Not necessally rare but renowned for it's rugged build. It was also very expensive and Grid was one of the favorite Laps' used by the army and large corporations who supplied their employees with Laptops, such as the 2 I have branded by the Canadian Post Office. These both had connections through it's buillt-in modems to a DEC protocol and another protocol which I couldn't recognise by phone to a mainframe for e-mail or pricing and other info.
It was also used by NASA as a backup on many of their space ventures, including the moon landings. It was used in VietNam and Grid publicised it's survival from being dropped from helicopters. It's magnesium case was light and virtuably indestructable.
Unfortunately it's weakest feature was it's Conner HDD which while It may survive dropping from helicopters was abysmal when faced with time, and they are notorious for succumbing to "striction" as any Grid collector will attest and has been the main current of problems in the Grid forums. Unfortunately these otherwise magnificent laptops hardcoded in their BIOS
only 3 small-capacity models. Only recently have some of the dedicated Grid people with the help of one of our VCF monitors managed to get out of that box. It does however involve programming EPROMS to accept other higher-capacity drives.
The other problem with them was that they demanded SIPPS in their spacious 8-socket Rams. Understandable if you're going to toss them out of helicopters and SIMMs would simply pop out. SIPPs are however no longer manufactured to my knowledge and finding them can be difficult.
>>> If anyone has 1 meg SIPPs or greater PLEASE,PLEASE contact me.<<<
The Grid 1520 could use Ext ram as well as expanded and I have run Windows3 and it's programs on my 1520. You could also install MSDOS 6.22 on it. My models both have red Plasma screens altho some had back-lit mono. It had a built-in 2400 modem. It had a video out of CGA but had an adapter slot where normally one used a battery cartridge or an AC adaptor, and one could plug in a VGA module displaying color or many others such as a SCSI adapter, Ethernet, or an IEEE module to accept and control standard signals from external sensor apparratus. It could also use external floppies both 5.25 and 3.5. I don't have the Ethernet or IEEE (403 ? The same as on the Commodores I believe)
I am obviously enamored with this LT, but it is bulky and heavy despite its Magnesium case,
but as that now-dead reactionary Rifle Association head Charlton Heston said about his killing machines, I'll hold on to it untill my death no matter what.
Lawrence
