Xerox NoteTaker

The Xerox NoteTaker was a portable computer prototype built at Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California, in 1978 by researchers including Adele Goldberg, Douglas Fairbairn and Larry Tesler, developed as a working realization of Alan Kay's earlier Dynabook concept, which had remained a proposal rather than a built machine. It combined an Intel 8086 processor running at 5 megahertz, 256 kilobytes of RAM, a built in seven inch monochrome touchscreen, a floppy disk drive and stereo speakers, and ran the Smalltalk environment originally developed for the Xerox Alto. Weighing about 22 kilograms and shaped like a portable sewing machine with a folding keyboard that revealed the screen, the NoteTaker never reached production, with only around ten prototypes built, but its form directly influenced later luggable computers such as the Osborne 1 and Compaq Portable.