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The story of the 1991 HP DOS Palmtop
Evolving from an enhanced calculator... to a full DOS compatible PC in your pocket.
November 20, 2023
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The HP 100 / 200 LX palmtops are nothing short of spectacular little machines. Pocket-sized, clamshell, battery powered, MS-DOS computers — with a fascinating (and highly useful) array of hardware and software.

Want to use a modem? Expand storage and functionality with a PCMCIA card? Run full DOS software — and even Windows 3.0 — on the go? All were possible with these little, hand-held marvels.

And, when I say, “Run Windows 3.0”… I really mean it. Here is a picture taken by a Lunduke Journal Community member of their own, personal HP 200LX. Running a full edition of Windows 3.0 (in Real Mode — the 200LX’s 80186 CPU doesn’t support Protected Mode).

But how did these amazing little pocket computers come to be? Let’s take a little tour of the history of the HP LX line, which all started in 1988 at Hewlett-Packard… with a product idea code-named “Cheetah”.

Note: Much of this history is compiled from the notes and memories of Everett Kaser, a programmer who worked on this project (and many others) at HP, combined with bits and pieces gleaned over years of study of these wonderful computers.

1988 - Codename “Cheetah”

 
 

It all started in Corvallis, Oregon — a small city, around an hour and a half outside of Portland, Oregon — at the office known as the “Corvallis Division”.

Image courtesy: hpmuseum.net

The Corvallis Division had already seen some noteworthy success in developing multiple HP computers, including the HP 85A in 1980:

The original idea for “Cheetah” was to be a personal information manager pocket device, powered by the Saturn CPU — which was already in use by multiple HP calculators and ranged from 640 kHz up to around 8 MHz.

The Saturn CPU from an HP 48SX calculator

What’s more, the entire system would run on just 32KB of RAM and use a nearly identical physical design to the HP 19B calculator (with a vertical clamshell design, with a keyboard on the left).

1989 - Codename “Jaguar”

In early 1989, the team made the decision to come up with a new physical form factor. It was at this point that the codename for the project was changed to “Jaguar”.

Instead of keeping to the same look of the HP 19B seen above… they would make a design using a more standard clamshell — with a screen on top, and keyboard on bottom. Like a traditional laptop. But pocket-sized.

And thank heavens they made that change. Because it just wouldn’t have been as cool had they stuck with that original, side-by-side design.

Everything else, though, still remained the same. The Saturn CPU. Not running DOS. Basically just a calculator… but with a lot of personal information management type software built in.

It was also decided that this device needed a spreadsheet program. An idea that would radically alter the direction of the project.

Lotus 1-2-3 leads to MS-DOS

Imagine yourself back in 1989. Now. When I say “Spreadsheet Software”… who do you think of?

You think of Lotus 1-2-3. That’s who.

And, as luck would have it, Lotus had an internal goal of working with a hardware vendor to create what they called a “Portable 1-2-3 Machine”. It seemed like a match made in heaven! HP could develop the hardware and some of the software, and Lotus could provide 1-2-3 (and also develop some of the other software components).

There was just one problem: Lotus 1-2-3 didn’t run on the (very limited) Saturn CPU. It ran on DOS. With an Intel 8086 class CPU.

So the team at HP made the — incredibly wise — decision to ditch the Saturn CPU and turn the “Jaguar” project into a DOS compatible computer. Intel processor and all.

Initially, while “Jaguar” was going to be DOS compatible… they were not going to allow any random DOS software to run. It was going to be locked down to only run the software supplied on the ROM of the device (from HP and Lotus). Quickly this was relaxed, and the ability to drop to a standard MS-DOS prompt was added.

Because… it was iust such an obvious thing to do.

1991 - The HP 95LX

Development of this new 8086, DOS powered device — now dubbed “Jaguar II” — moved ahead at an incredibly fast pace, with the release planned to happen just 13 months after the basic specs were decided upon. Software, hardware, all of it.

Image courtesy: palmtoppaper.com

In the end, the HP 95LX managed to ship just a couple months later than planned — in April of 1991. Which is darned impressive considering the massive investment in both hardware and software.

The final 95LX shipped with an NEC V20 CPU (which was an 8088 compatible processor at 5.37 MHz), 1MB of RAM, and up to 32MB of removable storage. The operating system was MS-DOS 3.22, which booted from ROM.

