IBM PC110 [LARGE PICTURE]

[yyzkevin]

Here is my take on what a cool setup would have been for late 1995. Everything is authentic except the CF cards, some are newer.

Those are IBM Wireless LAN Entry cards, as this is pre-wifi.



FORUM warning:
picture WAY too big, even for this sub-forum! Please read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14339

Especially for Imgur pictures there is a simple way to downsize those huge pictures.
Adding a small letter l between the picture name q0Te71N and .jpg reduces the picture to acceptable size.
See for yourself when you click on the links below!
Before: https://i.imgur.com/q0Te71N.jpg = HUGE (click on the + symbol/cursor when on Imgur to see "the real deal")
After. : https://i.imgur.com/q0Te71Nl.jpg = acceptable

The humongous Before picture was displayed on the Forum, which is NOT acceptable.

[UMPC2024]

That's pretty cool, you've got the keyboards with the Japanese character overlay.

[MikalE]

Why were the screens so small on those systems when the bezel has such a large border?

Did they not have LCD screens that large back then, or did the drive electronics take up that much space?

[atagunov]

Hmm.. the trackballs are all on the left.. Okay I did mouse with my left hand for a number of years but still - this wouldn't be the most intuitive setup would it?
Update after seeing the discussion on reddit: what?! they are not trackballs but rather wireless LAN cards?.. And people used trackpads not trackballs with these?.. Oh, okay

Was it difficult to get a full room of these?
These guys are so small, how much space does the whole set take when packed?

[yyzkevin]

Why were the screens so small on those systems when the bezel has such a large border?

Did they not have LCD screens that large back then, or did the drive electronics take up that much space?

With the factory display, just about all of the space behind the bezel is used, with one side being control/driver circuitry and the other the back light inverter.

Having said that, these are VGA so you cant really avoid the bezels if you want to keep the laptop rectangular and maintain the proper aspect ratio.

[yyzkevin]

Yeah those are "IBM Wireless LAN Entry" cards, it was the most appropriate wireless I could get my hands on for the time, but it is quite slow. They totally look like trackballs

In terms of navigation, without external devices you would mainly use the trackpoint, which is setup so you can control it with your left thumb while carrying the unit, and the left/right buttons are duplicated to both sides so you could use left or right thumb. The digitizer in the middle, I don't know a lot about it but there are some drivers for windows to use it a mouse of sorts, something I have yet to try.

They are quite difficult to find in working order, but I had been purchasing broken ones and fixing them. You could totally put all these in a small backpack, I plan to get a small pelican case with the pluckable foam to make a nice little setup to store/transport.

Hmm.. the trackballs are all on the left.. Okay I did mouse with my left hand for a number of years but still - this wouldn't be the most intuitive setup would it?
Update after seeing the discussion on reddit: what?! they are not trackballs but rather wireless LAN cards?.. And people used trackpads not trackballs with these?.. Oh, okay

Was it difficult to get a full room of these?
These guys are so small, how much space does the whole set take when packed?

[MikalE]

Why were the screens so small on those systems when the bezel has such a large border?

Did they not have LCD screens that large back then, or did the drive electronics take up that much space?

With the factory display, just about all of the space behind the bezel is used, with one side being control/driver circuitry and the other the back light inverter.

Having said that, these are VGA so you cant really avoid the bezels if you want to keep the laptop rectangular and maintain the proper aspect ratio.

I thought that might be the reason. Components keep getting smaller and smaller each decade.