Tadpole Computer

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Tadpole Computer is a manufacturer of rugged (military specification) UNIX workstations and thin client laptops and lightweight servers. Tadpole is based in Cupertino, California.

Products

Tadpole laptops currently use either SPARC- or x86-based microprocessors. The SPARC-based SPARCbook laptops are sold with the Solaris operating systems, and their x86-based laptops with SUSE Linux. Microsoft Windows is optional.

An Alpha-based laptop, the ALPHAbook 1, was announced on 4 December 1995 and became available in 1996. It used an Alpha 21066A microprocessor specified for a maximum clock frequency of 233 MHz. The microprocessor was capable of throttling its clock frequency to reduce power consumption and heat. It was accompanied by a 512 KB B-cache (L2 cache). The ALPHAbook 1 has 1 MB of VRAM and a 10.4-inch TFT screen, network and modem connectivity, and is capable of displaying 256 colors from 262,144 at a resolution of 800 × 600 with the TFT screen and 1024 × 768 on external displays. The laptop used the OpenVMS operating system.[1] The ALPHABOOK 1 1.2 Gb disk drive was IDE, linked with an IDE-SCSI2 adapter; this is because 2.5-inch SCSI drives did not exist at that time. A fully working Alphabook One was displayed at the recent VMworld 2011 conference, to the amazement of some, and surprise of many of the older attendees.[citation needed] The Alphabook 1 was manufactured in Cambridge, England. During the early 1990s, a PowerPC-based laptop was also produced. The classic Tadpoles were designed for SPARC, PA-RISC, DEC ALPHA and POWER (AIX). They are even now, reassuringly expensive (see: eBay history), and won favour as a method to show corporation's proprietary software (IBM/HP/DEC) on a self-contained portable device on a client site in the days before remote connectivity and ports to a Linux x86 operating system. The demonstrator would also bring along a portable SCSI tower of disks (e.g. BA356) on which the proprietary software would be loaded.

If looking to use an Alphabook 1 today, only the original and exact 3com PC Card network peripheral will be recognised by the OpenVMS operating system. Although OpenVMS 7.2-1 was the last 'officially' supported OpenVMS version [ref: http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/732final/6668/6668pro_012.html], the Alphabook 1 does run 7.2-1.

Company history

In 1998, Tadpole acquired RDI Computer Corporation of Carlsbad, California for $6 million.

Tadpole was later bought by defense contractor General Dynamics, in 2005.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 's+most...-a017809952 "Tadpole Technology announces the ALPHAbook 1, the world's most powerful notebook computer". Business Wire, 3 December 1995.

External links


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