IBM

Anyone ever encounter or own a powerpc thinkpad? Have been learning the power architecture, and thought these were a nifty gadget! They are officially the 800 series, with the main models being the 820 and 850.

I have always been a thinkpad junkie (701c, 240, [current] x40] - and this series with a powerpc processor seems to be one of those rare birds that are impossible to find but fascinating in terms of concept...

I've seen one... well a dead one.

It looked just like a normal thinkpad, but it was a little thicker, it was heaver then I recall the old thinkpads being (from the 486 era), and it was a shame this one was dead.... I forget the mode, but it could run NT & AIX.... I wondered if it'd run OS/2.

I remember seeing a YouTube video of NT booting up on one - hrmm... Will have to dig up the link - around here somewhere...

I have two. One is a pre-GA model.

Not totally uncommon, but they fetch a ridiculous price (as do all UNIX portables) when they show up on eBay. I can point you in the right directions if you really want to purchase one.

The first was actually the beige -N40 that use MCA internally, ran a special version of AIX 3.2 (I have this CD if anyone needs help), and was somewhat similar to the PS/2 -L40 portable. Tadpole was involved in its creation, the same company that did the Precsion and Sparc books.

Dig around on my IBM site and you can find information about all these, including pictures on an 860 running Linux.