of the first universal remote controllers BW-5010. The BW-5010 could control up to 5 devices and featured a backlight. Bondwell was later transformed into Remotec Technology Ltd in 1993.

References

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External links

Bondwell 12 & 14
Albert's Virtual Computer Museum American companies established in 1981 American companies disestablished in 1993 Computer companies established in 1981 Computer companies disestablished in 1993 Defunct computer companies of the United States Defunct computer hardware companies Electronics companies established in 1981 Electronics companies disestablished in 1993