All of this was powered by AA batteries. Which, let’s face it, is pretty cool.

It included a host of custom built, personal information management software and — of course — Lotus 1-2-3.

Image courtesy: oldcomputers.net

Just look at it. Full QWERTY keyboard. Even has a 10-key numeric keypad. And Function keys. It might be a small keyboard, with little membrane keys… but it’s complete and surprisingly usable. It even has arrow keys (see the top right of the keyboard).

But it wasn’t perfect. Not yet.

The HP 95LX was an impressive (and incredibly fun to use) little DOS palmtop. But it had some problems.

The first was the display. A non-standard 240x128 LCD (with a 40x16 text mode). This presented significant compatibility issues with existing DOS software.

The second was the speed. The 8088 compatible CPU was a bit… to put it mildly… pokey. And a great deal of existing software simply required more oomph.

The third was battery life. It wasn’t bad, running off a set of AA batteries. But the team knew they could do better.

1993 - HP 100LX - Codename "Cougar"

Over the next two years the team worked to fix those problems — all while refining and improving the built-in software.

The, rather funky, 240x128 display of the 95LX was ditched for a standard, monochrome CGA display at 640×200. This allowed for greatly enhanced software compatibility with existing DOS software. Including, believe it or not, games.

For example here is Space Quest 3 running on an HP 200LX (which is using the same display and CPU of the HP 100LX):

Image courtesy: members of the Lunduke Journal Community

And here is a snapshot of SimCity running on the built-in CGA display:

Image courtesy: Palmtoptube.com

The NEC V20 “8088” CPU was swapped out for an 80186 compatible CPU (a “Hornet”) running at a higher clock speed. This was a significant boost in both horsepower and CPU functionality — which allowed the running of many software applications that traditionally required an 80286 processor.

Then the voltage was dropped from 5V to 3V. Effectively giving a significant gain in battery life.

Of course there was also the software upgrades — both to the included, in-house developed launcher and an upgrade to MS-DOS version 5.0.

All of which combined to make the 100LX and 200LX (which were nearly identical in most ways) extraordinarily compatible with desktop DOS-compatible PCs. Considering all of this was powered by two AA’s and could fit in your pocket?

Nothing short of spectacular.

And, to think, this all started out as what was — essentially — a nice HP calculator with some personal information manager stuff built-in.

Thank heavens the team decided they needed a spreadsheet.

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Holy guacamole, Batman! We are now over 80% of the way to our funding goal… for the end of February. And it’s not even half way through January! I am absolutely gobsmacked.

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Lunduke Journal Discounts

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The Famous Lifetime Subscription (with Bitcoin discount)

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Discounted Lifetime Subs, 55% Discount on MP4 Downloads for 2 Days

The Lunduke Journal remains 100% free from advertising… and, even more importantly, 100% free from all Big Tech influence.

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This allows me to focus on new reporting — without needing to worry so much about funding and “business stuff” during the month. Which means more shows & more investigations. A massive win for all of us.

That also means that, this month, we don’t need to do a big “fundraiser”. Instead, we’re going to just send out this quick reminder of how absolutely critical your support is for the continued success The Lunduke Journal — the last bastion of truly independent Tech Journalism.

Seriously. Couldn’t do this without you.

Scroll down and take a look at the options. See if any jump out at you. Then give yourself a high five for making Tech Journalism that much more awesome.

Lunduke Journal Discounts

For the next 2 days (through Wednesday, January 15th), in addition to regular subscriptions, you can grab two limited discounts:

  1. Discounted Lifetime Subscriptions (details below)

  2. DRM-Free, MP4 Downloads for 2024 & 2025 (combined) for 55% off.

There many ways to support The Lunduke Journal. Choose the option that makes you smile. It’s all listed below.

Where to grab a Monthly or Yearly Subscription:

Lifetime Subscription Details:

  • Pay once, full subscription for life (on Locals, Substack, or both).

  • Available only until Wednesday, January 15th. Then the Lifetime Subscription option goes “back in the vault”.

  • Can be purchased via Locals, Substack, or with Bitcoin. Scroll down for steps.

Where to buy a DRM-Free, MP4 video yearly download pass:

Want to be able to download every show The Lunduke Journal releases (and watch them on whatever device you like)? Yeah. You can do that.

