It’s true, the Atari Portfolio is a real IBM PC-compatible palmtop computer that was released back in June 1989 at the price of $399.95 ($985.98 in 2023). This palmtop PC was actually developed by DIP (Distributed Information Processing) Research and then licensed to Atari for sale as the Portfolio in the UK and US.
Hardware wise, it boasts a monochrome LCD (240 x 64 pixels), a 4.9152 MHz Intel 80C88 CPU, 128KB of RAM, and 256KB of ROM, all running on the “DIP Operating System 2.11” (DIP DOS). Sound comes from a small Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency speaker capable of outputting tones between 622 and 2,489Hz, while power is handled by three removable AA alkaline batteries. Don’t have extra batteries? Users could have also picked up an optional AC adapter.
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Swing over to the right side, and you’ll find an expansion port for parallel (HPC-101), serial (HPC-102), modem or MIDI expansion modules. However, there were built-in applications such as a text editor, spreadsheet (Lotus 1-2-3 compatible), and phone book. Expansion cards included chess game, a file manager, and a finance manager. For those who needed a miniature computer terminal, a modem expansion module, powered by the Atari Portfolio, did just that.
