Osborne 1(b) 1982 – Portable Computing

Wilmington, DE resident Robert Hill donated this nicely upgraded Osborne 1 b. The most interesting feature of this system is it’s home-brew external display stand, designed by Robert. It’s cut to sit securely on top of the case and to provide a level base surface for a monitor.

This “Drive C:” expansion unit fits into the disk holder of the computer and functions as a RAM drive and provides volatile storage (data is lost when power is cut) to speed up the computer by replacing the need to read disks as often. This is an after-market device.
Here’s what the Osborne portable computer looks like when packed up. It was designed to fit under an airline seat, or in the luggage compartment and was at the time considered a very innovative design. They keyboard cover is also the case bottom.

We have a few threads on vintagecomputer.net about Osbore 1’s if you want to see more pictures or learn more about what repairs and experiments were performed on this system. It was not functional when we first got it, but hopefully it’ll be an easy job to fix.

UPDATE – The system has been booted, but the keyboard has a short on the keyboard, needs to be cleaned.

Next, it’s time to test the printer, software, RAM drive and catalog the manuals.