IBM ThinkPad 730TE Pen Tablet

Nick Sawhney (nitin@cc.gatech.edu)
Mon, 4 Dec 1995 02:09:04 -0500 (EST)

I always suspected this, but I finally found it. Yes IBM does have a
specialized version of the convertible 360 PE Pen portable. Another
model called the 730TE is a plain and simple pen tablet. No keyboard,
mouse or disk drive...just the bare essentials. Another cool thing is it
uses a PCMCIA card for a 260 MB Hard drive...so students could just swap in
a single PCMCIA card with the day's lecture slides and get up and
running. There are two slots, so either 2 hard-drives or one hard-drive
and one PCMCIA ethernet card could be used. I guess the price of each
unit should be less than $1000, especially since IBM recently cut the
prices of the higher end models. For a picture of the model, look at
this web site: http://www.pc.ibm.com/products/ths4444c.html

Here are the specs:

ThinkPad 730TE standard features

Performance

DX4 75MHz processor
8MB RAM expandable to 24MB
Accelerated VESA local-bus graphics

Pen display

9.5" diagonal transflective STN monochrome
Backlit for easy viewing in almost any light
Etched-glass screen for natural writing feel
Lightweight electromagnetic pen doesn't require a battery

Storage

260MB(1) PCMCIA hard drive provides more than enough storage for
demanding applications and large amounts of data
Add a second PCMCIA hard drive for an additional 260MB of storage
Simplifies rollout or update of applications
Give individual hard drives to multiple users of one computer
Optional external 3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive

PCMCIA expandability

Two PCMCIA slots(4) accommodate one of the following configurations:
--Two Type III PC Cards (without additional IC DRAM memory
installed)
--One Type III and one Type II PC Cards (with IC DRAM card)
--Three Type II PC Cards (with IC DRAM card)
Add communications or more storage with minimal additional weight

Size and weight(5)

8.3" x 10.6" x 1.4"
3.5 lbs. with one battery pack, or 3.9 lbs. with two battery packs

Battery life(6)

Can range from 1.6 to 4.6 hrs. with one battery, or 3.3 to 9.3
hrs. with two batteries

Power supply

Standard: Two rechargeable NiMH batteries; AC adapter
Optional: External quick charger (1.5-hr.(6) recharge time per
battery); car battery adapter; additional batteries and AC
adapters

Desktop expansion

Bus expansion port and standard port replicator allow one-step
attachment of desktop peripherals
Port replicator has VGA external display, serial, Enhanced
Parallel (ECP), external diskette drive and PS/2(-style
keyboard/mouse ports (one each)

Other features

Durable magnesium bottom case to withstand the rigors of field use
Front-panel pen-touch controls for brightness, contrast, reverse
video, suspend/resume and speaker volume

Choice of preinstalled operating systems

Microsoft Windows for Pen Computing 3.1 or IBM Pen for
OS/2 Warp or IBM PenDOS 2.2
Preinstalled on PCMCIA hard drive
Existing Windows and OS/2 applications run automatically as pen-based
applications

Model numbers

2524-B0F: Windows for Pen Computing
2524-B01: Choose Pen for OS/2 Warp, PenDOSor blank hard drive

That's all folks!

Nick

_________________________________________________________________
Nitin 'Nick' Sawhney Information Design & Technology
nitin@cc.gatech.edu Georgia Institute of Technology

home: (404) 816-1925 Melita International Corporation
work: (770) 409-4494 Atlanta, GA
fax: (770) 409-4444

URL: http://www.gatech.edu/lcc/idt/Students/Sawhney/

"My favorite piece of music is the one we hear all the time when
we are quiet." -- John Cage
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