The Famous Lifetime Subscription via Locals

The "World Famous Lunduke Journal Lifetime Subscription" is exactly what it sounds like. Pay once and get full access to The Lunduke Journal (with all the perks of subscription on Locals). For life.

New Lifetime Subscriptions are available, for $200, from now through January 15th. Then this option goes "back into the vault".

Here's how to grab one of these coveted bad boys for yourself:

  1. Go to Lunduke.Locals.com/support.

  2. Select "Give Once".

  3. Enter "200" into the amount field.

  4. After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)

The Famous Lifetime Subscription via Substack

You can also snag a Lifetime Subscription via Substack:

  1. Go to Lunduke.Substack.com/subscribe.

  2. Select the “Lifetime Subscription” option.

  3. After checking out, Lunduke will toss you an email once your account is set to full lifetime status. (This usually happens within a few hours.)

If you would like full, Lifetime access to Lunduke.Locals.com (which is included):

  1. Make a free account on Lunduke.Locals.com.

  2. Email “bryan at lunduke.com” with the email address you use on both Substack and Locals (can be different email addresses).

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And, finally, you can obtain a Lifetime Subscription via Bitcoin. Save a few bucks with this option, as Bitcoin processing has fewer fees associated with it.

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January 09, 2025
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The House of Lunduke BBS
Telnet: BBS.LUNDUKE.COM

The House of Lunduke BBS is a 20 node, Telnet BBS (bbs.lunduke.com) focused on the golden age of DOS BBS gaming -- including TradeWars 2002 and Legend of the Red Dragon.

 

 

The BBS is free to use, & creating an account takes only a moment.  All new users are granted 2 hours of access to all games on the system (more than enough to get in your daily turns of every one of these classic games).

Current games on the BBS:

  • TradeWars 2002 (aka TW2002)
  • Legend of the Red Dragon (aka LORD)
  • Legend of the Red Dragon 2
  • The Pit
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  • DoorMUD
  • Barren Realms Elite

 

How to Connect

 

Accessing The House of Lunduke BBS is incredibly easy.  Simply point any Telnet client at "bbs.lunduke.com" on port 23 (the default Telnet port).

This means, on many systems, a simple:

telnet bbs.lunduke.com

Will, technically, work.

However, if you want to have the absolute best experience -- and see what BBSing was truly like back in the 1980s and 1990s -- you'll want to use a Telnet client capable of displaying ANSI color... specifically one tuned for BBSes.

The following Telnet clients are all recommended and work well with The House of Lunduke:

Once you have chosen your Telnet client, simply add "bbs.lunduke.com" to your address book and connect.  Or, from within some Telnet clients, you can also type "atdtbbs.lunduke.com" (no spaces).

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Or, if you want to get really old-school, it is possible to utilize DOSBox and an era appropriate terminal client (such as Telemate).

 

 

F.A.Q.

 

Q: What software does The House of Lunduke BBS run?

A: The core BBS software is known as Virtual Advanced (a successor to VBBS), a DOS-based BBS package that acheived some popularity during the early 1990s.  All of the games on the system (known as "Door games" in BBS terminology) also run on DOS -- and each is the most popular version (or the last version) of each.  A Telnet server handles incoming telnet connections -- which then interfaces with the DOS-based BBS software, using what is known as a FOSSIL driver.

 

Fun Fact: A FOSSIL driver is a serial interface driver -- which makes it easier to use a standard interface to multiple different communication devices (such as a type of dial-up modem or a Telnet connection).  FOSSIL stands for "Fido Opus SEAdog Standard Interface Layer".  Which is a fun name.

 

Q: What does "20 node" mean?

A: In "ye olden times", BBSes used modems and phone lines.  One person, at a time, could call a BBS on each phone line.  Each of these is a "node".  We are now living in the future -- and using Telnet instead of phone lines -- which means that, in theory, we could have a small mountain of people connecting at the same time.  However.  Since we are using 1980s and 1990s DOS software, jury-rigged to work with the modern Internet, some of those old limitations still apply.  20 nodes were chosen as that makes for an incredibly large BBS system... but not too difficult to manage.

 

Q: Why not use a more modern BBS server?

A: There are several "modern" BBS servers -- with many fancy benefits.  MysticBBS, Synchronet, and others.  The House of Lunduke BBS is not about being modern.  Or fancy.  It is about preserving a snapshot of a high-point in BBS gaming history.

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