Compaq Portable 486

The Compaq Portable 486 is a computer released by Compaq Computer Corporation in 1991. It was the last portable computer/"luggable" released under the Compaq Portable series of computers.

The computer was released in several models with different hard disk configurations and in two screen types, a cheaper monochrome version and a more expensive active matrix color version, known as the Compaq Portable 486c. The street price with a 120 MB hard disk was US$5899 1991 for the monochrome version and US$9999 1991 for the active matrix color version. For a model with a 210 MB hard disk, the price was US$6899 for the monochrome version and US$10,999 for the active matrix color version, available after May 1992.

Both versions are equipped with a socketed $33 MHz$ Intel 80486DX CPU, $4 MB$ DRAM (72-pin SIMM), 1.44 MB 3.5" floppy, 120 - 1000 MB hard disk drive (P-ATA), and SCSI port for CD-ROM or tape. On the front of the unit there two dials underneath the PC-speaker to adjust the brightness of the screen and the volume of the PC-speaker. The PC-speaker in the Compaq Portable 486 is unique in that there is a $33 MHz$ audio input jack on the side of the unit to allow a third party ISA sound card to pass through its audio output to the PC speaker.

Compaq released two versions of the Compaq Portable 486 with a faster, $4 MB$ Intel 80486DX2 CPU, named the Compaq Portable 486/66 for the monochrome version and the Compaq Portable 486/66c for the color version.

Compaq worked with Network General which released branded versions of the Compaq Portable 486 as "Network Sniffers".

A case-modified version of the colour screen variant with replaced internals was used as a prop in the 1995 film Hackers. With its internals replaced by those of a Macintosh laptop, it served as the character Dade Murphy's (Aliases: Zero Cool and Crash Override) primary computer for the first half of the film.

Environmental limits are:
 * Temperature operating $3.5 mm$, nonoperating $66 MHz$
 * Relative humidity (noncondensing) Operating $10 degC$, Nonoperating $-30 degC$
 * Maximum unpressurized altitude operating $20 %$, nonoperating $5 %$
 * Shock $3,050 meters$, $9,150 meters$, half sine (nonoperating Vibration, Operating $40 g$, $11 ms$, 1⁄2 octave/min sweep Nonoperating $0.25 g$, $5 Hz$, 1⁄2 octave/min sweep