Display article   Subject:  April 1992
   04/30/97   19:57:00


TANDY USER GROUP NEWSLETTER............................APRIL 1992

Material contained herein may be reproduced in whole or in part
in user group newsletters.  Please quote source as Tandy
Corporation/Radio Shack.  The company cannot be responsible for
inaccuracies or for information which changes prior to or after
publication.

Send questions/suggestions to:  Ed Juge, Director of Market
Planning, Radio Shack, 700 One Tandy Center, Fort Worth, TX
76102.



New Tandy 3830 SL Notebook Computer

Last month, I was carrying one of these little beauties, but
couldn't talk about it yet.  What a great machine!  It's 25 MHz,
80386SL-based with 2 MB of RAM, expandable to 4 or 8 MB.  The
built-in hard disk is a quick, 19ms, 80 MB unit.

The 3830's processor is one of those new "low-power" versions of
the 386SX, but unfortunately, the other low-power support chips,
needed to realize maximum advantage in the design, aren't
available yet.  The CPU is frugal enough, however, to provide 3
hours of battery life in this sleek, 5.94 pound package.  Yes,
that's under six pounds with battery, and built-in 1.44 MB floppy
drive.

The screen is great:  Large, and bright... 9.76-inch diagonal
measurement, 64 gray scale, 640 x 480 VGA.  And, you can have
simultaneous LCD and external VGA outputs. External VGA supports
800 x 600 mode.

The 3830 SL screen hinges at the very back of the unit, allowing
plenty of space (forward of the keyboard) for a tiny trackball
and a couple of "mouse buttons."  The trackball is very small,
and if you're preparing for a multi-hour session, you may want to
plug in an external, full-size pointing device.  For those of you
-- like me -- who frequently pull the notebook out to make a
couple of quick notes, the trackball is an incredible
convenience.  It's perfect for all those Windows applications
nobody knows how to run without a mouse.  There is a PS/2-style
mouse port as well as ports for RS-232, bi-directional parallel
(doubles for external floppy disk), and there is a proprietary
expansion port.  (More about that later.)

The battery is the latest Nickel Metal Hydride technology that
provides longer life and more charges than ni-cad batteries.  It
isn't sensitive to the infamous ni-cad "memory effect" either.
Just plug in the power supply/charger when you're at your desk,
and disconnect when you're ready to go.  No more worries about
overcharging, undercharging or discharging the battery!

Extensive power management is software controllable by the user
to suit individual operating needs.  The supplied AC supply/
charger operates on 110/220V, 50/60 Hz, and recharges the
battery in 2 hours.  If you recharge while using the 3830, 5
hours will be required for a full charge.  We kept the things you
like about Tandy notebooks... like the RESUME mode,  reversible
CTRL and CAPS LOCK keys and external PowerView LED system that
lets you know you closed the lid with power still on.  When the
battery is discharged, the 3830 SL automatically goes into RESUME
mode, so you won't lose anything.  Many notebooks require manual
shutdown when the low battery signal sounds. (See what I mean
about no more worries, even about discharging the battery!)  The
same internal optional 2400 bps modem and 9600 bps (send) FAX
modem used by the 2810/3810 fit the 3830.

The 3830 SL is smaller than our present notebook PCs... just
1.7 x 11.7 x 8.7 inches!  (The present 2820/3820 machines are
1.7 x 12.2 x 10 inches and weight 6.7 lbs.)  And in case you're
wondering, the keyboard is full-size with standard 19mm spacing.
Before the year is out, you can look for a docking station that
works with the expansion port I mentioned above.

This is a very slick, small and fast PC!  It earns a 17.3 on the
Norton SI CPU benchmark scale, just .7 short of the reading on a
Tandy 2500 SX/25 computer with 4 MB RAM.  Unfortunately, I had to
give my loaner to one of the magazines so you can read a review
of it there.  Sigh.

The Tandy 3830 SL notebook computer is available for $2,999 at
participating Radio Shack stores and dealers nationwide.  Be sure
and watch for it.


Speaking of Notebook PCs...

