The SHARP PC-7000 'Portable' PC from 1985 Teardown

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In 1985, ‘luggables’ were not a new thing. We had seen them since at least 1981, with the CP/M-based Osborne One. The Compaq Portable was the first IBM PC-style luggable, released in March 1983. The thing, however, about luggables, is that they were essentially a whole PC in a box the size and weight of a Singer sewing machine.

The Sharp PC-7000 was different because the form factor and weight were significantly less. It had an LCD screen, which, for the time was remarkable. LCD was a very new technology at the time. As you will see, the monochrome display was none too good when it came to readability, especially in sunlit conditions.

It was at least two or three years, however, before anything came out that would challenge Sharp’s form factor and weight. Certain early portable Apple Computer portables spring to mind in this regard.

Other than the screen, the specifications were reasonable for the time too. At the heart, it sported an 8086-based CPU at 8MHz, making it zippier than the 8088 IBM PC at 4.77MHz. As it was an 8086, it also had a true 16-bit data bus which was quite the boon. It was let down a little by its low RAM specification, which could be upgraded, but the base model only had 320K. However, in 1985, this should have been sufficient to run Lotus 1-2-3 and most of your other DOS-based business applications. You could purchase an add-on modem, and I believe there was an alternate model that shipped with 1 floppy drive and a half-height hard drive. In-built in every model was an RS-232 serial port capable of up to 9600bps (so I assume 8240 UART) and a Parallel port. My machine comes with an external display connection, which apparently, was an extra feature.

This video shows the tear-down of this machine, which for much of its life, had been a thing that was lugged around a car mechanic’s workshop or office, as a printout I found inside the machine would suggest.

I hit a few snags along the way, which I managed to repair. Check it out! 00:00 - Introduction 00:37 - A Word from our sponsor 00:43 - The Sharp PC-7000 Specs 04:08 - Taking off the keyboard 07:51 - Opening it up 10:01 - The motherboard 13:06 - Taking it apart 15:44 - LCD unit 17:16 - servicing the floppy drive 22:02 - Removing the CMOS battery 23:47 - looking at the keyboard 24:58 - Initial power-on 26:07 - The LCD sucks! 26:38 - The P key is broken! 27:13 - CMOS setup utility 29:00 - Serial to 9600bps! 30:17 - Servicing the keyboard 37:49 - Getting forensic with the P key! 42:04 - the keyboard lives! 43:32 - conclusion ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEykSUrR-4E