With the Amstrad PPC-512 and 640, Amstrad wanted to make the cheapest portable PC compatible computer, in the same way as the Amstrad PC1512 was for desktop computers.
But, despite its pleasant form, this computer suffered due to its poor 9" LCD screen. It had one or two 3.5" 720 KB floppy drives and some versions could also be found with a 10 or 20 MB internal hard disk.
If you were tired of the poor LCD screen, you could connect a monochrome or CGA monitor to the PPC at home. The Amstrad CPC series monitors could be used too.
The differences between the PPC-512 and PPC-640 were a different colour case, a built-in modem (v21, v22, v22 bis and v23 protocols) and 640 KB RAM for the PPC-640. Both versions could run with 10 C size batteries (1 hour battery life), or with an external AC adaptor.
I have a portable computer ppc 640 who belonged to my dad. I would like to sell. I kear offers. Tahnsk you. Bye
Sunday 23rd May 2010
MARCOS PASTORINO (uruguay)
Still got one with an 85Mb hard disk. I seem to remember that up to 120Mb was available at the time. It has worked under MS-DOS 6.0 without any problems, but mine stays with reliable v3.3 and the necessary virtual drives C, D, AND E. Try Google for disk availability.
Saturday 7th February 2009
John (UK)
My mother owned one of these with a version of WordPerfect running from floppy disks.
I used to play with it sometimes as I was always programming or fiddling with things and one day I made it stop working.
I didn't have the instructions so I thought I bricked it and it ended up in a closet for a long time.
Now that I read the wiki article on it I think I simply turned the LCD off. :C
D'oh! Stupid bastards making it a 6-switch dip switch! XD
Okay, so I changed the setting... now which of !6 settings is it again?
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