I doubt Unisys was the only company making them, but they seem to be the only ones I can find.

If you don't have the space for a PC and CRT monitor, there are also all-in-ones such as the Compaq Presario 425. They combine a great quality 14" SVGA monitor with a 486 PC (with ODP socket) and don't take up much more space than a CRT monitor by itself. If you can find one, they're worth checking out.

I believe some laptops had docking stations with ISA/PCI slots in them. I don't remember the exact models off the top of my head though.

I know NLX was a compact form-factor for PCs, although probably not the extreme of miniaturization. Maybe searching for that will help.

I remember FlyTech. They focus on POS systems so it shouldn't come as a surprise they also made some crazy small systems. The Carry-I even has its own Wikipedia article. There are different versions to this system starting with an 8088 that aren't mentioned in the article though.
They also had a "Booksize" line of which I attatched a very small (how fitting 🤣 ) picture. The bottom unit in the stack is the PC itself with FDD and HDD, above it is an expansion unit with I believe to be a tape drive and on top a CD drive unit.
If you google FlyTech QP-4501-133 you can find some old P133 machines of theirs right now but I think they're well overpriced. 😵

There are some Unisys CWD5001-ZA on eBay right now. Seller has 12 left. Not my thing but interesting none the less.

As for other systems, I actually have one that has a monochrome screen built it. It is more of a panel PC style, but it was originally sold as a MIDI file display. I haven't messed with it really but would like to swap out the monochrome LCD for a color one. I don't remember if it has any expansion slots though. I would need to take it apart again to see what the motherboard has on it.

There is always the option to go with a single board computer and a backplane with a small number of slots. You can get anything from I guess 286 - pretty current hardware with an industrial setup like this.
Oldest I have is a 386.. I think. I may even have a 286.

Most interesting ones I have are:
486 with ISA and PCI
Socket 478 Pentium 4 with AGP/PCI/ISA (no real small backplanes with ISA though).

There are also some thin clients hat have a PCI slot available. Those are even smaller than the UNISYS systems.

cyclone3d wrote:

There are also some thin clients hat have a PCI slot available. Those are even smaller than the UNISYS systems.

This. If the target is Windows OS, check out those. Some have one PCI slot but you're not getting many more from a very compact PC either, so it is an option.

My most compact computer is a PC104 based "machine" :

133MHz 5x86, 32MB RAM, only problem is ISA video only which will limit performance quite a bit.

Tiido wrote:

My most compact computer is a PC104 based "machine" :

It doesn't look very compact to me. 🤣

I have this ESCOM computer. Pretty capable little thing.

Also if you want true PC that is very compact, yet quite powerful at the same time - I would direct you to industrial PC boards like these - they still have ISA or PCI bus which with some creativity can be used to add a sound card for example...
With DOM or CF adapter, some small ISA backplane and a sound card and 3d printed enclosure you can have a network capable, retro gaming PC that fits in your pocket (it would need external power supply of course)

Doornkaat wrote:

It doesn't look very compact to me. 🤣

I can make it fit in a shoebox if I have to 🤣. Biggest part will be the ISA cards, but if you're rich you can get PC104 video card and other peripherals and get a thing that fits completely in one cube decimeter volume 🤣.

My experience with the embedded boards and single board computers is that they are quite expensive, even when obsolete. In my mind, the small size of the industrial boards does not outweigh the increased hassle and high cost.

I am impressed that even your keyboard, in that picture, is moaning "killll meeeee". 🤣

I really love the form-factor of those Unises, but I have found it utterly frustrating trying to do anything useful with mine (5001). Runs hot, only one IDE channel (no CD-ROM), the slot is too small to fit most cards, the PSU is weak... Nothing you couldn't solve by stripping out all of the guts and replacing it with a modern enthusiast-designed motherboard. Anybody working on a DIY Pentium MMX board?

Amstrad had a quite small form factor 286 and 386sx model. Quality was crap though. With ctrs are damn heavy, I've got two. HP had some nice small form factor models, earlier than that DECpcs and my Zenith 286 from 1990 is fairly compact. Being compact does mean drive bay space is limited and need to resort to using the parallel port for extra functionality.

But thats come part n parcel wrt owning older stuff. The Compaq Prolinia slim lines are nice set ups as well.

For classic DOS, I think a K6-2 based laptop with with integrated ESS audio and S3 graphics are really tough to beat.

I think the problem with not having accessible expansion on laptops really boils down to retro enthusiasts trying to cover multiple eras with the same machine. You can certainly find laptops that suite each era of gaming, if you are willing to make some pretty reasonable sacrifices in regards to performance and niche features (like glide support, or EAX).

Surfstation.. Built-in SB16/OPL3, VBE graphics, S-Video&CVBS out, ISA/PCI.
Wireless "controllers" included for free. 😉

Jo22 wrote:

Surfstation.. Built-in SB16/OPL3, VBE graphics, S-Video&CVBS out, ISA/PCI.
Wireless "controllers" included for free. 😉

What games is on the second pic?

Seeing how someone brought up small form factor Amstrad machine here is a picture of my 4386SX complete with its little 10" CRT.

It might be small but it makes one hell of a racket, damn thing can almost drown out the hoover on a good day.

Tiido wrote:

I can make it fit in a shoebox if I have to 🤣.

Do it! Build that board a home.
And post it here of course! 😁

MKT_Gundam wrote:

Jo22 wrote:

Surfstation.. Built-in SB16/OPL3, VBE graphics, S-Video&CVBS out, ISA/PCI.
Wireless "controllers" included for free. 😉

What games is on the second pic?

Marble Cooking.
This makes my 100th post the name of a Hentai game. 🤣