From: Mark Bell (bytehead_at_bellatlantic.net)
Date: Sat Apr 01 2000 - 09:12:08 EST
IBM had the L40SX (386SX) which was their last big laptop and, IMHO their
last true, "kludge," from their old corporate days. After it came
the PS/Note series of notebooks which looked similar to
Thinkpads and were introduced before the Thinkpad line with the
PS/Note 325 (386 model), but were a far cry from a Thinkpad. The
PS/Note moniker was a play on the PS/2 series IBM was still
clinging desperately to in a market that did not follow IBM's
lead anymore.
After the Thinkpad
line was well along its' way with the introduction of the
700 series (which after the 720c, IBM gave up on MCA all
together) and with the 750 series, they introduced lower cost
versions of the Thinkpad, and this is where the PS/Note
and Thinkpad's crossed paths, as the Thinkpad 350C was
equivilent to the PS/Note 425C (Intel 486SL machines)
with a few features flipped around. Eventually, they
shelved the PS/Note line for the exclusive Thinkpad name and
had upper and lower models of Thinkpads (7xx and 3xx series).
Now, IBM slaps the Thinkpad name on everything that's a laptop/notebook.
(And no, the Z50 isn't a laptop/notebook! <g>)
At 01:15 PM 03/31/2000 -0500, Steve Hultquist wrote:
> I don't think they were called Thinkpads. It seems like they were
>PS/2s? I remember the Thinkpad announcement (I was working for IBM at the
>time). They had the TrackPoint (which was a huge deal at the time) and the
>red accent color scheme. However, there were non-color versions of the 700,
>I think. ssh -----Original Message-----
>From: Dominique Pivard [mailto:domi_at_kenavo.fi]
>Sent: Friday, March 31, 2000 12:11 PM
>To: THINKPAD_at_cs.utk.edu
>Subject: Re: News.com story on the 10million Thinkpad mark...
> While you were at it, you could have mentioned the URL of the story (OK,
>it's http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-1615998.html). In the story,
>they said the first ThinkPad was the 700C, a 25Mhz 486
>introduced in 1992. Now I have a friend who had an IBM laptop: I seem to
>remember it was black, a 386 and before 1992. Weren't these machines
>called ThinkPads? Does someone know of a URL with a complete history
>covering all ThinkPads? Cheers, Dominique (701C, 560, 560X, 600E, all in
>use)
> ""<>,
>said: >(sorry for the previous HTML post, slipped thru the cracks)
>Hello,
>> I thought maybe some members would be interested in reading this
>>story at Cnet's news.com. Quick article on IBM's 10 Million'th sale of
>>Thinkpads. 'Makes mention of the 700, 701, 560, and 600. >-Jamie
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