I like the idea. But why VLB graphics card? The DX4 100 / 133 Mhz PC's often came with a PCI bus.

hilram wrote on 2024-04-28, 20:01:

I like the idea. But why VLB graphics card? The DX4 100 / 133 Mhz PC's often came with a PCI bus.

I guess it really depends on what chipset is available. If one that has pci is more available then by all means use a pci video chip.

I'd say that for the era you have in mind you'd also want a CD drive of some kind. Ideally emulated but with redbook audio... but afaik no such thing exists yet (does it?).

elszgensa wrote on 2024-04-28, 20:13:

I'd say that for the era you have in mind you'd also want a CD drive of some kind. Ideally emulated but with redbook audio... but afaik no such thing exists yet (does it?).

Good point. Added slim CDrom and floppy.

A floppy... meh. Not like we'd be playing a lot of PC booters on that kind of machine. But I guess the hardware for a Gotek clone wouldn't take up much room... I'd file it under nice-to-have.

I wonder if anyone thought to add Gotek circuits to these retro notebooks to use a USB stick instead of a floppy drive (or no floppy at all).

Somebody could probably build this running 86box around a Raspberry Pi-type thing... (ignoring the fact that I don't think 86box supports ARM on platforms other than Mac...)

Actually building this out of real hardware, though... the price tag would be insane... which is unfortunate because a retro DOS laptop at a reasonable price would be cool.

VivienM wrote on 2024-04-29, 00:18:

Somebody could probably build this running 86box around a Raspberry Pi-type thing... (ignoring the fact that I don't think 86box supports ARM on platforms other than Mac...)

Actually building this out of real hardware, though... the price tag would be insane... which is unfortunate because a retro DOS laptop at a reasonable price would be cool.

It doesnt have to be expensive. Someone could create the kit/PCB and the buyer would have to provide and attach the main chips like CPU, chipset, audio chip, and Ram.

There's a modern 386 laptop which runs Windows 95: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805356267711.html

To me, a modern 486 laptop wouldn't need an internal CD or floppy, as long as external drives are usable. I would like to see a basic SoundBlaster (or compatible) in it. An ATI would be nice, but S3 or Trident would probably be easiest. I have no idea what the 386 laptop uses. I don't even mind all the adapters to the legacy ports, though it would be nice to have a single dockingstation-esque connection rather than a multitude of dongles. Even better if the docking station had the floppy and IDE connections for the CD and floppy, and perhaps an extra hard drive.

I don't think that hardware is all that power efficient, plan on about 15W or so, which needs about the equivalent of 3x 5V 10,000mAh powerbanks to run anywhere near 10 hours.... ah wait, they usually give mAh at the nominal 3.7v cell voltage, so more like 4 or 5 of those size, getting on for a couple of regular 3.5HDD worth of battery volume... At least it would be authentically chonky.

I haven't seen ESS chips available lately but some CMI ones might be around still. But I haven't really been seeking either out, that's just impression I have.

Personally if I was dead set on having such a machine, I'd prolly wait and see what S. Kiselev's 486 ATX board is like and stick it into a clamshell form factor, like T3100ish. Though probably I wouldn't care about battery so much and give it a couple of hours worth, possibly with USB C power feed, so I could rig whatever auxiliary pack.