This is a CP/M portable computer from 1981/2. It's actually a Xerox 820 packaged up in a 'luggable' form factor. A group of engineers from Lenkurt Electric / Microtel (*) in the Vancouver, B.C. region designed and built several of these as a private hobby project. They somehow managed to get ahold of a number of the main logic board of the Xerox 820 after it was introduced in 1981, and packaged it up in a portable form with monitor, keyboard, and 5-1/2" floppy drive. The Xerox 820 was itself a derivative of the Ferguson Big Board, a single-board Z80-based system supporting the CP/M OS.

* Microtel was a Canadian telecom equipment manufacturer.

Contents (this page): Photos

Sub-pages: Unit Log

References / External Links: Xerox 820 documents at bitsavers.

Photos

There is no brightness or contrast control on the front panel, however there is a trimmer on the top of the monitor accessible with removal of the top cover.	The display is a 5" video monitor, presenting an 80*24 character display. Serious squinting or a magnifying glass is needed.	With its contemporary portable, the Osborne 1. The Osborne 1 was introduced in 1981 and is generally considered to have introduced the luggable computer to the marketplace. According to the source of this unit (one of those Microtel engineers) when they saw the Osborne they were not particularly impressed: been-there-done-that.
Closed up for carrying.	The keyboard sits inside the lid.	Internal top view. The Xerox 820 logic board is below the disk and monitor, a corner of it is visible underneath the multi-colored ribbon cable.
View underneath showing the bottom of the 820 logic board.	The Xerox 820 logic board.