CONTACTS 
0201 - MicroAge                           415 393 9600 fax 9640
020101 - Mr. William Cimo; Account Executive; Sales Department

SUBJECTS
Laptop Computer, to demonstrate SDS
Presentation Tools, e.g. Color
Notebook Computer

0505 -    ..
0506 - Summary/Objective
0507 -
050701 - Found a machine (Compaq 486c portable) that might get some of the job
050702 - done; has only two main drawbacks: weight and price.
050703 -
050704 -     Also received a brochure for a new product, the LTE Lite/25c,
050705 -     which comes closer to our objectives.  They did not have a unit in
050706 -     the store to evaluate.
050707 -
050708 - There was a story in the SF Examiner today that Compaq has announced
050709 - 32% price reductions in its existing product line, so maybe price can
050710 - be resolved within a few months, if not now.
050711 -
050712 - Send follow up inquiry re various points.
050713 -
050714 -
0508 -
0509 -
0510 - Evaluation
0511 -
051101 - SDS looks good on this machine.  May be able to work around problems
051102 - of excessive weight and no battery, to demonstrate SDS.  Enter key is
051103 - too small, but this is relatively minor factor for sales, since we
051104 - will not be using the unit for production work.
051105 -
051106 - This unit will not show executives how they can replace their Notepad
051107 - and pencil with a 20# computer to lug around looking for an electrical
051108 - outlet.  For this we need...
051109 -
051110 -      Ideal Spec
051111 -
051112 -      A 5# unit with a large quality color screen, 300+ MB of disk with
051113 -      a high speed modem and 16M RAM.  It has to sell for about 3K to
051114 -      jump start the market.
051115 -
051116 - We might, however, use this Compaq 486c portable for formal demon-
051117 - strations in an office setting on how to use personal computers more
051118 - effectively.  If it truely has the ability to let us put in various
051119 - cards including our modem and hard disk o choice, and maybe a network
051120 - card, then we could go into an office and show the full range of
051121 - applicability of SDS.
051122 -
051123 -
0512 -
0513 -
0514 - Product Demonstration
0515 -
051501 - Compaq Portable 486c                        list price:  $5,888
051502 -
051503 - 486 C  33 Mhz EISA 120 MB
051504 - 4MB RAM Exp 32 MB
051505 - Detachable keyboard
051506 -
051507 - Sales rep said it uses a 486DX processor.  They will include a leather
051508 - carrying case.
051509 -
051510 - General
051511 -
051512 - MicroAge staff think the demo unit may have a virus, because it would
051513 - not boot correctly. Had to use a boot disk.
051514 -
051515 -    Could Not Verify Performance
051516 -
051517 -    MicroAge did not have evaluation software (Qaplus, Norton, Qaplus,
051518 -    Landmark, etc.) on the unit, so we could not check performance. In
051519 -    general, the thing seemed to hum along.  Reading from the A: drive
051520 -    seemed slow.
051521 -
051522 -    Use of Standard PC Cards???
051523 -
051524 -    Sales reps said we can install any regular PC card, but could not
051525 -    show the interior of the unit, and so this point has not been fully
051526 -    established.  We do not know the level of expertise or difficulty
051527 -    in making changes.
051528 -
051529 -    This is a good feature, if it is true.
051530 -
051531 -
051532 - Disk Drives
051533 -
051534 - Brochure says computer can be configured with 120 or 210 MB disk
051535 - drives, and that optional external disk drives can be used, but
051536 - MicroAge sales rep also indicated User can install any IDE drive.
051537 -
051538 -    Substitute Larger Drive
051539 -
051540 -    This suggests we could use our Fujitzu 330M half height drive in
051541 -    place of the 120 or 210 unit.
051542 -
051543 -    Is this really true?
051544 -
051545 -        I asked to see inside the unit to verify the potential to swap
051546 -        hard drives and install regular cards, like for the tape drive
051547 -        and an internal monitor.  Observed ports for the modem.
051548 -
051549 -
051550 -    Performance
051551 -
051552 -    Disk seemed fast with dir command, but ordinary file access from
051553 -    within SDS was very slow.  This may have been due to lack of
051554 -    standard configuration, because we had to boot from the a: drive.
051555 -    The Windows disk cache, smartdrv was not installed.
051556 -
051557 -
051558 -
051559 - Memory
051560 -
051561 - My understanding from MicroAge reps is that standard pc sims can be
051562 - installed to increase RAM, but brochure does not state this
051563 - explicitly.
051564 -
051565 -
051566 - Display
051567 -
051568 - This is an active matrix screen, and is bright.  Resolution is not
051569 - stated in spec sheet.
051570 -
051571 -    Windows
051572 -
051573 -    This does not look good because the EGA treatment of text in
051574 -    graphics mode is poor, evidently due to low resolution, but SDS
051575 -    looks very good because it is just a text based program, and uses
051576 -    solid colors.
051577 -
051578 -    OS2
051579 -    ---
051580 -    We did not boot this up, but I suspect OS2 will look similar to
051581 -    Windows.  Actually, since it looks much better than Windows on a
051582 -    regular VGA monitor, maybe it will be okay on this thing.  Need to
051583 -    test it.
051584 -
051585 -    Size
051586 -    ----
051587 -    Spec sheet does not state the diagonal screen dimension.
051588 -
051589 -    It seems large enough though.
051590 -
051591 - External CRT
051592 -
051593 - Not clear from spec sheet if this thing can connect to an external VGA
051594 - monitor, and what resolution it supports.
051595 -
051596 -
051597 - Keyboard
051598 -
051599 - Enter key is much too small.  Shift keys are good.  Alternate action
051600 - keys (Insert, Home, Delete, etc.), are misplaced in the upper right
051601 - corner, where they are essentially unaccessible.
051602 -
051603 - Sales rep indicated there is a port for an IBM ps2 keyboard for an AT,
051604 - so this is helpful.  We can connect an Omni Keyboard with the function
051605 - in a standard position for efficient use.
051606 -
051607 - Do not know for sure that an alternate keyboard can be installed.
051608 - This was not demonstrated, and it is not cited in the spec sheet.
051609 -
051610 -
051611 - Modem
051612 -
051613 - MicroAge staff said we can install any internal modem that fits in a
051614 - standard desktop PC motherboard slot.  The spec sheet indicates the
051615 - system comes with an optional 2400 baud modem.  If MicroAge is
051616 - correct, we can install a Complus FM1414 high speed modem.
051617 -
051618 - Need to verify we can install any PC standard internal modem.
051619 -
051620 -
051621 - Mouse
051622 -
051623 - Seems to have a bus port for a mouse.
051624 -
051625 -
051626 - Weight
051627 -
051628 - Spec says it weighs 17.6 pounds.  I picked it up and it seems "heavy".
051629 - If we configure with the larger drive, a modem and more memory, the
051630 - weight could be 20# plus, especially with the leather case and some
051631 - papers which typically would be carried in the thing.
051632 -
051633 - That is a lot of weight to carry around for even a few blocks, or
051634 - through an airport.
051635 -
051636 -