Technical computing of the 1990s was the era of RISC workstations on Unix systems and applications. To extend that computing power to mobile users, quite a few traditional workstation vendors built RISC for the Road computers.
RISC Laptops of the 1990s is hosted by OpenPA, the PA-RISC reference. Find us in the OpenPA RSS feed and news.
RISC laptops were mostly based on contemporary Unix workstations designs and were marketed for government and military users for C3, analysis and surveillance (ISR) applications. There were quite a few designs marketed over the years.
| System | CPU | Platform | Year | Operating system |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hitachi 3050RX/100C | Hitachi PA/50L 33 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HI-UX/WE2 |
| IBM RS/6000 N40 | PowerPC 601 50 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1993 | AIX |
| IBM Thinkpad 800 | PowerPC 603e 66 MHz | POWER/PReP | 199? | AIX |
| IBM Thinkpad 820 | PowerPC 603e 100 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1995 | AIX |
| IBM Thinkpad 850 | PowerPC 603e 100 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1995 | AIX |
| IBM Thinkpad 860 | PowerPC 603e 166 MHz | POWER/PReP | 1996 | AIX, Windows NT, Solaris |
| IBM WorkPad z50 | NEC VR4121 131 MHz | MIPS III | 1999 | Windows CE |
| RDI PowerLite 50 | microSPARC 50 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris, SunOS |
| RDI PowerLite 85 | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
| RDI PowerLite 110 | microSPARC-II 110 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
| RDI PowerLite 170 | TurboSPARC-II 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1997 | Solaris |
| RDI PrecisionBook 132 | PA-7300LC 132 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
| RDI PrecisionBook 160 | PA-7300LC 160 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
| RDI PrecisionBook 180 | PA-7300LC 180 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1998 | HP-UX |
| RDI UltraBook 170 | UltraSPARC 167 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 1997 | Solaris |
| RDI UltraBook 200 | UltraSPARC 200 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 1997 | Solaris |
| RDI UltraBook IIi | UltraSPARC-IIi 400 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2000 | Solaris |
| SAIC Galaxy 1100 | PA-7100LC 80 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HP-UX |
| SAIC Talon | PA-7100LC 60 MHz | HP PA-RISC | 1994 | HP-UX |
| Sony NEWS 3250 | MIPS R3000 20 MHz | MIPS | 1991 | Unix V4 |
| Sun SPARC Voyager | microSPARC-II 60 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris |
| Tadpole ALPHAbook | Alpha 21066A 233 MHz | DEC Alpha | 1995 | OpenVMS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook | CY7C600 SPARC 25 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1992 | Solaris, SunOS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 2 | MB86903 SPARC 40 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1993 | Solaris, SunOS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3 | microSPARC 50 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1994 | Solaris, SunOS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3XP | microSPARC-II 85 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995 | Solaris, SunOS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3GX | microSPARC-II 110 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1996 | Solaris, SunOS |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3TX | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1997 | Solaris |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 3000 | TurboSPARC 170 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1998 | Solaris |
| Tadpole SPARCbook 6500 | UltraSPARC-IIi 650 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2002 | Solaris |
| Tadpole SPARCLE | UltraSPARC IIe 500 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2003 | Solaris |
| Tadpole Viper | UltraSPARC IIIi 1.2 GHz | Sun SPARC64 | 2005 | Solaris |
| Tadpole VoyagerIIi | UltraSPARC IIi 300 MHz | Sun SPARC64 | 1998 | Solaris |
| Toshiba SPARC LT | CY7C601 SPARC 25 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1990 | OS/AS (SunOS) |
| Toshiba AS1000 C60/C70 | SuperSPARC 40 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1995? | Solaris |
| Toshiba AS1000 C80 | SuperSPARC II 75 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1996? | Solaris |
| TriGem SLT-100 | SPARC 20/25 MHz | Sun SPARC | 1991 | SunOS |
Another OpenPA project looks at VLIW processors of the 1990s.

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