The GridLite was less innovative than the earlier Grid versions and was comparable to many other laptops of the time. However, its 4.77 MHz clock rate clearly compromised its performance front of its main 7 MHz competitors, the Toshiba T-1100 Plus, and the Zenith Z-171.
One of its strong points was a new blue/yellow supertwist LCD screen which offered superior contrast and could be viewed from 45 degrees off to the side. The second original feature consisted in eight ROM sockets which allowed to put up to 1 MB of ROM software in the machine, including specific GridLite ROM cartridges.
One peculiarity of this ROM area was that both ROM software and 3.5" built-in floppy disk drive were called A:. This allowed, for example, the system to boot on the MS-DOS in ROM and automatically call the Autoexec.bat, Config.sys or any application file from the diskette.
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NAME
GridLite
MANUFACTURER
Grid
TYPE
Professional Computer
ORIGIN
U.S.A.
YEAR
1987
END OF PRODUCTION
Unknown
BUILT IN LANGUAGE
None
KEYBOARD
71 keys including 12 function keys
CPU
80C86, CMOS version of the 8086
SPEED
4.77 MHz
RAM
128 KB up to 640 KB on board, up to 1 MB external EMS
VRAM
16 KB
ROM
Up to 1 MB
TEXT MODES
80 chars. x 25 lines
GRAPHIC MODES
320 or 640 x 200 dots
COLORS
Monochrome
SOUND
Beeper
SIZE / WEIGHT
34 (W) x 28.5 (D) x 7.1 (H) cm / 4.5 kg
I/O PORTS
RS-232C serial, Parallel, External 3.5'' FDD, RGB video, Modem jack
BUILT IN MEDIA
3.5'' 720 KB DS/DD floppy disk drive. Optional second external FDD
OS
MS-DOC 3.2
POWER SUPPLY
External AC adaptor or Ni-Cd battery (3 to 4 hours lifetime)
