Texas Instruments Professional Computer and Professional Portable Computer
The TI Professional Computer and the TI Portable Professional Computer (TIPC/TIPPC) were devices that were both released on January 31, 1983. The TIPC was a desktop PC and the TIPPC was a fully compatible, portable version of the TIPC. Both computers were most often used by white-collar information workers and professionals that needed to gather, manipulate and transmit information. Texas Instruments was the first company to release videotape training videos for their computers.
The TI Professional Computer came with a 14", 720x300 pixel color monitor, had 512k RAM and contained state-of-the-art, cutting-edge features, including industry-standard software support, easy expandability, a superior and user-friendly QWERTY keyboard, and natural language database options.
The standard version of the TIPPC had a built-in 9" monochrome monitor; the upgraded version came with a built-in 9" color monitor. The graphical capabilities were far superior than the IBM competitor; the TIPPC featured a max resolution of 720x300 pixels. The standard device came equipped with 64k RAM but could be expanded to 768k.
Additionally, both the TIPC and TIPPC were equipped with voice recognition software, allowing the user to speak basic commands to the computers. Both computers also featured an Ethernet card, a new device developed in 1983 by the company 3COM. The TIPC and the TIPPC were both phased out by IBM-format and IBM compatible laptops.
References
- "OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum." OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
- "Texas Instruments - 1983 TIPC and TI Professional Computer Introduced." Texas Instruments - 1983 TIPC and TI Professional Computer Introduced. Web. 7 Nov. 2014.