Compaq Portable 486


The Compaq Portable 486 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1991. It was the last portable computer/"luggable" released under the Compaq Portable series of computers.
The computer was released in several models with different hard disk configurations and in two screen types, a cheaper monochrome version and a more expensive active matrix color version, known as the Compaq Portable 486c. The street price with a was for the monochrome version and for the active matrix color version. For a model with a, the price was for the monochrome version and US$10,999 for the active matrix color version, available after May 1992.
Both versions are equipped with a socketed Intel 80486DX CPU, DRAM, floppy, , and SCSI port for CD-ROM or tape. On the front of the unit there two dials underneath the PC-speaker to adjust the brightness of the screen and the volume of the PC-speaker. The PC-speaker in the Compaq Portable 486 is unique in that there is a audio input jack on the side of the unit to allow a third party ISA sound card to pass through its audio output to the PC speaker.
Compaq released two versions of the Compaq Portable 486 with a faster, Intel 80486DX2 CPU, named the Compaq Portable 486/66 for the monochrome version and the Compaq Portable 486/66c for the color version.
Compaq worked with Network General which released branded versions of the Compaq Portable 486 as "Network Sniffers".
A case-modified version of the colour screen variant with replaced internals was used as a prop in the 1995 film Hackers. With its internals replaced by those of a Macintosh laptop, it served as the character Dade Murphy's primary computer for the first half of the film.
Environmental limits are:
  • Temperature operating, nonoperating
  • Relative humidity Operating, Nonoperating
  • Maximum unpressurized altitude operating, nonoperating
  • Shock,, half sine (nonoperating Vibration, Operating,, octave/min sweep Nonoperating,, octave/min sweep