The images of the Atari Portfolio are categorized and show the console, joystick controllers and accessories. You will also find detailed close-ups of the ports and connections available on the Portfolio.
The Atari Portfolio in closed postion like a laptop. It's a PC-compatible palmtop computer, and was released by Atari Corporation in 1989, making it the world's first palmtop computer. Power is supplied by three AA size removable alkaline batteries. The computer's memory is preserved during battery changes. There is also an optional AC adapter.
The Atari Portfolio open displaying the speaker and chicklet-style keyboard. Distributed Information Processing (DIP) based in Guildford, Surrey, UK released a product in the UK called the DIP Pocket PC in 1989. Soon after its release, DIP licensed it to Atari for sale as the Portfolio in the UK and US.
The Atari Portfolio: left side view. A modem expansion module converts the portfolio into a miniature computer terminal. The modem is powered from the portfolio and came with an acoustic coupler consisting of two round shells that could be mounted over both ends of a handset with velcro.
The Atari Portfolio: right side view. Using the parallel port expansion module, a standard parallel cable and the software supplied (DOS based), the Portfolio can be connected to a PC for transferring files to and from the unit.
The Atari Portfolio: rear view. Many people value the Portfolio for it's simplicity and lack of unnecessary features. The Portfolio's display was a 40-character by eight-line job with a 240 x 64-pixel graphics mode, mounted next to the unit's speaker and above the calculator-button style QWERTY keypad.
The Atari Portfolio: bottom view. The Portfolio appears in the film Terminator 2: Judgment Day, where it is used by the young John Connor to bypass security on an ATM with a ribbon cable connecting the Portfolio's parallel interface to a magstripe card. It appears a second time in the movie, when John uses it in the Cyberdyne Systems lab to retrieve the key to the vault containing the arm and CPU of the first Terminator.
The Atari Portfolio: bottom view close up on label. The unit weighs less than one pound, is the size of a video cassette and, in typical use, runs for about 6 weeks on a set of batteries.
Atari Portfolio Ports & Connections
The Atari Portfolio: right-side expansion port. Other expansion modules include a floppy drive, and a memory expansion unit. The memory expansion unit gives the Portfolio an additional 256 KB of RAM. The pass-through expansion connector, allows the use of more than one expansion unit. In theory, multiple memory expanders can be attached, increasing the available storage to over 640 KB.
The Atari Portfolio: left-side cartridge slot, power port and a cartridge.
Atari Portfolio Accessories
Parallel interface device
Parallel interface device showing the parallel port.
Parallel interface device showing the Atari connection port.
The Atari Portfolio with parallel interface.
The Atari Portfolio with parallel interface software disk.
