Hyperion (computer)

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Hyperion PC.

The Hyperion vied with the Compaq Portable to be the first portable IBM PC compatible computer. It was marketed by Infotech Cie of Ottawa, a subsidiary of Bytec Management Corp., who acquired the designer and manufacturer Dynalogic in January 1983. The Hyperion was shipped in January 1983 at C$4995, two months ahead of the Compaq Portable. The machine had many features for 1982, including 256 kB RAM, dual 360 kB 5.25" floppy disk drives, a graphics card compatible with both CGA and HGC, a video-out jack, a built-in 7-inch amber CRT, 300 bit/s modem, and even an acoustic coupler. It included a version of MS-DOS called H-DOS and bundled word processor, database, and modem software. While the Hyperion weighed just eighteen pounds (8.2 kg), or about 2/3 the weight of the Compaq, it was not as reliable or as IBM compatible and was discontinued within two years.

H-DOS was remarkable and is of historical significance because it featured a simple menu system. The F1 through F5 keys beneath the 7" screen corresponded to five menu items displayed at the bottom of the screen. This menu was context sensitive and greatly facilitated entering DOS commands. All but the least frequently used commands were available as F-key menu selections, and this greatly reduced the amount of typing required. This user interface was comparable to the many DOS shell programs available at the time, but functioned much more smoothly because of the soft key concept.

The soft keys were also a feature of the word processor, database, and modem software that came bundled with the Hyperion, where they were used to select application commands from context sensitive menus.