I circulated some bad information in my January PCM Magazine
column, and an alert reader in El Paso caught me!  I talked about
memory management on a 2810 HD, and mentioned the ability to load
devices high.  That won't work on a '286-based computer, without
the addition of special expanded memory managers like
Quarterdeck's QRAM.

For a month prior to writing that column, I had been "fine
tuning" my 4025 LX at home, and decided to do the same to the
2810 while I was in the mood.  Apparently, the two exercises got
a little scrambled in my mind.  I haven't found it necessary to
load drivers high on my personal 2810 HD.  The only time memory
might get tight is when running Windows, and Windows manages the
memory for me so that doesn't happen.

I did look into QRAM, since I was going to mention it this month.
There is a program on CompuServe called QTEST, that will look at
your 286 system and tell you what QRAM can do for you before you
invest.  In a 2810, it can apparently free only about 64K of
upper memory between 640K and 1 MB, even though my system has a
full 5 MB of RAM.  And QRAM (pronounced "Cram") does require an
Expanded Memory Manager like TEMM2810.SYS.

Judging from the mail, there are quite a few 2810 owners among
readers, so I'll give you another hint.  Don't exchange setup
programs with other 2810 owners, unless you have the same size
hard disk!

I recently had reason to reload DOS 5.0 on mine.  I actually
deleted the whole DOS directory and installed DOS 5.0 from
scratch, to eliminate any "left over" files from the previous DOS
version.  When I looked for SETUP281.COM, I realized I had
cleared it off the disk, too.  So, I located a 2810 disk and
re-installed it.  After running setup, all kinds of strange
things happened.  FDISK said I had 60 MB on the HD, then two
lines later said, "Total Disk Space = 43 MB!"  A number of disk
utilities were unable to find a hard disk in the system, although
it seemed to function normally.  A low-level format didn't help.

It turns out, there are two different SETUP281 programs... one
that comes with the 20 MB computer, and a different one supplied
with the 60 MB HD version.  The type of disk drive is hard-coded
into the program, and by using the wrong one, I had reset a bit
in the CMOS ROM that really confused the computer, some software
and me.  Especially me!  A friendly engineer was able to locate
the problem, provide a copy of the correct setup file, and return
me from the Twilight Zone.


Spring COMDEX

The largest USA PC trade show is COMDEX.  It is held twice each
year, and this year, Tandy displayed the 3830 SL and our new line
of MPCs, which will ship in May.  The line consists of MPCs based
on the 2500 SX/25, the 4825 SX, 4850 EP and 4833 LX/T.  The 2500
SX-based machine are priced at $1,999.95, down from $2,799 for
the previous version.  (The monitor of your choice is extra, and
most of them have been price-reduced as well.)

The MPCs include the final Tandy CD-ROM interface/16-bit audio
combination board.  These upgraded MPCs also feature a new
version of our $399.95 CD-ROM drive with access time improved
from 800 milliseconds (ms) to under 500ms.

In addition, there is a new Tandy-designed enhanced video
graphics chip which is fully compatible with all standard VGA
video modes.  In addition to those modes, the Tandy chip provides
two RGB modes (known as 555 and 565) with 32,000 colors, plus two
"YUV" modes (8 bit compressed and 16 bit) that can display up to
16 million colors on a standard VGA monitor.

The difference in 16-million and 256-color modes is really
striking.  The color "banding" common in flesh tones and
continuous colors just isn't there.

The Tandy chip provides better picture quality and faster
animation while simplifying and cost-reducing hardware and
software.

Tandy announced the chip at the recent CD-ROM conference in
California.  We will license chip foundries to build it, so it
can be used by any PC manufacturer.  For those VGA users whose
graphics card or graphics accelerator card happens to have a
socketed RAMDAC chip, this is a direct plug-in replacement.

Watch for the new MPCs in May, and take a close look at the great
graphics. You'll find that perceived picture quality is much more
dependent on the number of colors than it is on actual pixel
resolution.

This newsletter is going to be a little short, but it's that or
miss this month altogether.  See you next month.

