Ttyjfyk

In the early era of "portable" or luggable computers, such as the mains powered Osborne 1 and the Compaq Portable, 5 1/4 inch floppy drives were the standard storage medium. When battery-powered laptops came of age in the late 1980s, 3 1/2 inch floppy drives were generally used (see for example the IBM PC Convertible, which used two of them).

A few battery powered laptops, such as the Toshiba T1100, supported the use of an external 5 1/4 inch floppy drive. This allowed them to access data on these larger floppies, and transfer data to & from existing desktop machines.

Was there a battery-powered laptop computer that had a 5 1/4" floppy drive built into its chassis, instead of being a separate external add-on?

The closest thing to a modern laptop that I'm aware of featuring an internal 5 1/4 drive is the Findex of 1979 which had a fairly complete (optionally battery-powered) CP/M computer including a hard-sectored floppy drive, a 40 x 6 plasma display and even a printer in a package of about the size of a (quite large) travel typewriter, weighing 20 pounds.

I wouldn't exactly call it a laptop, but you can at least imagine it could be operated as such - I mean, literally on your laps, at least for a while... (It was designed as a portable computer and it did feature a carrying handle and optional battery - although apparently designed in more as UPS rather than operating power supply - and carrying case).

If the definition sought after is very strictly speaking "integrated 5.25 inch floppy" and "battery powered", then I would like to enter the Kaypro II from August 1982:

Which is a luggable and has

BUILT IN MEDIA: two 5.25'' SS/DD full-height floppies (190k)

And had as well:

PERIPHERALS 400 KB or 800 KB 5.25'' floppy drives, 10 MB hard disc, battery pack/charger

So instead of 5.25inch peripheral disks, we have here an external battery pack.

If for added fun we really want to stretch out this game of definitions, we might also take a look at what the military thought of as portable computer that relies on batteries?

CGS-100 AN/TYQ-63

California Microwave builds a case called the CGS-100, inside this huge , heavy box lives a ISA plane board, a LCD display and a integrated keyboard mouse.

This system has a signal board P1-166 64 Meg processor board, a APTI SCSI controller, Dolch video card with flat panel driver and network card that I have installed.

The system came with a dual 3.5/5 inch floppy that did not work so I replaced that with a standard 1.4, also you can see the SCSI CD rom I installed to put windows 98 on the system. their is a SCSI hard drive that I hung in the bay later. And you can see Windows 98 is still going strong around here.

This is maybe the heaviest computer I have bought today, what you don't see is the hard shell plastic shipping container it arrived in. a custom built shipping case for this system. everything together weighed over one hundred pounds!

Have discovered that this is a part of the AN/TYQ-63 communications system and ran NT as a operating system, I have NT but would rather run 98.

With such a toll in weight the battery was then conveniently stored on wheels, like that:

(PDF)

But really a lot closer to what might be asked for would be the GRiD Case3 and later:

While the Compass 1101 had no internal floppy drive, later systems did, such as the GRiDCase3 seen above.

The rear panel of the GRiDCase3 also shows the battery compartment. Most GRiD systems released after the 1101 can run on battery-power. The internal power supply is ejected and a battery-pack is installed in its place.

As so often this depends on your definition of laptop - which is not an exact one either. There where many level of size and weight between a bulky schleppable like a Compaq Portable and a notebook sized computer. And only a few would work well on a lap. I wouldn't consider the T1100 be one of them.

With the T1100 as cornerstone, I think the Morrow Pivot of 1984, and it's successor, the Pivot II of 1985, also sold as Zenith Z-171 would qualify. It's been a 8088 based PC clone with one or two 5.25" drives and could operate from an optional battery pack.

(Picture taken from Wikipedia)

Another candidate could be the Visual Commuter 1083 of 1983. While it looks more like a laptop, due the conventional style of opening the screen instead of keyboard, it's way bigger than the Morrow Pivot (*2). In fact, it's so wide (and quite low, less than half height), that it makes the 5.25" drives look like 3.5"

(Picture taken from Oldcomputers.net)

And then there is of course what could be called 'Lunchbox' format (*1), best known from the Compaq Portable III of 1987, but introduced already around 1985 by Taiwan manufacturers. Being somewhere more portable than the classic luggables and definitely more flexible due the large interior it was quite successful from the mid 80s to mid 90s, producing an endless stream of variations, many including 5.25" drives and batteries, even way into the 1990s.

(Taken from Oldcomputer.info)

They (the lunchboxes, not 5.25"s) cover a niche until today for special to type configuration (like for embedded systems maintenance) or portable high performance machines.

A somewhat stretched candidate would be an Apple IIc like Tofro mentioned in a comment. Unlike assumed, there was an LCD available (from Apple and third party), as well as battery-packs (third party). Still, it lacks the easy portability - at least before some glue (or a bag) is applied :)

(Taken from Obsolete Computer Museum)

*1 - According to Tofro :))

*2 - Sizes as width x height x depth

• Morrow Pivot: 32 x 25 x 14 cm (12,8 x 9,8 x 5,5 inch)


• Commuter 1083: 45 x 9 x 38 cm (18 x 3,5 x 15 inch)


• Compaq Portable III : 41 x 25 x 20 cm (16 x 10 x 8 inch)

Nobody has mentioned the Xerox Notetaker yet, which I'd think has to be the earliest portable machine that's both battery powered and containing a 5.25" floppy drive.

However, at a bone crunching 22kg which is about twice the weight of the Osborne-1, it's somewhat stretching the definition of a laptop. Also, only ten prototypes were ever made.